Since the United States and other NATO countries began withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan in May, the Taliban have launched an offensive that has captured about half of the country’s areas, captured border checkpoints and besieged several provincial capitals.
Mackenzie acknowledged that the Afghan government was facing difficult days, but stressed that the Taliban wanted to give a false impression of the inevitability of their victory.
“The Taliban want to create a sense of inevitability for their campaign, but that is not true. A Taliban victory is not inevitable,” the general said.