Despite the reported killing in a drone attack in eastern Afghanistan of the ISKP planner of the Aug 26 attacks on the Kabul Airport that killed over 170 people including 13 American servicemen, the US is warning citizens to avoid the airport, amid “specific, credible” threats of more attacks. About 5,000 members of the US military stationed at the airport are desperately continuing with the evacuations ahead of the August 31 deadline agreed with the Taliban.
US ally UK is focusing on military and diplomatic departures as no more people will be processed. Frustrated, many Afghans are reportedly now trying to leave the country via the border with Pakistan. The ISKP – Islamic State of Khorasan Province – the Afghan branch of ISIS, has accepted responsibility for the Airport attacks but is yet to react to the reported killing of their planner.
US forces drove the Taliban away from power in Kabul and captured the country in 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that killed about 3,000 Americans, as the Taliban rulers refused to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden the mastermind of the attacks. Â
After the 20 years of war, termed as the longest military engagement, that cost the US and its allies the lives of nearly 7,000 servicemen and about 2 trillion dollars in funds, the Taliban, a band of hardly 60,000, however appears to have grown stronger and have overrun the country in a matter of weeks as the US and its allies started the process of withdrawal.
US president Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had set a deadline of withdrawal on May 1 2021 under an agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, with the Taliban in February the year before without making the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul a party. President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul before the Taliban took the city on August 15. The Biden administration first wanted the withdrawal to complete not before September 11, but on July 8 last specified the August 31 deadline.
Two decades of stay of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan to fight extremists and establish a democratic order in the country saw the emergence of a new generation of Afghans leading life in a free atmosphere who cannot accept life under the Taliban. During their first term in government, the Taliban put people especially women under stringent restrictions. Moreover many Afghans worked with the Western forces during the 20 years and are now seen as their collaborators. They are all-out to flee the country as fear of execution haunts them.
As of August 28 US and its allies evacuated a total of 109,000 people including their servicemen and citizens. The reality is, the US still now negotiates with the Taliban for fleeing Afghanistan as safely as possible.
The idea to negotiate a settlement is welcome. But the Taliban is an abnormal group of extremist terrorists. Afghans are rushing out to escape the savagery of Taliban rule.
The US and its allies went into war to finish the Taliban as an extremist force. They remained in Afghanistan to reform and modernise the Afghan people. Their efforts were succeeding. Afghans were embracing the changes.
It is not the Afghans’ fault that the superpower and its allies were foolish enough to be defeated by the tribal group most feared by the people. Not only the Afghan people the countries of the free world have been betrayed. Afghanistan will be engulfed by the brutalities of the Taliban. There will be aggression by other extremist forces for control over Afghanistan. The country will see bloodshed and chaos.
Now they are leaving the Afghan people making the Taliban more powerful and more revengeful.
The presence of the US and its allies in Afghanistan is essential to finish the Taliban and for the safety of the lives of the people. The confidence in the US ability to fight for its own ideals of human rights is at stake.
President Biden took the decision against the advice of his generals. Defeating the Taliban is necessary and possible for defeating reckless terrorists elsewhere.
