Kabul, August 6 (RHC)-- The United states, NATO and Western forces in Afghanistan have been doing more harm than good for the country in its fight against the Taliban and other extremists as the country struggles with stability some 14 years since the U.S-led invasion, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a recent interview.

“I have asked the Afghan government not to ask the U.S. for aerial bombings of our country,” Karzai told The Guardian in the interview. “This is chemicals thrown on the country every day. This is killing our fields, spreading disease, and not bringing an end to the war.”

Karzai, who was supported by the U.S. and its allies in ruling the country after the end of Taliban rule, is now Washington’s biggest critic. In 2013, he refused to sign a security agreement allowing foreign troops to stay in the country.

“NATO has been here for 14 years,” Karzai, who served 13 years as the president of Afghanistan, said. “Are we better off? Do we have more security? No!”

He argued Western forces should leave Afghanistan and allow the country to deal with its own issues and conflict because their presence has only worsened the situation. “If we cannot fight it ourselves, then we cannot ask a foreign force to come take it for us,” he said. “Those who take it have more ownership than we have.”

The former president further criticized those calling for more airstrikes and troops in Afghanistan, saying such actions would be against what the majority of the Afghan people want.