In the early hours of July 2, 2021, U.S. soldiers abandoned Bagram Airfield, a prominent military installation in Afghanistan. Afghan Armed Forces were unaware of the Americans’ departure until the following morning, and the Afghan National Army took hold of the base after a brief period of civilian unrest.
The secretive departure of American troops from Bagram Airfield continued a broader withdrawal as agreed upon by the 2019 Doha Agreement, commonly called the U.S.-Taliban deal, in which the Trump Administration agreed to completely withdraw American forces from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. President Joe Biden recommitted to U.S. withdrawal in April, 2021, setting a deadline of September 11, 2021.
In May, 2021, the Taliban launched an assault to retake Afghanistan as U.S.-N.A.T.O. military power waned in the country. On August 15, 2021, the Afghan capital of Kabul was taken by the Taliban, and the republican government was overthrown in favor of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. citizens and allies were evacuated in the days leading up to Kabul’s fall, and thousands more were stranded in the aftermath.
Two years later, brutal conflict rages on in Afghanistan. Religious and territorial disputes between the Taliban and other Islamic factions often flare into armed violence, mostly with the Islamic State militant group, I.S.I.S.K., in the east. Nearly all Afghan citizens now live in poverty, as opposed to 47% of the population in 2020, and women have fallen under intense oppression under the Islamic Emirate’s rule. Millions of people in Afghanistan are homeless or displaced and the Taliban commits human rights abuses regularly. Without the support of Western militaries, the Afghan people have quickly become subject to war, poverty, and intense persecution from their government.
The War in Afghanistan began in 2001 after al-Qaeda extremists conducted the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City, leading U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration to initiate the so-called War on Terror. A military coalition led by the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to apprehend Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, but the religious warlord relocated to Pakistan, where he escaped justice until his death on May 2, 2011. The American military was active in Afghanistan for two decades, but ultimately failed in achieving peace in the Islamic nation. Now, the Taliban terrorizes the Afghan populace in the form of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and threatens the fragile balance of power that exists between nations of the Middle East.
Anthony Bringaze 