The former national security adviser for Afghanistan criticized the Biden administration’s withdrawal of the country, saying that he did not realize that the U.S. was going to completely withdraw no matter the situation on the ground, while the Taliban was poised to take over.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as Taliban fighters entered the city in August, had pushed for elections to hand over power because “he was being assured in every meeting, in every statement that the international community wants to see a democratic Afghanistan, a sovereign Afghanistan, an Afghanistan that’s at peace with itself and its neighbors,” Hamdullah Mohib, Ghani’s former national security adviser, told CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
“We didn’t read the writing on the wall,” Mohib said. “The writing on the wall was a withdrawal will take place no matter what. We thought that the preservation of the last 20 years, the last two decades mattered. And that’s where we misunderstood.”