ANKARA:
frank Mackenzie, former top general who led U.S. Central Command from 2019 to April 2022, said Pakistan was right about Afghanistan all along, acknowledging that the U.S. failure in war-torn country.
“The Pakistanis never believed we would stay, they always thought we would leave,” McKenzie said. NBC News on Friday, adding: “You know what? They were right, we left.”
He claimed that the Taliban had always had a safe haven in Pakistan and the US failed resolve what in two decades of conflict or agreement with Pakistan on in issue.
Mackenzie also acknowledged that Washington is engaged in failed nation-building in Afghanistan and insisted on Western model for country that was wrong.
Read more: US committed to Afghanistan asset says despite disappointment with Taliban
“We started doing in nation-building operations and possibly some of it was necessary in narrower sense to protect our interests, but broader things that we will probably end up in for a long time term not help us. They scattered our efforts,” he said.
“I don’t know that Afghanistan is manageable or sustainable with Western model. I know that Afghanistan is manageable and sustainable with the Afghan model. But we paid too little attention to Afghan realities on land,” he said.
Mackenzie said that overlooking the Afghan reality was costly and “arrogance on our part, and on in international community.”
He left on say he was “proud of the American men as well as women on Earth on day of controversial troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as Afghans died trying to hold on to the plane. He said that fact it was very politicized event was “unfortunate”.
Mackenzie acknowledged that gaining Afghan allies out of the country is undergoing a very “slow” process but did not promise anything on it is a “moral obligation”.
Top USA general agreed that Afghanistan was bipartisan failure for four US administrations in two decades and added that it was a combination of “military and diplomatic failures.
Emphasizing that the war-torn country is still a spawning ground for US threats, he said it was too early to tell what would happen in Afghanistan. Extremist groups guarded by the Taliban will present new danger for future According to him, the US leadership.
The US announced the end of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, ending 20-year war.
(Courtesy of the news department)
