Khalilzad: Comparing Afghanistan’s War to Ukraine Is Fundamentally Wrong
Tawazon – Former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, reacted on Sunday, (November 23) to a Wall Street Journal report on possible Ukraine peace talks, saying that comparing Afghanistan’s war to Ukraine is “fundamentally incorrect.”
In a post on X, Khalilzad wrote that unlike Ukraine, thebl war in Afghanistan was “an American war,” where U.S. troops directly fought the Taliban. For that reason, he said, direct negotiations between the United States and Taliban were a necessary step to end the war.
He rejected claims that the Afghan Republic was sidelined from the peace process. According to him, the U.S. initially acted as a mediator between Kabul and the Taliban, and once separate agreements were reached,Afghan government and Taliban negotiators also held face to face talks, although those negotiations “did not succeed.”
Khalilzad argued that the two wars are not comparable because, in Ukraine, “Ukrainians are doing all the fighting”, while in Afghanistan the key factor was the U.S. decision to withdraw after 20 years.
He added that the collapse of the former Afghan government happened because security forces “abandoned the fight” and senior leaders fled th country in the final days.
The Wall Street Journal had warned that a sudden reduction in U.S. support could weaken Ukrainian morale and leave Kyiv in a vulnerable position in any potential peace talks.
According to Wall Street Journal writers, if peace talks on Ukraine take place without strong security guarantees and sustained Western support, the outcome could mirror the rushed U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a scenario that led to the rapid collapse of the former Afghan government.
