August 16, 2021–The writing was on the wall even as representatives from Russia, China, the United States, and Pakistan met with Afghan and Taliban political leaders last week in Qatar. Their goal was to negotiate a political settlement. But as they met, Taliban fighters were taking city after city under their vengeful control.
By Saturday, they had circled Kabul, the nation’s capital. The next day, they took that too. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country, saying that he left to avoid bloodshed. Soon, Taliban fighters posed for photos in the presidential palace. They removed the Afghanistan flag, rolled it up, and waited for their political leader to return from Qatar.
“I spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay,” a Taliban commander behind a large, ornate desk in the presidential palace said on Sunday. He and his Taliban fighters demanded a “peaceful transfer of power.” Once in Kabul, they got it.
The Taliban are in control and it’s highly unlikely negotiations will continue to share control.
Game Over for U.S., Other Forces
Once the United States committed itself to pull its troops out, along with NATO forces, its only negotiating tool was to encourage the Taliban to seek international legitimacy.
Today, a UN Security Council met to discuss the situation. The council agreed to issue a press release urging all parties to act civilly and to allow for humanitarian workers. But the Taliban and its al-Qaeda associates have not been acting civilly. In fact, they’ve been murdering civilians they consider to have been friendly with government forces.
Foreign forces turned their focus on evacuating their citizens.
Taliban Leaders
The Taliban is a militant Islamist movement. Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is the political and religious leader of the group. Now, he is also the de facto Emir of Afghanistan. Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is located in Doha, Qatar, to represent the group internationally, according to news site DW.
A Look Back At Troop Levels
In total, more than 800,000 American military members served in Afghanistan since October 2001, 2,352 U.S. service members died, and more than 20,000 were wounded, according to the Defense Department.
While the U.S. military had every right to invade Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America by al-Qaeda, the mission lost focus fast.
They build the country up into an independent nation. At its peak, the troop level surged near 100,000. By early 2021, the U.S. military drew its forces down in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500. By contrast, maintains about 28,000 troops in South Korea.
Lack of Strategy, Corruption And Terrorism
The U.S. effort in Afghanistan was plagued by a lack of strategy from the beginning. U.S. Defense leaders wandered dangerously into the territory of nation-building without a clear plan for winning the war. “I have no visibility into who the bad guys are,” said Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2006.
They funneled billions of dollars into Defense-funded projects. Moreover, the total spent is in the trillions, not billions.
Trump’s Deal With the Taliban
Then, in 2020, President Donald Trump negotiated a deal with the Taliban. Violence has been a constant since they signed the deal.
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