US corruption doomed Afghanistan – ex-president – RT World News
While acknowledging his own guilt, Hamid Karzai argued that Washington’s was deeper
Hamid Karzai, the only Afghan president since the US-led invasion in 2001, admitted culpability in the corruption that has plagued the country over the past two decades – but argued that an outside power was playing a role much more important than himself. Speaking to The Washington Post on Monday, he blamed the United States for his country’s plight.
Karzai took”full responsibility for corruption and bribery in service delivery“, he told the outlet. “But big deals, grand corruption, hundreds of millions of dollars or millions of dollars, was clearly a United States of America affair..”
“The war in Afghanistan was not our war“, explained Karzai, clarifying his position between the United States supported “the democracyhe ran and the Taliban government, which allowed him to continue living in Kabul. Although he owes his power to Washington, he controversially called the Taliban “brothersand denounces the 21-year war allegedly waged against them.
“I was not a partner of the United States in this war against Afghan villages and homes. I changed when I recognized that this war waged in the name of defeating terrorism is in fact a war against the Afghan people.“, said the former leader.
Karzai also blamed his most recent successor for the Taliban’s return to power following the Biden administration’s hasty departure from the country in September 2021.The state wouldn’t have collapsedif President Ashraf Ghani had not fled, he argued. “Ghani’s departure was the collapse of everything.”
However, he said, it is the United States that is primarily responsible for what happened to Afghanistan. Despite Washington’s promises, not only have two decades of war failed to end terrorism, but they have spawned new terrorist groups such as ISIS-K.
Karzai spent 13 years leading US-occupied Afghanistan. By the time he left office in 2014, his government had become synonymous with corruption, nepotism and the looting of state assets and American “nation-building” projects. Afghanistan has been named one of the three most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.
However, the Washington Post says his reputation has improved – from that of “an american puppetto a defender ofa fairer Afghanistan.”
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