What lies in the future of Hindukush Country After USA Exit: “Afghanistan” or “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”

There is ONLY ONE WORD on everyone tongues from New York to New Delhi: TALIBAN, TALIBAN, and ONLY TALIBAN,

And the ONLY Talk of Every Town is Afghanistan “Whether its throes of chaos at Kabul’s international airport or desperate Afghans tried to flee on departing U.S. jets or Taliban gunmen roaming the airport terminals, or killing of Afghan men by US Troops or sign of the disorder in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan“.

Was this turmoil sudden or anticipated? Of Course, this change was expected but so sudden it will happen has put everyone in utter surprise.

As the USA has started withdrawing its troops from Bagram Air Base at the end of June of this year, I did speculate that Will Kabul fall again? very soon…

Who is the Taliban—Let’s Look at the History?

The Taliban were made up of former Afghan resistance fighters, known collectively as mujahedeen, who fought the invading Soviet forces in the 1980s. Taliban is a co-product of Pakistan Intelligence Agency ISI and US Intelligence Agency CIA. In 1994, the Taliban aimed to impose their interpretation of Islamic law on the country — and remove any foreign influence.

Finally, the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, and the Sunni Islamist Organization put in place strict rules. Women had to wear head-to-toe coverings, weren’t allowed to study or work, and were forbidden from traveling alone. TV, music, and non-Islamic holidays were also banned.

In May of 1999, Taliban took control of the mountainous province. Bamiyan city, a Shia Muslim majority was regarded as an enemy – or even an infidel – by the Sunni Taliban.

The ancient sandstone carvings, once the world’s tallest Buddhas, were annihilated in an act of destruction that shocked the world and helped set a precedent for the vandalism of Iraqi heritage sites by Islamic State fighters[1].

In 2001, the Taliban ordered Hindus, Sikhs, and other religious minorities to wear yellow patches, ostensibly so they would not be arrested by the religious police for breaking Taliban laws on the length of beards and other issues[2].

Religious groups and several foreign governments immediately condemned the order by the ruling Taliban movement, and some observers compared Taliban treatment of Afghan’s Hindus and Sikhs with the Nazis’ treatment of European Jews six decades ago. Under Nazi rule, Jews in Germany, Poland, and Austria were forced to wear yellow Stars of David to distinguish them from the rest of society[3].

USA U-Turn on Terror

Come September 11, 2001, and everything changed. 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial planes in the US, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon, and another, destined for Washington, into a field in Pennsylvania. More than 2,700 people were killed in the attacks.

The attack was orchestrated by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who operated from inside of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Now, Afghanistan emerged as a significant U.S. foreign policy concern in 2001. The United States in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led a military campaign against Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban government that harbored and supported Al-Quida.

On May 2nd, 2011 in the early morning hours, a small group of US Forces, including Navy Seals, raid a walled and fortified compound in Abbottabad which is in the vicinity of Pakistan Army Headquarters in the “Terror Sponsored Country Pakistan“. In the ensuing firefight, Osama Bin Laden and three other men die. A woman also died. Bin Laden reportedly dies of a gunshot wound to the head. DNA samples are taken before his body is buried at sea[4].

In the intervening 19 years, the United States has suffered over 22,000 military casualties (including around 2,400 fatalities) in Afghanistan and Congress has appropriated approximately $144 billion for reconstruction and security forces there. In that time, an elected Afghan government has replaced the Taliban; improvement in most measures of human development is limited, and future prospects of gains remain mixed[5].

In the next two decades since they were ousted from power, the Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the allied forces and the US-backed Afghan government.

Who are the Taliban Leaders?

The Taliban are led by Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, a senior religious cleric from the Taliban’s founding generation.

He was named as the Taliban’s leader in 2016 after the group’s previous leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed in a US airstrike in Terror Heaven country Pakistan.

At the same time, Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said the new Taliban leader might be able to “integrate the younger and more militant generation.”

Another key player is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban co-founder, who was released in 2013 after being captured in 2010 in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. “Baradar heads the group’s political committee, and recently in the news when he met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.”

Taliban Agreement with Trump Administration

In 2017, the Taliban issued an open letter to the newly elected US President Donald Trump, calling on him to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan[6].

