Aug 31, 2021: Taliban fighters took control of the airport just before sunrise on Tuesday after the last US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, bringing an end to the war that has now left the Taliban stronger than before the US invasion of 2001.
Shaky video footage distributed by the Taliban showed the last U.S. troops entering the airport one minute before midnight and entering the airfield, ending 2 decades of war in what was a humiliating exit for Washington and its NATO allies.
According to sources of Al Jazeera TV, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf said, “The last American soldier has left Kabul airport and our country has gained complete independence.”
The Taliban enter #KabulAirport to go on patrol and examine equipment left behind after the withdrawal of US troops in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 31, 2021. Washington ends its 20-year war in #Afghanistan. Photos: CFP pic.twitter.com/gMCK1Y2XY0
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 31, 2021
The U.S. military has shared a photo with night vision optics of the last U.S. soldier on its last flight out of Kabul, Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. The longest US war killed about 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans at a cost of about $2 trillion.
Although it managed to oust the Taliban and prevent Afghanistan from being used as an al-Qaeda base to attack the United States, it ended with the Taliban seizing power, whose previous rule was from 1996 to 2001. This time around, the Taliban control more area of the country then they ever did before.
Over the past two weeks, a large but chaotic US and allied plane has managed to evacuate more than 122,000 people from Kabul, but still left behind thousands of Afghans who helped the West.
A group of Americans, estimated by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to be less than 200 and possibly close to 100, wanted to leave but were unable to board the last flight. US Central Command Commander General Frank McKenzie briefed the Pentagon that Ross Wilson, the top US ambassador to Afghanistan, was on the last C-17 flight.
“There’s a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. But I think if we’d stayed another 10 days, we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out,” McKenzie told reporters.
In a statement, President Joe Biden defended his decision to stick to Tuesday’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops. “The world will remind the Taliban to keep its promise to allow a safe passage for those who want to leave Afghanistan,” he said.
“Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan is over,” said Biden, who thanked the US military for the dangerous withdrawal. He plans to address the American people on Tuesday afternoon.
Biden said the United States had long since achieved its goal of ousting the Taliban in 2001, harboring al-Qaeda militants who had masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
The president has been sharply criticized by Republicans and some of his fellow Democrats for the exit from Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul earlier this month and after the power outage and the overthrow of the US-backed government.
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the US withdrawal a “national scandal” that was “a direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence.”
But Democratic Senator Sheldon White House tweeted: “Bravo for our diplomats, the military and the intelligence agencies. No one else can lift 120,000 people from a plane in this dangerous and tumultuous situation.”
Blinken said the United States is ready to work with the new Taliban government if it does not retaliate against opponents in the country. “The Taliban want international legitimacy and support. Our position is any legitimacy will be earned,” he said.
US Secretary Blinken: "US military flights have ended and our troops have departed Afghanistan. A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun. It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy." pic.twitter.com/nnoKw8NX6W
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 31, 2021
Though the group has triumphed over foreign invasion forces, having received leadership of a war ravaged country in legacy, the Talibans’ first challenge is to revive the economy without being able to count on the billions of dollars in foreign aid that flowed to the previous ruling elite and fed systemic corruption.
The population outside the cities is facing what UN officials have called a catastrophic humanitarian situation worsened by a severe drought.
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