The fall of Afghanistan happened quicker than almost anyone
expected passport offices overwhelmed.
Visa agencies are overwhelmed. And so are embassies ultimately
they lost confidence political military confidence, Afghanistan
political leaders gave up and fled the country.
An estimated 47,000 Afghan civilians died during the last
20 years of conflict. The US lost 2325 servicemembers in
Afghanistan and more than 20,000 were wounded. Afghanistan's
former government lost over 66,000 members of the army and
police during the course of the war. In total, the United States
has spent about $2.26 trillion dollars on the war in
Afghanistan. But before the final withdrawal could occur,
the Taliban made rapid gains across the country
considering we went to Afghanistan to oust the Taliban
in 2001. To give it to them back on a silver platter basically,
with no resistance, or no fighting is where that a sense
of abandonment and betrayal actually comes from.
And then you start watching them systematically suck up all the
small provinces, so they're gaining traction. Some people
have called it a blitzkrieg, and that's what it looked like at
first. But it seems clear that actually, Taliban commanders
were calling up people all around the country, local
mayor's police officials, as the country crumbled in the lead up
to the withdrawal 10s of 1000s of Afghans who helped coalition
forces desperately sought refuge from the retribution of the
Taliban. I would not take seriously as some commentators
unfortunately, have Taliban's offers of amnesty and promises
they'll work with people and that people will be safe in
their homes we've already seen this isn't true.
And on August 26, a deadly attack on US forces an Afghan
seeking to flee left 13 service members and dozens of Afghans
dead, they were heroes,
heroes, who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to
save the lives of others.
With the world's attention on the massive international
evacuation on going out of Kabul's International Airport,
it's apparent that no one could have predicted what was in store
for Afghanistan in August of 2021.
On paper, the Afghan national defense and security forces had
around 300,000 troops, but because of widespread
corruption, this number was likely much lower.
For years, I've been writing about the fact that the
government was a corrupt government that aid and money
went in and these officials pocketed it and the fact that
Ghani and his cohort ended up taking from what we understand
bags of money with them on their way out again shows that money
was more important than people's lives.
During former President Donald Trump's final year in office, a
peace deal was reached with the Taliban that would have all US
forces out of the country by May 1 2021. In his last few months
in office, he accelerated the pull out of US troops leaving
only 2500 on the ground in January of 2021. The US and the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization committed to paying
$4 billion per year for the Afghan national defense and
security forces until 2024. But that wasn't enough to stop the
Taliban.
The reality is there was no stalemate with the Taliban. The
government has been losing its war against the Taliban steadily
week by week, month by month since at least 2012. If not
earlier, they've been losing districts across the entire
country. And let's not forget most of Afghanistan's population
is rural in nature. And this is where the Taliban is at its
strongest or was at its strongest. So in order to
recreate a stalemate, which we have previously failed to do, we
would have actually had to add more forces into the country.
The US withdrawal took a dramatic turn on July 5 2021,
when the US left Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night
without notifying Afghan officials. The Afghan national
security and defense forces were largely dependent on the US for
air support, medical support, and most importantly, logistics
like wages and food. Canada's Herat and Kandahar fell to the
Taliban advance. Afghan government forces low on
supplies and demoralized by the US withdraw, negotiate and
surrender to the Taliban that besieged them. By August 14.
Jalalabad and Kabul were the only two major cities left
surrounded and cut off Jalalabad surrendered on the 15th.
And they just marched across the country. There was a lot of
shooting, but not nearly as much as one would have expected from
a Taliban takeover.
Shortly after Kabul stood alone as the only major city under
government control. President Ghani fled the country signaling
the end of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Taliban walked
into Kabul virtually unopposed as residents began to look to
the airport for a way out of the country. By August 1, the US had
withdrawn a significant amount of troops in material and
without the US providing security. The bulk of
contractors who provided critical technical support to
the Afghan military had also left as well. As the situation
deteriorated. 1000s of Afghan men, women and children ran onto
the runways at Karzai International Airport. One Air
Force C-17 flew a reported 823 people out of the war zone. have
many flights by the US and allies to get 1000s of non
combatants out of the country. Some Afghans and US citizens
flew out of Kabul on commercial flights before the security
situation deteriorated in some seats on private flights after
the Taliban took the city sold for around $100,000. According
to The New York Times, as Afghan security forces fled their posts
as the Taliban gained control over the capital, the US
military stepped in to provide air traffic control and assist
local and NATO forces with crowd control. refugees were flown out
to third countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, and Germany,
among others for processing and eventual travel to the US.
