interview
Status: 08/20/2021 4:28 p.m.
US President Biden and the German government accuse the Afghan army of a lack of willingness to fight. This contradicts in the interview with STRG_F the former general and ex-CIA chief Petraeus. He defends the Afghan soldiers.
STRG_F: General Petraeus, did the US war in Afghanistan have to end like this?
David Petraeus: Some of us had suggested alternatives that I would like to believe would have prevented the current situation. Most importantly, we should acknowledge that we now have a moral obligation to those who have risked their lives and those of their families in serving us. It becomes important now to see how we fulfill this moral duty in the days and weeks to come.
To person
General a. D. David Petraeus was Commander in Chief of the US Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. From June 2010 to July 2011 he was the commander of ISAF, the NATO troops in Afghanistan. During his time as commander, Petraeus advocated combining the fight against terrorism with the establishment of a functioning state (“nation-building”). Then he was head of the CIA for almost a year and a half.
STRG_F: What alternatives did you suggest?
Petraeus: Still moderate armed forces, which mainly have a large number of drones and air forces. You have to stay tuned. Look how long we stayed in Korea. It’s no longer a war zone, but we still have over 30,000 armed forces there. I mean, we still have over 30,000 armed forces in Western Europe. These are of course different circumstances. But when we toppled the Taliban, Afghanistan was a medieval theocracy with an ultra-fundamentalist Islamist regime. Of course, you couldn’t have expected that in 20 years we would make a country like Switzerland out of it. I said ten years ago that it would take decades, not years.
How Biden justifies himself
US President Joe Biden blames the Afghan army for the Taliban’s rapid success. “American forces cannot and should not fight and die in a war that the Afghan armed forces themselves are unwilling to fight,” Biden said this week. The federal government also followed this account.
High number of casualties in the Afghan army
STRG_F: Joe Biden says, “American forces should not fight and die in a war that the Afghan armed forces themselves are unwilling to fight.” Is the Afghan Army to Blame?
Petraeus: The facts are that 27 times as many Afghan security forces have died fighting for their country as Americans. I regret this statement [von Joe Biden]because from my time as commander I know how hard the Afghans fought side by side with our men and women in uniform. The Afghans fought in huge numbers until they suddenly realized that no one had given them any more protection. That our air force was no longer there.
I think that was the main reason for their surrender and ultimately for the psychological breakdown of the Afghan security forces. The situation in which they are based on our political decision [des Abzuges] found was a hopeless one. How can armed forces be expected to fight when they know there will be no one to come to support?
STRG_F: Biden called the Afghanistan mission a “success” because Al Qaeda was pushed back and Osama bin Laden was killed. Do you agree?
Petraeus: It is true, we went to Afghanistan to take Al Qaeda the safe haven that they had under the Taliban. Now it will be a matter of making sure that al Qaeda cannot rebuild such a place of retreat. It will be much, much more difficult without bases on Afghan soil.
STRG_F: Do you think the trigger is a success?
Petraeus: The former Afghan government, flawed as it was, was allied with us. I don’t know how the Taliban’s takeover can be interpreted as a positive development for US national security.
Argumentation “defies logic”
STRG_F: In his speech, Biden also said that the US operation should never have been about building a state, but purely about fighting terrorism. You were the commander on the spot, wasn’t it about building a state?
Petraeus: We were there because the 9/11 attacks were planned there and we wanted to destroy the Al Qaeda retreats. But if you want to reduce the armed forces at some point, you have to build up Afghan security forces, of course, and if you want to hand over territories you naturally need Afghan institutions and a government. So it goes against logic to say that one shouldn’t help build a state.
STRG_F: The US operation in Afghanistan focused heavily on air warfare and drone strikes. Bystanders and civilians were also killed. Was it naive to believe that you could bomb a country and thus create peace?
Petraeus: No not at all. Because with that we could proceed much more precisely. Of course, that doesn’t mean that no mistakes were made, some – even under my leadership – were deeply regrettable.
STRG_F: Could civilian victims of US drone attacks have contributed to the Taliban’s popularity?
Petraeus: Look, I’ve always said you can’t win people’s hearts and minds if you hurt people. Never do an operation that produces more bad guys. But let us state that civilian casualties in recent years have mainly been attributed to the Taliban. That is undisputed. They carry out barbaric activities, commit murderous campaigns, intimidate people.
The interview was conducted by Jonas Schreijäg, NDR, for STRG_F, a format from funk, the content network of ARD and ZDF.