The final U.S. military forces departed Afghanistan (TOLOnews) yesterday, finalizing a drawdown process that brought a twenty-year war to a close and left Afghanistan under the Taliban’s control. U.S. President Joe Biden is set to address the United States about the war’s end today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that from now on, U.S. engagement in Afghanistan will focus on diplomacy (State Dept.). Germany, the United Kingdom, and other countries also completed troop withdrawals in recent days.
With Kabul’s airport closed after the U.S. departure, intense diplomatic engagement is underway to facilitate its reopening. The Taliban have made public assurances that Afghans who wish to leave the country can do so, and the UN Security Council passed a resolution (UN News) yesterday urging the group to facilitate safe passages. Surging prices and packed lines at banks underscored the potential for the country’s economic collapse (FT) as countries and international organizations weigh how to approach financial ties with a Taliban-led Afghanistan.
Analysis
“It is up to the Taliban, now, to decide whether they will perpetuate the cycle of vengeance, as they did upon seizing power from a group of feuding warlords in 1996, or will truly embrace the new path that their leaders have promised in recent days: one of acceptance and reconciliation,” the New York Times’ Thomas Gibbons-Neff writes.
“All wars are fought 3 times. 1st, the debate over whether to enter. 2nd, the war itself. And third, the debate over lessons to be drawn. We are now entering the 3rd phase of the Afghanistan war: over whether we were right to wage it, over how we waged it, & the decision to leave,”
