The one thing that can defeat US, is ourselves: Ryan Crocker

US Ambassador to Kabul Ryan Crocker says if US leaves before Afghans are capable of assuring security for themselves, US would lose. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

On a day where news came that America top diplomat in Kabul was going to cut short his term, Ryan Crocker warned that if US pulled out prematurely,  it could lose.

The outgoing ambassador said this while talking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. His comments come a day after Nato leaders agreed to a formal plan for the transition of power in the war torn country.

Amanpour asked the ambassador, “are there any times when you lie awake at night that all this effort, 10 years, America’s longest war, may be at risk in a rush to exit?”

The Career Ambassador – who had his first stint in Afghanistan in 2002, before being reappointed there in 2011, and has faced a number of attacks on his embassy, said given the pace of his days, nothing keeps him up at night. “I was here after the fall of the Taliban, reopened the embassy there, have had an interest in Afghanistan for its own sake and for the sake of American security, Its why I came back out of retirement to become ambassador.”

On the fear that the US may be losing one of its longest conflicts, said that “the one thing that can really defeat us here [in Afghanistan] is ourselves.”

“If we decide we are tired, we do not want to do this anymore, pull the troops and go home before the Afghans are fully capable of assuring their security, then we can lose this,” he warned.

Crocker, on Tuesday, called time on a distinguished 20 year career, where he once came out of retirement to take charge of the hot seat in Afghanistan as the US moves into the final leg of its War on Terror.