This is also going to bubble into a crisis because even once
we get these people out of the country, we do not have the
capacity to process this many refugees at once. Neither does
the United Kingdom. Turkey is dealing with its own massive
refugee crisis, obviously at the moment with Syria, as is the
rest of Europe. So this is going to be the next big problem.
Afghans and US citizens in Kabul found it difficult to get to the
airport and pass Taliban checkpoints.
And although over 100,000 people were evacuated from Kabul, many
Afghans seeking to flee the Taliban were left behind the
suicide bombing that targeted a US man checkpoint pointed to a
deteriorating security situation for US forces as the deadline
for the final withdrawal approached
the deaths of the service members as well as the tragic
loss of life on the part of so many Afghans seeking nothing
more than security and opportunity is something on the
hearts and minds of everyone
here. The shocking image of Afghans grabbing onto a C 17
Globemaster cargo aircraft in a desperate attempt to flee made
it clear just how high the stakes were in Kabul on August
16.
Watching Afghan men so desperate to leave this country so scared
to their life, they'd rather fall out of the sky, holding on
to a C-17 then try something else.
The UK has promised to take in 20,000 refugees Canada, another
20,000. And the number the US will take in will also likely be
in the 10s of 1000s.
It's a welcome move, of course, I don't think it's enough. I
think what's going on and the fact that this is, you know,
this isn't just an Afghan crisis. This is a regional
crisis. I think there's a huge responsibility that we have
towards the people, and the burden now falls on that to
protect
them. On August 24. The Taliban cut off access to the airport
for Afghan citizens
back on the abbey gate was followed by a number of ISIS
gunman who opened fire on civilians and military forces,
this complex attack on the 26th made clear the risk of staying
beyond the August 31 withdrawal date. In the US, there's a
debate brewing over how many African refugees to let in or
whether to let them in at all. Now 1000s of Afghan refugees are
awaiting visa processing to eventually settle in the United
States.
During the Trump administration. We know that Steve Miller was
successful in actively undermining attempts to get the
State Department in gear and get moving on this. But there's a
bigger bureaucratic problem that is like moves across
administration's is Consular Affairs at the State Department
is chronically underfunded, and under resourced. And so we
shouldn't be surprised that when we under resourced, this
important part of the State Department that they're not able
to deliver. There's also a cultural problem at the State
Department. So it's sort of the perfect storm.
The Taliban have captured a significant amount of military
equipment and the US had spent $83 billion, equipping the
Afghan security forces over the last 20 years, which means that
millions of dollars worth of items including armored
vehicles, small arms, and even aircraft are now in the
Taliban's hands.
We've been leaving behind equipment and the Taliban have
been taking equipment for many years in Afghanistan. This isn't
a new problem, but the scale of it in the in recent months is
pretty staggering. Women in Afghanistan are in a precarious
position of hoping that the Taliban's implementation of
Sharia law is less cruel than when the group was in power in
the 90s.
Maybe they've changed strategically in terms of their
use of the social media and trying to seem a lot more
diplomatic and the moat with the sole motive of seeing seeming
legitimate and wanting the international community to
accept them as the government of Afghanistan. But in reality, you
know, there's a lot of skepticism in terms of what what
those words mean, it's really unclear if the gains that have
been made for women and girls in the country under a supported
democracy, backed by the United States, as well as coalition
forces, if that's going to continue, or if those gains have
been erased.
Much of the Taliban's funding came through illicit markets tax
collection and trade when Kabul fell only a small fraction of
Afghanistan's reserves were available inside the country.
The Taliban could be facing a cash crunch as they shift from
an Insurgent Army to a governing body.
Not like the US where, you know, you check your bank account at
1201 on payday that morning, you don't see it you're upset,
right? You're like what the hell do Chase Bank or you know, for
you CNBC, like where's my money over there? It's like, we'll get
it to you in a week and two weeks later, maybe you get half
of it. You're like, well, thank god my family can eat again, and
the final piece When it comes to the money is, you know Is it is
it enough to get through the next 90 days.