Doctor Gordon Adams, professor of American University in Washington DC in an interview with Iranian state news agency IQNA related on the reasons behind empowerment of the Taliban militants, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).
 
He referred to the strategic differences of the Taliban and US army in the battle field saying," Local Taliban forces were concentrated forces with strategic aims. Quite different from them the US troops were foreign forces with constantly changing tactics and targets.
 
In reference to some comments on irresponsible pullout of US from Afghanistan and submitting the country to the Taliban, he said," US public mind was fed up with war and that was what Donald Trump and Joe Biden clearly found out. On the other hand though, logically speaking, Afghanistan was not on the list of vital interests of the United States; therefore, the US decided to pull out of a war which lasted twenty years."
 
He added," 2,400 US forces were killed and more than 25,000 were wounded. 3,800 state contractors and hundreds of thousands of Afghans lost their lives. This was not a war to end in victory and on the other hand the circumstances in Afghanistan were not a dangerous one for Washington and the US administration had some important missions back at home."
 
Professor of American university also named extensive systematic government corruption as an important factor in empowerment of Taliban and said," Certainly corruption played a role in dissatisfaction of the Afghans with Ashraf Ghani administration and lack of will to fight among the Afghan army.
 
He stressed," This is in near relation with lack of popularity of Ghani administration and its inefficiency in governing the country as well as failure of efforts for nation-building in Afghanistan. On the other hand to prove that Taliban has changed is not possible yet and one should view that with much skepticism."
 
When asked on how the neighboring and regional countries will view Taliban he said," If Taliban builds an efficient control and ruling, other countries will welcome that although it is far from reality that Taliban endeavors to make Afghanistan into a regional power because basically it does not have the necessary means for that."
 
He defined the recent changes in Afghanistan as "very bad" and said," Tough days are ahead of the people particularly women and children. Since war mongers and militants will most probably stand against Taliban, military confrontation is likely and darker days are ahead."


Dr. Adams is Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service, American University, in Washington DC, where he teaches national security policy and resource planning. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center, where he directs the program on Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense. From 2006-2007, he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, writing a book on national security resource planning.