The Us-Taliban War, America’s Longest War
After almost 20 years of war, US forces are being pulled out of Afghanistan, followed by a deal between US and Taliban Militants. The same militant group that they removed from power back in 2001. The US intervened militarily, in 2001, and quickly removed the Taliban and vowed that they will support democracy and eliminate the terrorist threat. Which resulted in the formation of a new Afghan Government which took over in 2004.
In the same year NATO allies joined US in this war against terrorism. But even after all this the Taliban attacks continued. The mission of NATO’s special forces ended in 2014 leaving all of the responsibilities to the Afghan army. After all this, there were talks about peace between the US and Taliban, in which the Afghan government was not much involved.
In February 2020, in Qatar, came an agreement on withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. Even the US-Taliban deal did not stop the attacks and the Taliban started targeting civilians and Afghan security forces and their control over the area grew.
Taliban Advances As Civilians Try To Escape
According to the recent updates, Taliban Militants finally entered the city of Kabul on Sunday and demanded the surrender of the central government. Despite the fact that US President Joe Biden was confident that the Taliban will not be able to topple the government in Kabul.
The people of Kabul started rushing to the banks in order to withdraw their life savings and flee while they could. Scared that the Taliban would re-establish the brutal rules and restrictions that eliminate women’s rights, citizens as well as the foreigners started escaping from the country.
The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, has also fled the country on Sunday with his fellow citizens. And foreigners which signifies the end of 20-year experiment which aimed at remaking Afghanistan. According to the local media President Ghani fled to Tajikistan.
The Whole World Watches In Terror
As the Taliban rapidly take over the states of Afghanistan amid the evacuation of Western forces, the whole world watches in shock and awe. The European leaders are watching the whole situation with a mix of shock, fear and powerlessness. After investing billions of Euros in aid of the US forces. In addition, sending thousands of troops as well the European officials are dumbfounded by the fact that the Islamist groups have defeated the government forces so quickly.
The European officials are genuinely concerned with the likelihood of hard line Islamist ruling the country of Afghanistan, once again. Above all, the inevitability of the wave of new refugees and they are also scared for the safety of Afghans who have worked for the European Government.
At this time, US President Joe Biden has also dispatched 3,000 troops to help American and Afghan citizens to evacuate. India also airlifted three engineers from the Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan.
