General Petreaus on Afghanistan: This collapse, while it seems sudden, has been years in the making. [View all]

[onetexan]

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/26/politics/what-matters-afghanistan-explainer/ind

This collapse, while it seems sudden, has been years in the making. Bergen asked Petraeus if peace negotiations with the Taliban over the past three years set the stage for all of this.
"Yes, at least in part," Petraeus said. I'll break his detailed answer into parts:
"First, the negotiations announced to the Afghan people and the Taliban that the US really did intend to leave (which also made the job of our negotiators even more difficult than it already was, as we were going to give them what they most wanted, regardless of what they committed to us).
"Second, we undermined the elected Afghan government, however flawed it may have been, by not insisting on a seat for it at the negotiations we were conducting about the country they actually governed.
"Third, as part of the eventual agreement, we forced the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters, many of whom quickly returned to the fight as reinforcements for the Taliban. Fourth, the commitment gave President Biden an additional justification/excuse to do what he wanted to do -- leave."