White House: Afghan government fell due to lack of will

The Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghani, collapsed due to a lack of will to oppose the Taliban, rather than an inability to wage such a struggle, US Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, accompanying US President Joe Biden on a trip to New Orleans (Louisiana), said at a press briefing, Report informs referring to the White House website.

“So, the President conveyed privately exactly what he conveyed publicly at a pivotal time, when you’re talking about the call - the phone call with Ghani: In the pivotal time in the down - the drawdown, when it was essential for the government and the military to step up, it was a - it was pivotal for President Ghani to lead.

President Biden was telling Ghani three things: Work with my team to nail down the details of an effective military strategy, consolidating around population centers; two, let your military commanders implement that strategy; and, three, rally the political leaders behind that strategy to reinforce the confidence of the Afghan public and the international community behind that strategy,” she noted.

“The President, Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, Jake Sullivan, many others all said many times this summer that whether the Afghan Force would fight for their country was a matter - a matter of will, not capabilities of supplies. And public confidence has a big impact on will,” Jean-Pierre added.

“The view of our military leaders, as well as common sense, was that the best chance Ghani had was to rally the country and implement a strategy that could both stop the Taliban’s gains and give confidence to the Afghan Security Forces and the public. That advice was both sound and consistent with what we were saying publicly. Unfortunately, Ghani couldn’t or wouldn’t heed the advice.”