\u2018Pakistan was right all along\u2019
\nPakistanis never believed that we would stay, always thought that we would leave, says Frank McKenzie
\nANKARA
\nFrank McKenzie, a former top general who led United States Central Command from 2019 to April 2022, has said that Pakistan was right about Afghanistan all along, admitting the US failure in the war-torn country.
\n\u201cPakistanis never believed that we would stay, always thought that we would leave,\u201d McKenzie told NBC News on Friday, adding, \u201cYou know that? They were right, we left.\u201d
\nHe claimed that the Taliban always had a haven in Pakistan and the US was never able to resolve that in the two decades of the conflict or come to an agreement with Pakistan on the issue.
\nMcKenzie also admitted that Washington engaged in failed nation-building in Afghanistan and insisted on a Western model for the country which was wrong.
\n\u201cWe began to engage in nation-building operations and maybe some of that was necessary in a narrower sense to protect our interests but the broader things we did probably ultimately in the long term didn\u2019t help us. They diffused our efforts,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know that Afghanistan is governable or sustainable with a Western model. I know that Afghanistan is governable and sustainable from an Afghan model. But we paid too little attention to Afghan realities on the ground,\u201d he said.
\nMcKenzie said that overlooking the Afghan reality was costly and \u201chubris on our part, and on the international community.\u201d
\nHe went on to say that he was \u201cproud of\u201d American men and women on the ground on the day of the controversial withdrawal from Afghanistan, when Afghans died trying to hold on to the plane. He said that the fact it was a highly politicised event was \u201cregrettable\u201d.
\nMcKenzie admitted that getting Afghan allies out of the country is a very \u201cslow\u201d process but did not promise anything on that \u201cmoral obligation\u201d.
\nThe top US general agreed that Afghanistan was a bipartisan failure for four US administrations in two decades and added that it was a combination of \u201cmilitary and diplomatic failures\u201d.
\nStressing that the war-torn country is still a breeding ground for threats to the US, he said it is still too early to say what is going to happen in Afghanistan. Extremist groups protected by the Taliban will pose new dangers for future US leadership, he said.
\nThe US declared the completion of the Afghanistan pullout Aug, 30, 2021, ending the 20-year war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Pakistan was right all along\u2019 Pakistanis never believed that we would stay, always thought that we would leave, says Frank McKenzie ANKARA Frank McKenzie, a former top general who led United States Central Command from 2019 to April 2022, has said that Pakistan was right about Afghanistan all along, admitting the US failure in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-279965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n