https://sputnikglobe.com/20260501/unwinnable-us-war-in-afghanistan-exposed-systemic-nato-failure--ex-dod-official-1124072381.html
'Unwinnable’ US War in Afghanistan Exposed Systemic NATO Failure – Ex-DoD Official
'Unwinnable’ US War in Afghanistan Exposed Systemic NATO Failure – Ex-DoD Official
Sputnik International
US military defeat in Afghanistan was “inevitable” once the US chose to occupy the country after toppling the Taliban,” former Pentagon official David T. Pyne tells Sputnik.
2026-05-01T15:25+0000
2026-05-01T15:25+0000
2026-05-01T16:15+0000
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That military defeat was “inevitable” once the US chose to occupy the country after toppling the Taliban,” former Pentagon official David T. Pyne tells Sputnik. Once NATO troops left, the US-backed Kabul government collapsed in 48 hours since it was seen by Afghan citizens as a foreign-installed “puppet regime,” he notes. The Taliban emerged as “the only patriotic defenders of their independence.” The horrific human toll: 46,000+ killed, with war-linked deaths possibly over 400,000 (Costs of War Project) “served to badly undermine support for the US-led occupation and the US-backed regime.” Furthermore, the US used illicit proceeds from the drug trade – backed by the CIA for covert ops – “to bankroll its puppet regime in Kabul.”The 11-day collapse of the Afghan regime - with the Taliban seizing all $7 billion worth of military equipment – was “another major US intelligence failure,” emphasizes Pyne. Ultimately, the Afghanistan war was a “major embarrassment for the US," adding another chapter to NATO’s long “history of failure.”
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'Unwinnable’ US War in Afghanistan Exposed Systemic NATO Failure – Ex-DoD Official
15:25 GMT 01.05.2026 (Updated: 16:15 GMT 01.05.2026) When NATO started its humiliating exit from Afghanistan on May 1, 2021, it left behind a 20-year legacy of outrageous war crimes, as laid bare in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s “White Book.”
That
military defeat was “inevitable” once the US chose to occupy the country after toppling the Taliban,” former Pentagon official
David T. Pyne tells Sputnik.
“Counterinsurgency wars by an occupying power in a foreign country are by their very nature unwinnable,” he says.
Once NATO troops left, the US-backed Kabul government
collapsed in 48 hours since it was seen by Afghan citizens as a foreign-installed “puppet regime,” he notes.
The Taliban emerged as “the only patriotic defenders of their independence.”
The horrific human toll: 46,000+ killed, with war-linked deaths possibly over 400,000 (Costs of War Project) “served to badly undermine support for the US-led occupation and the US-backed regime.”
Furthermore, the US used illicit proceeds from the drug trade – backed by the CIA for covert ops – “to bankroll its puppet regime in Kabul.”
The 11-day
collapse of the Afghan regime - with the Taliban seizing all $7 billion worth of military equipment – was “another major US intelligence failure,” emphasizes Pyne.
Ultimately, the Afghanistan war was a “major embarrassment for the US," adding another chapter to NATO’s long “history of failure.”
9 September 2024, 23:45 GMT