Following nine rounds of discussions, negotiators signed a “Peace Agreement” in February 2020 that addresses four main issues:

• Cease-Fire. Negotiators agreed to a temporary reduction in violence and said that a lasting cease-fire among U.S., Taliban and Afghan forces will be part of intra-Afghan negotiations.
• Withdrawal of Foreign Forces. The United States agreed to reduce its number of troops in the country from roughly 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days. If the Taliban follows through on its commitments, all U.S. and other foreign troops will leave Afghanistan within fourteen months. Experts have cautioned that pulling troops out too quickly could be destabilizing.
• Intra-Afghan Negotiations. The Taliban agreed to start talks with the Afghan government in March 2020. Throughout the negotiating process, the Taliban had resisted direct talks with the government, calling it an American puppet. But the Taliban then indicated that talks are possible, with deputy Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani writing in a New York Times op-ed, “If we can reach an agreement with a foreign enemy, we must be able to resolve Intra-Afghan Disagreements through talks.”
• Counterterrorism Assurances. The United States invaded Afghanistan following September 11, 2001, attacks largely to eliminate the threat of terrorism, so it seeks to halt terrorist activities in the country, including by al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State. As part of the agreement, the Taliban guaranteed that Afghanistan will not be used by any of its members, other individuals, or terrorist groups to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.

U.S. officials have also stressed protesting women’s rights. Prior to the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, the group shuttered girls’ schools and prevented women from working, among other abuses. This issue could be discussed during intra-Afghan talks[7].

The Trump Administration had committed to withdrawing military forces by May 1st, 2021.

However, experts stress that the deal between U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration and the Taliban leadership is only the first step to achieving lasting peace.

US experts say that “The bigger challenge, will be negotiating an agreement between the Islamist fundamentalist group and the Afghan government on Afghanistan’s future. Many Afghans, exhausted by a war that has killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee as refugees, fear that a U.S. withdrawal could spark new conflict and eventually allow the Taliban to regain control”.

Ground Reality of US-Taliban Peace Agreement

• Cease-Fire. U.S. officials contend that the Taliban have not fulfilled the commitments of cease-fire as violence between the Taliban and Afghan government increased.[8].

• Withdrawal of Foreign Forces. Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about 13,000 to 2,500, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership[9]. On July 6, the U.S. military confirmed that it has pulled out of Bagram Airfield, its largest airfield in Afghanistan, as the final withdrawal nears. Then on July 8 saying “Speed is Safety,” US now President Biden moves up the timeline for full troop withdrawal to Aug. 31 from September 11 which marks the anniversary of the Terror attacks on the USA.

• Intra-Afghan Negotiations. The United States proposal of the peace agreement to “jumpstart” negotiations includes a variety of options, including the establishment of an interim “transitional” government, which Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has rejected. The culmination of these efforts was to be a senior-level Afghan conference in Turkey planned for April 2021, but the Taliban refused to attend and continue to reject participating in such a meeting. Afghan government representatives were not participants in U.S.-Taliban talks, leading some observers to conclude that the United States would prioritize a military withdrawal over securing a political settlement that preserves some of the social, political, and humanitarian gains made since 2001. After months of delays, on September 12, 2020, the Afghan government and Taliban representatives officially met in Doha, Qatar, to begin their first direct peace negotiations toward such a settlement, a significant moment with potentially dramatic implications for the course of the ongoing Afghan conflict. Talks between the two sides continue but have not made substantial progress and remain complicated by a number of factors. In light of the stalling of intra-Afghan talks, the United States appears to have intensified its efforts to broker an intra-Afghan agreement. Observers speculate about what kind of political arrangement, if any, could satisfy both the elected Afghan government and the Taliban, who have not specified in detail their vision for Afghanistan’s future beyond creating an “Islamic government.” Afghan officials have sought to downplay the impact of the U.S. military withdrawal on their own forces’ capabilities, but some official U.S. assessments indicate that the withdrawal could lead to Taliban gains on the battlefield

• Counterterrorism Assurances. Taliban links with Al Qaeda remain in place, according to United Nations sanctions monitors. They even welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership

World Power response to US-Taliban Peace Treaty

The U.S.-Taliban peace process has received wide support, including from NATO partners and from Russia and China. 

• India: New Delhi is a strong supporter of the Afghan government and has given $3 billion to develop infrastructure and cultivate business in Afghanistan since 2001. Its main goals are to minimize Pakistan’s influence and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for anti-India militants. The Indian government did not back U.S. efforts to reach an agreement with the Taliban and disagreed with legitimizing the group as a political actor.  

• Russia: Moscow hopes to rekindle ties with Afghanistan that were frayed when it withdrew from the country in 1989 following its decade-long occupation. Experts say Russia wants to take a lead role in the peace process and grow its influence in Afghanistan to counter the U.S. and NATO presence in the region. It has hosted several meetings between Taliban delegations and Afghan representatives in the past year.

