Scripps News spoke with former U.S. Central Command head General Frank McKenzie for his thoughts two years after the U.S. left Afghanistan.
It's been two years since the U.S. withdrew its forces from Afghanistan in a chaotic end to 20 years of war, leaving the Taliban in control. But concerns over the withdrawal and the state of Afghanistan persist.
"We saw this coming. I thought it was inevitable. We've seen the way they behaved when they were last in charge, we have no reason to believe they'd do anything different this time, they have not," said McKenzie, who now leads the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida.
"Now the thing that probably operationally is more concerning is ISIS has been given an opportunity to grow in the ungoverned spaces where the Taliban can't get to them. And ISIS still intends to conduct attacks against the United States. So that's very worrisome," McKenzie said."Same thing with al-Qaida, although I think from where I sit, and I'm not, I'm now removed from it a little bit.
CENTCOM is working on alternative ISR systems to increase distance and duration, and will integrate systems to increase ability to collect ISR, according to CENTCOM spokesperson Michael Lawhorn. They are also increasing other intelligence efforts. They are vigilant to the threat from ISIS-K and ready to respond when necessary, Lawhorn stated.
Under the Doha Agreement reached in 2020 that stipulated the U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban were expected to not offer a platform for terrorist organizations. "It's a very, very active terrorist area, where you have al-Qaida under protection of the Taliban, ISKP opposing the Taliban, but the Taliban not being able to really push hard against ISKP, in order not to risk even more defections, and with the Haqqani Network, one of the most powerful factions in the Taliban movement, there are links to ISKP, they have been cooperating until August 2021. And those links have not been totally severed.
"We continue to work to hold the Taliban accountable for the many commitments that it's made and not fulfilled, particularly when it comes to the rights of women and girls.
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