The US, British and NATO forces are leaving Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US. President Joe Biden announced that the American military presence in Afghanistan would end this summer after two decades of the forces’ presence in the country. As we know, America’s sending of troops to Afghanistan at the beginning was driven by retaliation against Osama bin Laden, not an Afghan.
Then the US had determined that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network were responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington, DC, which killed 2,977 people. Bin Laden had been running al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. Thus, at least 2,500 US troops had been deployed as part of the 9,600-strong NATO-Afghan mission. The US Army has lost 2,442 soldiers during the two decades. Brown University’s cost of war project has estimated that the United States spent more than $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan from October 2001 through April 2021. Thousands of Afghans also gave their lives in fighting Talibans side by side with the US and other NATO forces.
Meanwhile, panic has gripped the people in capital Kabul. The Taliban claimed that it has seized control of about 85 percent of the country’s territory. However the government dismissed the claim as part of a propaganda campaign. Media reports said, hundreds of Afghan security personnel and people continued to flee the border into neighbouring Iran and Tajikistan, causing concern in Russia and nearby countries that the Taliban could infiltrate Central Asia. But three visiting Taliban officials in Moscow on Friday said, “We will take all measures so that the Islamic State (ISIS) will not operate on Afghan territory … and our territory will never be used against our neighbours.”
In the meantime an Afghan government delegation has met Taliban representatives in Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry said. Both sides agreed that “war is not the solution to the Afghanistan problem” and that all efforts must be directed towards achieving a peaceful political solution.
In our view the total, withdrawal of Western forces will surely encourage revenge killings and violence by the Taliban. That would be most inhuman. The US has done much good in modernising Afghan people. They were also brutal in the military actions. The US has to considers all aspects and not accept total failure in Afghanistan. It will be a serious mistake to leave Afghanistan for others to exploit against America.
