US corruption doomed Afghanistan – ex-president said

Hamid Karzai, the only Afghan president since the 2001 US-led invasion, has admitted his culpability in the corruption that has plagued the country for the past two decades – but argued an external power played a much greater role than he did himself. Speaking to the Washington Post on Monday, he blamed the US for his country’s fate.

Karzai took “full responsibility for the corruption and bribes in the delivery of services,” he told the outlet. “But the big contracts, big corruption, in hundreds of millions of dollars or millions of dollars, was clearly a United States of America thing.”

“The war in Afghanistan was not our war,” Karzai explained, clarifying his position between the US-backed “democracy” he ran and the Taliban government, which has allowed him to continue living in Kabul. Despite owing his power to Washington, he has controversially referred to the Taliban as “brothers” and denounced the 21-year war ostensibly fought against them.