The Hill: Mohib blamed the decision to not involve the Afghan government in talks with the Taliban for its ultimate collapse. According to the former official, the biggest mistake was not understanding that the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan, regardless of the situation. Click here to read more (external link).
Malali Bashir Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty December 17, 2021 By August 15, several thousand Taliban fighters had encircled the Afghan capital, Kabul, after seizing most of the country in a blistering military offensive against the Western-backed Afghan government. With the militants at the city gates, President Ashraf Ghani and his close team of advisers were
The New Yorker: A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government. Rahimi told Ghani that the Taliban had pledged not to enter Kabul. Yet this was based on assurances from Khalilzad and the Taliban, and Ghani regarded both as unreliable
Michael Hughes: Former U.S. diplomat Carter Malkasian in his recent book on the war in Afghanistan says Ashraf Ghani as president had felt “centralized reform” was the strategy to defeat the Taliban and raise the country into modernity. Malkasian also points out what turns out to be quite a prescient passage in Ghani’s own book, Fixing Failed States
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News October 27, 2021 ISLAMABAD — Zalmay Khalilzad, the senior U.S. official who led the negotiations with the Taliban, blamed, for the most part, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s “intransigence,” the Afghan elite’s “selfishness” and Afghan soldiers’ lack of will to fight for the rapid Taliban military takeover of the country in August. “We
Ariana: The following is a short list of commitments made by Ghani that were not kept. 1- Ghani promised to create one millions jobs, but instead five million lost their jobs. 2- During a trip to Badghis province, Ghani promised to establish an academic college and a technical school in every district. This never happened.
Tolo News: Abdullah Abdullah, the former chairperson of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said that former president Ashraf Ghani’s fleeing from the country left Afghanistan in chaos and resulted in the collapse of the government. According to Abdullah, Ghani’s distrust toward political leaders, the fraudulent elections and corruption all paved the way for what
Ariana: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hiz-e-Islami, said Sunday that the Afghan government has failed to form a single and decisive authority for peace. Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Hekmatyar stated that important issues over a unified plan for the Istanbul peace conference were agreed upon during a trilateral meeting with President Ashraf Ghani
Tolo News: For the past twenty years, all imported drugs and food have been tested for quality control in Kabul, as there are no other laboratories in the provinces to test the medicine and food being imported into Afghanistan from various cross-border routes. Officials of Afghanistan’s Medicine Service Union say the Afghan government has failed