Collapse of the Afghan national security forces

FULLER VERSION OF MY TIMES STORY: The rapid Taliban advances and collapse of part of the Afghan national security forces were the direct result of a “strategic error” by the US, a former American commander in Afghanistan told The Times. “For the United States, the strategic cost of potentially losing Afghanistan will be significant, but for ordinary Afghans, the impact will be deadly and utterly catastrophic,” said Lieutenant-General David Barno, commander of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. “The rapidly unfolding tragedy in Afghanistan is a direct result of an unforced strategic error, started by President Trump ‘s administration and continued by President Biden, to pull the small number of US troops and American contractors out of the country,” Barno said. “The results have been predictable: rapid Taliban advances, rising murders and atrocities and a worrisome collapse of parts of the Afghan national security forces which relied upon US and Nato support to continue to effectively battle the Taliban,” he said. He warned: “This deepening conflict now has the potential to be a major foreign policy disaster for the Biden administration, and one which was wholly avoidable.” “The benefits of sustaining even a small US presence are now obvious, whereas the cost of withdrawing those forces are going to play out for years to come,” Barno said. His grim warning of the future facing the Afghan people was echoed by Andrew Krepinevich, a former senior Pentagon official and colonel in the US Army. He said the US had failed to prevent the return of “a hostile radical Islamist regime that suppresses many basic rights, especially women’s rights”. He accused the US of “walking away” from this objective which had been accomplished until the decision to pull out all troops. “While China continues to place new pieces on the international chessboard in the form of base and port development in the Indo-Pacific, we are instead abandoning a key square on the geostrategic chessboard .” he said.