Former US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad has said the Islamic Emirate has “surprisingly” been beneficial to US counterterrorism interests since returning to power in Afghanistan.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Khalilzad reflected on US decisions following the attacks, saying anger and fear contributed to policies that shaped two decades of war.
“Anger was a factor of urgency because the people wanted to see action: What are we going to do about this?” he said.
Khalilzad was a senior director on President George W Bush’s National Security Council when the September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. Less than a month later, the US invaded Afghanistan to target al-Qaeda and remove the IEA government.
Looking back, Khalilzad said Washington should have considered negotiating with the IEA in the early stages of the war.
“One thought that has emerged is that we should have negotiated with the Taliban (IEA) or included the Taliban in the political process in Afghanistan,” he said.
“We were angry, and we wanted to get information from them,” Khalilzad added. “But if we could have included them … realistically, that could have been helpful.”
He also acknowledged problems with the intelligence used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, particularly claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
“With regard to Iraq, well, there the information was the problem,” Khalilzad said.
“Without 9/11, I don’t think we will attack Iraq,” he added.
Khalilzad defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, saying the war could have continued indefinitely and that the US had largely achieved its original counterterrorism objective.
“We had been there for 20 years. Afghanistan was changed. The war could have gone on indefinitely,” he said.
The IEA returned to power after the US withdrawal and the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government.
Despite the IEA’s former status as Washington’s main adversary in Afghanistan, Khalilzad said its current approach to terrorism has, unexpectedly, benefited US interests.
“I think the Taliban (IEA), surprisingly, have been good in terms of terrorism for the United States interests,” he said.
