Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his new book, called former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani “a total fraud” who was only focused on staying in power, acted as a hurdle in peace talks and finally fled from the country when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan.
In his book “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love”, Pompeo alleges both Ghani and former chief executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah of being involved in corruption which limited the ability of the US to exit the war-torn nation successfully in August 2021.
“As negotiations accelerated, Ghani was always a problem. I met scores of world leaders, and he was my least favourite. That’s saying a lot when you have Kim (Jong-un), Xi (Jinping), and (Vladimir) Putin in the mix. Yet Ghani was a total fraud who had wasted American lives and was focused solely on his own desire to stay in power,” writes Pompeo in his book.
“Never once did I sense that he was prepared to take a risk for his country that might imperil his power. This disgusted me,” he added, as the book talked about the negotiations between the Taliban and the US administration headed by former President Donald Trump.
Former diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed as the special envoy for talks with the Taliban by the Trump administration.
Pompeo added that Ghani emerged victorious in the re-election due to massive electoral fraud.
“According to the final nominal tally, Ghani had defeated the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah. But the truth was that Ghani simply had bribed more voters and vote counters than the other candidates had,” the former Secretary of State said.
He said that both Abdullah and Ghani were fighting to become the next president without worrying about whether there be a government to lead the country.
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“At General Miller’s request, I hopped a plane to Afghanistan on March 23, 2020, to tell them that they needed to find an accommodation, or I would advise President Trump that we should exit the country immediately, beginning with the elimination of the roughly USD 5–6 billion per year in foreign assistance that we were providing at the time. This was a real threat,” noted Pompeo.
“While the public focus was almost always on how the aid provided security assistance, its larger purpose was to preserve civil order. It funded schools and health care, but it also meant ‘walking around money’ for local leaders. That’s a euphemism for bribery, and it’s the sad reality of both how American aid and Afghan society worked,” he stated.
(With inputs from agencies)
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