Former U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan Comments On Developing Situation In The Country

]

Former U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan Comments On Developing Situation In The Country

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Ronald Neumann served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. He joins us now to talk about this moment. Ambassador, welcome to the program.

RONALD NEUMANN: Thank you. And let me just get off of my speakerphone, so you can hear me better. Yes, thank you for having me.

CORNISH: Yes, that’s helpful.

TAMARA KEITH, HOST:

(Laughter) Thank you.

CORNISH: We just heard from a woman in Kabul, 29 years old, been enjoying civic life, who is now - in the coming days, could fear a knock on the door from the Taliban. Tell us your reaction as you watch the way the Biden administration is handling the evacuation of U.S. personnel.

NEUMANN: Well, the - I don’t know exactly what they’re doing on the evacuation of U.S. personnel, but clearly, events have continually outpaced decision-making in the Biden administration since first…

CORNISH: Well, the reason why I ask is because we’ve heard descriptions from Mike Pompeo and others who have called it panicked. Are you looking at a panicked White House?

NEUMANN: It may be. I don’t have enough detail to characterize it. But certainly, they have been reacting very quickly or having to react very quickly to a changing situation. I don’t know what is going on in Kabul right now. It sounds - I’m getting calls from Afghan friends and American citizens of Afghan heritage trying to find a way to get out and trying to help them. I don’t have good information on how they register for evacuation or how they get out. What we’ve been - I think there is a first issue of getting Americans out, where I am sure my colleagues in the embassy will do everything they can. I believe, frankly, that we should have been engaged militarily more to prevent the Taliban from coming into Kabul to give us more time, that - I don’t know what we’ve been doing militarily, but doesn’t sound like we’ve been very actively engaged that way. But - yep.

CORNISH: Can we talk about diplomacy then, given your experience? I think earlier this week, you called the peace agreement and that process - busted was the phrase that you used. We’re now hearing that the Taliban is trying to hammer out some sort of transfer of power. What are you going to be looking for in the coming days?

NEUMANN: Well, the Taliban are looking for a negotiated surrender, so they don’t have a bloody battle in Kabul - perfectly reasonable from their point of view. This has nothing to do with negotiating the kind of peace that we have talked about in the past that would protect women and free institutions, in any event. This is how you surrender with the least loss, which is the point to which the Afghan government has now been driven. But no, there’s no - we have no leverage with the Taliban to negotiate much of anything. We’ve serially given it all away.

CORNISH: So how worried are you about the future of the country’s democratic institutions, the ones that have been able to stand these last couple of years?

NEUMANN: I am very worried, not just about democratic institutions - I don’t know if you include in that things like civil society, free press, rights of women, journalists, journalism, efforts to build a better judicial system, although that was pretty hampered - but if you include all of those things, I think they will be up for grabs with the Taliban.

KEITH: The Biden administration has essentially indicated they don’t see this as all their fault. You know, this was two decades in the making. The Afghan military was trained by the U.S. and equipped. And in a way, it’s like President Biden does not want to own this. Do you think that that is possible?

NEUMANN: Short answer is no. The long answer is you need to distinguish between the decision to withdraw, which I didn’t like but is arguably correct, and the manner of implementation, of execution of that decision, which has been an absolute disaster from beginning to end. They could have taken more time. They had no plan how to support the Afghan military that they were leaving. We built an air force that depended on contractors for maintenance and pulled the contractors. Supply system - ditto. And we profoundly shocked the Afghan army and morale by pulling out and pulling our air cover when we trained them. So we have done one thing after another - or failed to do one thing after another which could have provided for a competent execution of a withdrawal policy in a measured way and given some chance, and we have not done it. And so I think this is a - you know, I think Biden owns a big piece of the disaster.

KEITH: Ronald Neumann served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. Thank you so much for joining us.

NEUMANN: You’re welcome. Bye-bye.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Analyses The Taliban’s Advancements

]

Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Analyses The Taliban’s Advancements

NPR’s Noel King speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann about the Taliban’s rapid territorial gains and the Biden administration’s decision to evacuate the embassy in Kabul.

NOEL KING, HOST:

The Taliban are moving astoundingly fast through Afghanistan. Today they captured two cities - the country’s second and third largest, Kandahar and Herat. And in the last few hours alone, they overran at least one provincial capital. The United States is supposed to be finishing up a withdrawal but is instead sending 3,000 troops in. Their mission is to get Americans, including the 1,400 Americans stationed at the embassy, out.

Ronald Neumann is with us now. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. And he joins us via Skype. Good morning, sir.

RONALD NEUMANN: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

KING: I was reminded this morning that your father also served as ambassador to Afghanistan many years ago. And I wonder what is going through your head as you watch this developing by the hour.

NEUMANN: Oh, well, it’s very sad. You know, I first went to Afghanistan in 1967. So I was able to travel all over the country as a young man by jeep and horse and even yak. So I’ve seen a great deal of the country. Then I was back as ambassador. Then I’ve returned frequently. In fact, I was in Kabul just about a month ago. And I think this is a very sad, a very avoidable situation. But we are where we are.

KING: Avoidable how?

NEUMANN: Well, I think the decision to pull out the troops was a bad decision, that we could have stabilized or held the situation stable with the same force that we now find necessary to put back in temporarily under adverse conditions. But, you know, that’s - I think reflecting on the past is a bad use of time when we have so many pressing issues in front of us.

KING: All right. Let’s talk about what’s in front of us. So we have Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief American envoy, in talks with the Taliban right now. Do you see any window for successful peace negotiations? What do you think needs to happen here?

NEUMANN: Absolutely not - not in the short term.

KING: OK.

