“The preparations for this thing, and the failure of imagination on how fast it would happen and how complete the collapse — that’s a problem that you have to point to the administration on,” James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador who worked closely with Mr. Blinken and other senior officials during the Obama administration, said on Monday. Mr. Jeffrey said the overall decision to withdraw from Afghanistan “made good sense,” in part because the administration is also grappling with a range of more immediate threats to the United States, like China, Russia, climate change and the coronavirus. The Taliban has agreed to refuse refuge to terror groups as a condition of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was brokered during the Trump administration. “I think that’s a very important point,” Mr. Morell said. officials, including William J. Burns, the agency’s director, have acknowledged that they are looking for new ways to collect information in Afghanistan, and that their ability to gather information on terrorist activity is diminished.

Source: International New York Times September 13, 2021 17:15 UTC