The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) only succeeded in toppling the Taliban and degrading al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001, Hafez Rasekh of the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan said. All of their other pledges have remained unfulfilled.
"It remains unclear who prevented them from doing this – especially at first, when the international forces enjoyed a high degree of trust. NATO and the US could have achieved anything they wanted if they genuinely wanted to," Rasekh noted.
There are no visible signs of improvement. The unemployment rate is increasing. More than 35 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank data for 2011.
"What are international forces exactly doing here? What is the use if they are incapable of providing security or tackling terrorism?" he asked.
Nazifa Zaki, a member of the National Assembly, shares these concerns. "One cannot but ask why the US and NATO did not devote enough attention to creating an efficient army capable of fighting terrorism," he observed.
NATO's subsequent mission, formally known as Operation Resolute Support, "has so far failed to reach its stated goals," Russia's envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin observed. The almost 13,000-strong mission was launched on December 28, 2014, and remains ongoing.
