America officially withdraws military presence from Afghanistan in Strategic Failure

After spending trillions of dollars and 2 decades in Afghanistan, the United States has withdrawn their military presence from the country. The United States’ NATO allies have similarly withdrawn military presence from Afghanistan as well.

However, this withdrawal was not without its problems, as the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15^th, this prompted the evacuation of US citizens, Afghans who had worked with NATO, and US troops to speed up.

As a result of this chaos caused by the increased pressure from the Taliban, US troops faced suicide bombings outside the Kabul airport, which killed at least 12 US troops and wounded 15 others. These deaths were the first deaths of US soldiers in Afghanistan since February of 2020 and was the deadliest day for the US military in a decade.

NATO allies are monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and evacuating Afghans who were working with NATO, they are evacuated alongside their families and are being resettled into NATO countries. NATO countries are working together to provide housing, food, and water to evacuees while they are being resettled into their new countries.

In total, over 120,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan’s Kabul airport as part of this NATO effort over the course of a week.

The US military were the last to leave Afghanistan. Other NATO countries withdrew their troops earlier in the year. Germany and Italy withdrew on July 2^nd. Australia completely withdrew on July 15^th, and the final British flight was on August 28^th.

The final US military plane left Kabul on the 30^th of August, and Christopher T. Donahue, the major general in charge of military operations in Afghanistan, was the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan. After that flight, the Taliban entered Kabul airport and declared victory.

The aftermath of the withdrawal has been the cause of much discussion, with many branding the withdrawal as more of a retreat, as well as a strategic failure. This is because 3 days after announcing the withdrawal and beginning evacuations, the Taliban had already taken Kabul, as well as regained control of most of the country. This sparked discussion and debate over how much the United States had even accomplished during the 20 or so years spent in Afghanistan.

When asked about their opinion, one sophomore, who wishes to remain anonymous said, “it definitely was a failure, not just the withdrawal, but the whole 2 decades of conflict in Afghanistan.”

Another said, “I hope some progress was made in Afghanistan and that the decades of military occupation wasn’t a complete waste.”