West has left us at mercy of Taliban, says ex-Afghan president Hamid Karzai

Afghanistan is in turmoil as US troops plan to pull out within days.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai wields considerable influence at home and abroad. Picture: AFP

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s former president, has described the 20-year NATO campaign in his country as a “military failure” that allowed terrorism and extremism to flourish, as the last US-led troops leave.

“The country is in shock, in such dire, dire straits,” Mr Karzai said at his home in Kabul. “Look at the scene. We are in shambles.

“The country is in conflict. There is immense suffering for the Afghan people. How did the American-NATO exercise in Afghanistan lead to this?

“Those who came here 20 years ago in the name of fighting extremism and terrorism not only failed to end it but, under their watch, extremism in Afghanistan has flourished. That is what I call a failure.”

Mr Karzai, 63, a Pashtun tribal leader from Kandahar who led Afghanistan for nine years, wields considerable influence inside the country and abroad. He is playing a key role in a British initiative to head off total civil war in Afghanistan after the failure of the US-Taliban peace talks in Doha, Qatar.

Back-channel discussions involving General Sir Nick Carter, the British chief of the defence staff, and several British diplomats are aimed at reopening talks between Pakistan, the Taliban and the Afghan government. They hope to prevent a fragmentation of the country.

Karzai is on standby to fly to Doha as part of a plan to reopen dialogue with the Taliban. “For the past month and a half or so I have been in close contact with British officials,” he said.

“We are focused on arranging better contacts between Afghanistan and Pakistan, better relations between the two countries, and focused on substantive negotiations between the republic side and the Taliban.”

The Doha process all but collapsed as a Taliban offensive swept across Afghanistan, NATO forces hurried to leave and thousands of armed civilians rose to take the place of the crumbling Afghan military.

General Austin Miller, commander of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, said this week that the country was moving towards civil war.

NATO and US commanders were horrified by President Joe Biden’s decision to complete the US withdrawal from Afghanistan by September 11 without a reduction in Taliban attacks or a peace deal.

Mr Karzai has derided the Doha deal. “It has wasted enormously precious time for peace in Afghanistan,” he said. “Look at the suffering that we went through while this whole thing was going on.”

During Karzai’s presidency, his country was transformed. Millions of young women were educated, the shattered infrastructure was extensively rebuilt and key legislation was passed.

Yet he clashed frequently with NATO over the conduct of its forces and was accused of corruption. He expressed respect for the civilian side of the international community’s reconstruction efforts but criticised its military effort.

He said: “The presence of the international community and NATO and US forces was simply to be here as a stabilising factor, not to go into Afghan villages, bomb people or barge into homes at night and kill families.”

The UN has reported that at least 32,000 civilians have been killed and another 60,000 wounded in the past decade, when it began compiling data.

“This exercise in the name of fighting extremism has failed,” Mr Karzai said.

“It is time for the US and NATO to leave. Whether they are leaving responsibly or not is a different question. They should have made sure that there was peace in Afghanistan before they left.”

Mr Karzai urged both sides to realise that war offered no solution to the country’s problems.

“The Taliban must recognise that they cannot win by war,” he said.

“There will be resistance against them by the Afghan people. We want our girls educated. But so must those on the republic’s side, those who are claiming war is a solution, recognise this. Nobody can win outright by fighting.”

The Times