American professor on the war in Afghanistan: ‘Impossible to defeat the Taliban in banking hours’

The administration of US President Joe Biden announced plans last week to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, the remaining 1,500 troops, by the fall. The forces of other NATO members will also join them.

The Americans organized an invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 after the bloody attacks of September 11. The United States managed to destroy the terrorist group Al Qaeda fairly quickly, and in 2011 Osama bin Laden, the leader of the network, was assassinated in neighboring Pakistan. But peace has not come to Afghanistan in twenty years.

The war cost a lot, of course, not only money but also people’s lives. More than 2.3 thousand people died. more than 20 thousand American soldiers. were injured.

Sergeant Arūnas Jarmalavičius was killed in 2008 during a mission carried out by Lithuanian forces in Ghowr province.

According to 2019 data, 64,000 people have also died since the beginning of the war. Afghan soldiers and police. About 111 thousand. Afghan civilians were killed or injured.

Between 2001 and 2019, US spending on military operations in Afghanistan amounted to $ 778 billion. Dollars. Another 44 billion. dollars were spent on reconstruction projects. The final cost of the war for Washington alone is expected to reach a trillion dollars.