Time to hold Pakistan accountable: US geopolitical expert Danielle Pletka

"Pakistan was responsible for the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and it has now engineered the Taliban’s return to power almost 20 years after the American-led intervention in Afghanistan—something Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan last week hailed as 'breaking the shackles of slavery'," Danielle Pletka, who is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in an article published in The Dispatch.

"For the most part, Pakistan has pursued these policies with impunity, all the while receiving massive subsidies from the United States for its supposedly indispensable cooperation in combating terrorism. It’s time to acknowledge this reality and hold Pakistan accountable," Danielle Pletka wrote.

"Pakistan has long profited by playing both sides, taking arms and dollars from the United States to defeat enemies in turn supported directly by Islamabad. And Pakistan’s American supporters—many in the military who trained with Pakistani officers, others in the intelligence community who have worked with their counterparts for years—have regularly won the day against critics, arguing there is no counterterrorism fight without Pakistan. But the reality is the opposite," Danielle Pletka further wrote.

"It’s time to cut all aid, designate its government a state sponsor of terrorism, strangle its avenues of financial support, and treat Pakistan like what it is—a danger to us all," Danielle Pletka said.

On August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul.

President Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled the country to prevent what he described as bloodshed that would occur if militants stormed the city.

Many countries have since started evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan while blasts rocked the Kabul airport vicinity killing over 100 and injuring a large number of people.

Anti-Taliban demonstrations are taking place in different parts of the globe.