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A huge C-17 transport plane carrying troops and a US ambassador left Kabul airport one minute before midnight on August 31, the deadline set by President Joe Biden.
This flight ended a chaotic evacuation flight operation, during which more than 120,000 people were transported. people fleeing the strict rule of the Taliban Islamists. The fighters seized power in Afghanistan two weeks earlier, nearly two decades after the collapse of their previous regime during the invasion of US-led forces.
The country, which was able to withstand the attacks of the British Empire and the Soviet Union through fierce battles, finally brought the same result to the current world’s superpower.
This long war has worried most Americans little recently.
However, this indifference was brutally dissipated in the last days of a gigantic evacuation operation, in which 13 American soldiers were killed in an attack by a deadly Islamic State (IS) jihadist terrorist at one of the gates of Kabul or the port. .
Images of President Biden attending a mourning ceremony Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware could become one of the most memorable symbols of this American war.
ZUMAPRESS / Scanpix nuotr./Joe Bidenas
Five of the dead Americans were only 20 years old. So they were just babies when, on September 11, 2001, the international terrorist network Al Qaeda, which at the time had camps in Afghanistan and was guarded by the Taliban, staged attacks that sparked the conflict.
Painful reflections
It seems ironic that the security of the US forces withdrawn from Kabul relied heavily on the Taliban, who protected access to the airport from possible attacks by the Islamic State.
“The Taliban have been very pragmatic and practical,” said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the US Army Central Staff.
Afghanistan, the first front in the war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks, went into the distant past in 2003 when the administration of then US President George W. Bush decided to send troops to Iraq and overthrow its dictator, Saddam Hussein. .
Rather than withdraw from that country after victory, the United States set out to rebuild the Iraqi state, although Washington was unprepared for such a task.
AFP / Scanpix Photo / American troops in Afghanistan
At the time, the US-backed government in Kabul proved corrupt and unable to consolidate its power, but the militant Taliban movement retained great potential.
The burden of these failures has long been on the shoulders of the Afghan civilian and security forces, with tens of thousands killed and many more injured.
Washington’s losses were also significant: 2,356 American soldiers died in Afghanistan and the total financial cost of the war is $ 2.3 trillion. Dollars, according to calculations by the Watson Institute at Brown University.
Time to finish
The beginning of the end came under the leadership of President Donald Trump, who promised to end the “eternal wars” before the 2016 election.
It initially increased the US military contingent deployed in Afghanistan to 16,000. troops, but the Taliban failed to significantly weaken the fighting, so the president began negotiations with the militants.
In February 2020, Washington pledged to withdraw its troops before May 1 of this year. The Taliban, for their part, agreed to initiate peace talks with the Kabul government and vowed not to attack US forces.
But the Islamists have stepped up their campaign against Afghan government forces, which have relied heavily on the United States.
AFP / Photo by Scanpix / Donald Trump and US troops in Afghanistan
With Biden stationed at the White House on January 20, the American contingent in Afghanistan had already been reduced to 2.5,000. soldiers.
The new leader ordered a reconsideration of the strategy and decided that the US forces would have to withdraw. However, he postponed the deadline until August 31, hoping that the withdrawal would go smoothly.
Behind the scenes, the president and his advisers concluded that the Afghans will not be able and willing to fight on their own.
“We went to Afghanistan for the terrible attack that took place 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should stay there in 2021, Biden said.” It is time to end this eternal war.
“We fought”
The end came sooner than Washington expected.
The Americans planned to withdraw in an orderly manner, trying to avoid a scenario similar to the one that had occurred at the end of the Vietnam War. One of the symbols of the recent conflict has been a photograph of many Vietnamese trying to board a helicopter at the then US government building in Saigon.
Biden said on July 8 that “there would be no circumstances” that could lead to similar images in Afghanistan.
AFP / Photo by Scanpix / Panic of the Taliban over the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban
Five weeks after the Taliban fighters marched into Kabul without any resistance, a chain of Chinook helicopters landed on the territory of the US embassy in the Afghan capital to transport US diplomats to safety.
At the time, the images at the airport were even more tragic, with tens of thousands of Afghans crossing borders to enter, and some even clinging to rising American planes and eventually crashing into falling.
This war started even before the spread of smartphones and social media. In the end, there was a massive online exchange of a video in which US Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller called for a fair assessment of the aftermath of the Afghan conflict.
“People are outraged that their top commanders have disappointed them. And none of them raise their hand, take responsibility and say, “We know each other.”
Scheller was removed from office, but no one offered to blame him.
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