September 11, 2021: All US and allied troops have left Afghanistan and Taliban gunmen are already at the ports of Kabul; one more push and they will be back where they were in 2001 just before America and Afghan allied forces sent them running like rats jumping out of a sinking ship. Once again darkness falls on Afghanistan.
Or does it? Not so fast.
Wishful thinking?
KABUL, July 9, (Reuters) – Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan’s sprawling capital.
Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor’s office earlier this year, the 41-year-old pilot was confronted by a gunman who walked inside and, without a word, fatally shot the real estate agent in the mouth.
Zamaray reached for his sidearm but the gunman shot him in the head. The father of seven collapsed dead on his 14-year-old son, who had tagged along. The boy was spared, but barely speaks anymore, his family says.
Taliban capture key Afghanistan-Iran border crossing
More – The Taliban have captured a major border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran, according to Afghan officials.
Video footage appeared to show Taliban forces taking down the Afghan flag from the roof of the border customs office.
The Islam Qala crossing is one of the biggest trade gateways into Iran, generating an estimated $20m (£14m) monthly revenue for the government.
The Taliban are rapidly retaking land across Afghanistan as the US-led mission removes the last of its troops.
Women have taken up guns in northern and central Afghanistan, marching in the streets in their hundreds and sharing pictures of themselves with assault rifles on social media, in a show of defiance as the Taliban make sweeping gains nationwide.
One of the biggest demonstrations was in central Ghor province, where hundreds of women turned out at the weekend, waving guns and chanting anti-Taliban slogans.
They are not likely to head to the frontlines in large numbers any time soon, because of both social conservatism and lack of experience. But the public demonstrations, at a time of urgent threat from the militants, are a reminder of how frightened many women are about what Taliban rule could mean for them and their families.
… According to the US Department of Defense, the total military expenditure in Afghanistan (from October 2001 until September 2019) had reached $778bn.
In addition, the US state department – along with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government agencies – spent $44bn on reconstruction projects.
That brings the total cost – based on official data – to $822bn between 2001 and 2019, but it doesn’t include any spending in Pakistan, which the US uses as a base for Afghan-related operations.
Afghan troops have been filmed laying down their arms to the Taliban as the terror group shows off the American-made weapons it has seized after US and Nato troops beat a hasty retreat.
The Afghan army is collapsing across the country and the Taliban appear to be winning the propaganda war with videos to prove that they will welcome surrendering soldiers – as long as they hand over their state-of-the-art weapons and Humvee armoured cars.
The US left Bagram Airfield last week – its fortress in the country for nearly 20 years – by slipping away in the night without telling the base’s new Afghan commander who discovered they had gone the next morning.
As the Taliban make rapid battlefield gains ahead of the US military pullout from Afghanistan, the question of who stays and who goes is once again at the top of foreign envoys’ agendas.
The “final warning” on fine notepaper was delivered to me in the depth of a harsh Kabul winter at the peak of a Cold War conflict. “I must advise you that you should leave Afghanistan without delay while normal flights are still available,” advised the British chargé d’affaires.
Eleven days later, on a snowy 30 January 1989, we watched the US chargé d’affaires solemnly lower the stars and stripes in a simple ceremony freighted with political meaning. The last Soviet troops were pulling out within weeks, ending their disastrous decade-long Afghan engagement. An exodus of Western missions was meant to rattle the beleaguered Moscow-backed government.
The US war in Afghanistan was not supposed to be another Vietnam. “I don’t do quagmires,” said Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of the original US invasion, who died last week. In the end the former US defence secretary did two quagmires, airily assuming Afghanistan was “won” in the spring of 2003 when he sent American troops to fight in Iraq.
US combat troops were in Vietnam for eight years, but they have been in Afghanistan for 20. It has been America’s longest war by far.
Joe Biden has insisted the withdrawal is not quite complete, but the remaining few hundred US troops in Afghanistan are there on guard duty. The abandonment of Bagram airbase on Friday marked the true end to the US military presence in the country.
More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan after clashing with Taliban militants, officials have said.
The troops retreated over the border to “save their own lives”, according to a statement by Tajikistan’s border guard.
Violence has risen in Afghanistan and the Taliban have been making significant gains, particularly in the north of the country, in recent weeks.
The surge coincides with the end of Nato’s 20-year military mission.
Members of the Takhar provincial council said food prices have increased substantially in areas that have fallen to the Taliban. “People are facing problems there; services are nonexistent, clinics, and schools are closed,” said Mohammad Azam Afzali, a member of the Takhar provincial council.
Haji Ghoulam Farouq Siawshani watched the Taliban rampage across northern Afghanistan this month, weighing up the threat from militants on his doorstep. Then, 10 days ago, the former oil trader turned militia commander issued a call to arms.
“Where the Taliban go, they bring destruction, and they are one kilometre away from my village,” he told the Guardian. “We decided to respond.”
He now leads a few dozen men he armed with ageing Kalashnikovs, in Gozara district, just south of the ancient trade and cultural centre of Herat, on the country’s western border with Iran.
The Taliban has “prevailed” in its battle with the West in Afghanistan, the former head of the British Army has said, as it emerged all UK and US troops will be withdrawn on Sunday.
Writing in The Telegraph, General Lord Dannatt said the mission had been intended to give the Afghan people the choice of a more “moderate and peaceful” life.
“Ultimately, Taliban force of arms has prevailed, and the people of that country have been denied the chance to choose a better way of life,” Lord Dannatt said. “Tragically, a descent into the chaos of civil war seems highly likely.”
The last US and Nato forces have left Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, the centre of the war against militants for some 20 years.
The pull-out could signal that the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is imminent.
President Joe Biden has said US forces will be gone by 11 September.
But the withdrawal from the sprawling base, north of Kabul, comes as the main jihadist group, the Taliban, advances in many parts of Afghanistan.
The US military could complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan within days, reports say, amid increasing Taliban battlefield gains.
US officials told Reuters that some US forces were expected to stay to protect the US embassy and Kabul airport.
The reports came as a top US commander warned the country risked sliding into civil war as the last US troops leave.
Fighting has surged since the US began withdrawing last month, with the Taliban seizing swathes of territory.
As Nato troops prepare to leave, fears are growing for minorities and women in the city
Dead friends visit the schoolgirl at night. They return to her dreams as she last saw them: their bodies blasted down the street by the school gates, some with their satchels and clothes aflame.
“They come every night,” Rokiya Ahmedi told me. “I see my classmates dead. I see them on fire. I hear the screaming. I wake up screaming too. I scream for what I see, and I scream because of the fear that men will come to kill me also.”
There is no hope for Afghanistan.
The US plans to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked for the American military ahead of September’s troop withdrawal, senior officials have said.
The plan could involve moving as many as 50,000 people to other countries along with their families.
Afghan interpreters who have worked for the US for years fear reprisals from the Taliban after the withdrawal.
As many as 18,000 Afghans have applied for US visas, but the lengthy process has been hindered by delays.
