As of Tuesday, August 31st, the Afghanistan war officially ended. So, what’s next for the middle eastern nation, the now “in-control” Taliban, and the American and Afghani citizens who stayed behind?
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“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over,” President Biden said at the White House, during a Tuesday afternoon address to the nation that provided greater detail of what he did and why he did it. “I’m the 4th president who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today I’ve honored that commitment.”
After sustaining a sea of criticism for how he handled the final days of the war, the president explained that although he wanted soldiers out of Afghanistan, the timing was predicated on an ill-advised agreement Donald Trump made with the Taliban to exit the nation by May 1st.
“My predecessor, the former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove US troops May 1, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative government arrangement with the Afghan government,” Mr. Biden said. “But it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban’s top war commanders, among those that just took control of Afghanistan. By the time I came into office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001.”
President Biden was able to extend the exit to August 31st, which gave him more time to implement a workable exit strategy following his January inauguration. However, the Taliban warned that “all bets were off” after that date.
“I warned Americans 19 times since March to leave if they wanted out,” the president said while adding that 90% of Americans who wanted to leave did so successfully. In the final hours of the evacuation, a secret agreement between the US and the Taliban provided Americans with a personal escort to the airport, where they were evacuated safely.
In total, more than 100,000 American civilians, diplomats, and Afghani allies were airlifted out of the region. According to a new agreement, any remaining Americans who wish to leave with be permitted to do so by the new Taliban government.
So, now that the Afghanistan war is officially over, what’s next?
Although the terrorist group shot guns into the air and celebrated victoriously on the airport tarmac as the last American military plane departed, the future is not bright for the Taliban. They have limited skills and experience to govern a nation, they have no diplomatic ties with much of the rest of the world, they are infighting with ISIS-K and other opposition groups, and they have no money.
Afghanistan traditionally depends on 80% of foreign aid in order to operate, however, that aid has now ended. Additionally, the US seized millions of dollars in financial assets at the close of the Afghanistan war, making it nearly impossible for the terrorist group to rule.
In short, the US ended its longest war in history while holding an Ace card in the hole. Now, the Taliban will need to make a ton of humanitarian concessions to the rest of the world for it to succeed, or else it could go bankrupt.
Perhaps, in the end, that will be a win-win for the US.
CNN: The US military negotiated a secret arrangement with the Taliban that resulted in Taliban members escorting groups of Americans to the gates of the Kabul airport as they sought to escape Afghanistan, according to two defense officials. One of the officials also revealed that US special operations forces set up a “secret gate” at the airport and established “call centers” to guide Americans through the evacuation process. The officials said Americans were notified to gather at pre-set “muster points” close to the airport where the Taliban would gather the Americans, check their credentials and take them a short distance to a gate manned by American forces who were standing by to let them inside amid huge crowds of Afghans seeking to flee. The US troops were able to see the Americans approach with their Taliban escorts in most cases in an attempt to ensure their safety. The officials spoke… Read more »