NEUMANN: Ambassador Khalilzad’s process is absolutely busted. The peace - the agreement was the peace - that he negotiated - we - it helped us to keep the Afghans on the defensive for over a year, giving the Taliban the strategic initiative. We pressed the Afghan government for the release of 5,000 prisoners, some of whom are back on the battlefield. One of them is apparently leading the now-successful attack of Kandahar. It has not brought negotiations. It has not brought peace. And it’s not going to anytime soon.

KING: So what will?

NEUMANN: Well, first of all, there is a military solution. The Taliban may win the war. That’s a deplorable one. But it’s possible. Secondly, the Taliban may get to the point where they have almost all the country. And then they will be happy to negotiate a surrender of the Afghan government, which is still losing the war by negotiations. It’s not what I would call a negotiated peace. But that’s not happening yet.

The United States is now in a kind of panic - almost panic mode, or it acts like it, trying to get - protect our own people and get out the so-called SIV, the special immigrants. I think we have a much larger moral debt. We have thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of Afghans who believed us not only when we said we would stick with them but when we talk about democracy and about women’s rights and justice. And you have a whole generation of young people that has bought into our values, that has become educated - judges, television producers. These people have been steadily being assassinated for the last year. They’re in enormous threat - danger now. I think we have a moral responsibility to get these people out.

And I’m afraid that as we avoid that and leave them in harm’s way, we are really chalking up an enormous black mark for ourselves, for our country, for the future. You know, we have not had a problem like this since Rwanda. We didn’t manage to get ourselves engaged fast enough there and now have a very good chance that we will not act again.

KING: Are there one or two things you could imagine concretely the U.S. doing that might help? Like, I’ve seen threatening to cut American aid to Afghanistan, for example. Is there anything in your mind that might work, other than a military solution?

NEUMANN: I think right now we have to say to the Taliban, you are not allowed to take Kabul. We will use our troops and our Air Force to prevent that. That would at least allow as much time as it takes to get everybody out.

KING: OK. Ronald Neumann is the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Thank you, sir.

NEUMANN: Thank you.

U.S. Embassy In Kabul Tells Staff To Destroy Sensitive Material And Evacuate

]

U.S. Embassy In Kabul Tells Staff To Destroy Sensitive Material And Evacuate

Enlarge this image toggle caption Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

A memo obtained by NPR lays out the emergency preparations underway by American diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul — including the destruction of sensitive documents and computers — as most of them prepare to leave the country.

The memo was written for staff at the embassy and shared with NPR on condition of anonymity.

Most diplomats will be evacuated by 3,000 U.S. troops on their way to Kabul to ensure a safe and orderly departure. However, a very small consular staff will work in Kabul, the memo noted.

The embassy staffers were instructed to destroy important papers and desktop computers before they leave, according to the document.

Charge d’affaires Ross Wilson, the acting ambassador, was meeting his counterparts in other embassies and updating them on the rapidly changing situation.

The U.S. has also called on the Taliban not to attack the embassy and departing U.S. diplomats. The embassy also employs many Afghan workers. Their future was not immediately clear.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said Friday that U.S. troops ordered back into Afghanistan to help with the withdrawal have begun to arrive.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said some Marines are already on the ground, and the bulk of the 3,000 troops should be in place by the end of the weekend.

The troops, consisting of two Marine battalions and one Army battalion, will be based at the Kabul airport. They will provide security for an airlift that will fly out U.S. diplomats, as well as Afghans who have worked with the U.S., and the family members of those Afghans.

“Capacity is not going to be a problem. We will be able to move thousands per day,” said Kirby, though he declined to say how many people were expected to be flown out of the Afghan capital.

Taliban take more territory

The Taliban’s swift advance in recent days has far outpaced U.S. predictions about what would happen as the U.S. withdrew after 20 years of war.

President Biden announced in April that the remaining 2,500 troops would be leaving. That pullout was more than 90% complete and is supposed to be finished by the end of the month.

The expectation was that President Ashraf Ghani’s government could keep at least some measure of control over the country’s main cities.

But the Taliban have responded by launching an offensive that has led to the capture of major cities in the north, west and south of the country. The militant group seized its biggest prizes to date by taking Kandahar, the largest city in the south, and Herat, the main city in the West.

Kandahar in particular is loaded with symbolism. The U.S. had a major base there before pulling out, and the city is where the Taliban was established in 1994. The group led Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Meanwhile, Afghan government control is rapidly shrinking, limited mostly to Kabul and the eastern parts of the country.

Many panicked Afghans are descending on the capital, fearing a renewal of the harsh Taliban rule they remember from two decades ago.

Former ambassador criticizes U.S. withdrawal

Morning Edition’s Noel King spoke to former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann on Friday about the situation.

“I think the decision to pull out the troops was a bad decision,” Neumann notes. “We could have stabilized or held the situation stable with the same force that we now find necessary to put back in temporarily under adverse conditions.”

But, he warned, “Reflecting on the past is a bad use of time when we have so many pressing issues in front of us.”

Neumann says we need to get those citizens who he says supported the American vision and ideals in Afghanistan out of harm’s way.

“The United States is now in a kind of panic — almost panic mode,” Neumann says, “trying to protect our own people and get out the so-called SIV.”

SIV, or special immigrant visas, refers to the visas promised to Afghan interpreters who worked with the U.S. military.

He says we have “a much larger moral debt” to the Afghans who have “bought into our values … when we talk about democracy and about women’s rights and justice.”

This generation of people, Neumann notes, has been the target of attacks from the Taliban and is “in enormous danger now.”

Neumann says we must get these people out of Afghanistan. If we leave them “in harm’s way, we are chalking up an enormous black mark for ourselves, for our country and for the future.”

This story originally ran on the Morning Edition live blog.