Former CIA secret agent blames Pakistan for Taliban's quick takeover of Afghanistan

John Sipher, a former member of the CIA's Clandestine Service, blamed Pakistan for the Taliban's quick takeover of Afghanistan.
In response to a Washington Post article that blamed America for the situation in Afghanistan, Sipher claimed Pakistan's unwavering support for the Taliban as the reason for Afghanistan's condition.

John Sipher blames Pakistan in Tweet

Sipher tweeted by sharing the article by The Washington Post, "If the Pakistanis had withdrawn their enduring support to the Taliban and denied them sanctuary within their borders at any point during this 20-year war, it would have been the Taliban, not our Afghan allies, who collapsed swiftly." 

Elliot Ackerman's piece in the Washington Post praised Afghans for resisting the Taliban for two decades despite Pakistan's support.

Ackerman also chastised US President Joe Biden's administration and his staff for presenting a distorted picture of Afghanistan's ground condition. He said that the administration failed to plan for contingency and also failed to plan the emergency evacuation of Afghan partners trapped in the country under grave Taliban threat.

Beginning in April, a bipartisan group of more than 30 members of the Congress, led by veterans Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Jason Crow (D-Colorado), petitioned the president for White House discussions and a strategy for evacuating important Afghan people. According to The Washington Post, their appeals were received with silence.

The article's author continued that Afghans are unwilling to fight because their troops crumbled after USA turned their backs on them. He claimed that it is a slap in the face not just to the Afghans but also to Americans like him.

"Withdrawal of US troops was a strategic mistake"

"It is a military we decided to build in our image as opposed to theirs. We made it a nationally recruited force as opposed to a regionally or tribally recruited force. The result was that Afghans typically didn't fight in their native provinces. The backbone of accountability in Afghanistan, the disciplinary structures that have given them their reputation as fierce fighters, did not translate neatly into the structure we imposed on them" Ackerman said.

He concluded by writing that it was a strategic mistake made by the US, one that has at times undermined their partnership with Afghanistan in a counterinsurgency.

(Inputs from ANI)

Image- @john_sipher/Twitter