• China: Beijing’s interests in Afghanistan are primarily economic, as it hopes to integrate it into the Belt and Road initiative, a collection of development and investment projects. China is the country’s largest source of foreign investment and it is interested in tapping into Afghanistan’s vast natural resources especially Lithium and rare earth elements. Additionally, Beijing is concerned that terrorists could use Afghanistan to establish links within China. In late 2019, Afghan and Taliban officials attended a conference in Beijing, and Chinese leaders supported a U.S.-Taliban agreement.

• International aid: Dozens of countries continue to provide assistance to Afghanistan, with 75% of the government’s public expenditures currently covered by grants from international partners, according to a World Bank report. The report warned that Afghanistan will continue to require billions of dollars in aid for years to come. Some experts believe that aid could be used as leverage to keep the Taliban in negotiations with the Afghan government.

Afghanistan Neighbor Response

• Iran: Shiite-majority Iran has long viewed the Taliban, a Sunni group, as a foe, especially since it has received support from Iranian rivals Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Iran accepted U.S. efforts to overthrow the Taliban in 2001 and supported the Afghan government. Iranian leaders have since acknowledged that the Taliban will continue to maintain some power in Afghanistan, so they have started working to improve ties. The trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan through Iran and opium addiction in Iran are problems in the two countries’ relationship.

• Pakistan The Taliban was formed in “Terror Sponsored Country Pakistan” in the 1990s following the Soviet Union’s departure from Afghanistan. Many of its original fighters were Pashtuns who studied in Pakistani madrassas. After the U.S. invasion, Pakistan granted the Taliban safe-havens, and its Inter-Services Intelligence, which was thought to have some degree of control over the Taliban for years, provided military expertise and fundraising assistance. Experts say Pakistan now desires an Afghan government that includes the Taliban and is friendlier towards Islamabad than it is to New Delhi. (Officials in Islamabad have long feared Pakistani rival India gaining influence in Afghanistan). Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has denied that the country has provided support to the Taliban and he has supported negotiations. Pakistani officials opened up a channel for U.S. negotiators to initially reach the Taliban[10].

Biden Administration in White House

After coming to the White House in January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. follows through the same suit. On February 3^rd, 2021,  The Afghanistan Study Group, which was created by US Congress in December 2019 and charged with making policy recommendations for a peaceful transition in Afghanistan, released a report recommending changes to the agreement with the Taliban.

Biden Stated “The most important revision is to ensure that a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops is based not on an inflexible timeline but on all parties fulfilling their commitments, including the Taliban making good on its promises to contain terrorist groups and reduce violence against the Afghan people, and making compromises to achieve a political settlement,” it said.

On February 19th, 2021, Biden reiterates his campaign promise to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, saying during remarks at the Munich Security Conference, “My administration strongly supports the diplomatic process that’s underway and to bring an end to this war that is closing out 20 years. We remain committed to ensuring that Afghanistan never again provides a base for terrorist attacks against the United States and our partners and our interests.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 7th, 2021, tells Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani that, despite future U.S. financial assistance, he is “concerned that the security situation will worsen and the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains.”

In the same month on 25th March Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that “it is clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence. While…they have not attacked U.S. forces, it is clear that they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence…since the peace accords were signed.”

After General Clarke’s meeting with Senate, Biden during a press conference at the White House, says “it’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline. Just in terms of tactical reasons, it’s hard to get those troops out.” He assures that “if we leave, we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way.” Without committing to a pullout date, Biden says, “it is not my intention to stay there for a long time. But the question is: How and in what circumstances do we meet that agreement that was made by President Trump to leave under a deal that looks like it’s not being able to be worked out, to begin with? How is that done? But we are not staying a long time.”

Biden Shocked the world on April 14th, 2021, by declaring it is “time to end the forever war,” He announced that all troops will be removed from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021.

Clarifying his treachery verdict, Biden says “He became convinced after the trip to Afghanistan in 2008 that more and endless American military force could not create or sustain a durable Afghan government.” Biden further added that the U.S. achieved its initial and primary objective, “to ensure Afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again” and that “our reasons for remaining in Afghanistan are becoming increasingly unclear.”

Biden mitches remarks of “inherited a diplomatic agreement” between the U.S. and the Taliban that all U.S. forces would be out by May 1. “It is perhaps not what I would have negotiated myself, but it was an agreement made by the United States government, and that means something,” Biden says, adding that final troop withdrawal would begin on May 1^st, 2021.

Biden continues by adding “We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit,” Biden says. “We’ll do it responsibly, deliberately, and safely.” Biden assures Americans that the U.S. has “trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 Afghan personnel” and that “they’ll continue to fight valiantly, on behalf of the Afghans, at great cost.”

On April 15, 2021, in response to Biden’s decision to delay full withdrawal until Sept. 11, the Taliban releases a statement that says failure to complete the withdrawal by May 1 “opens the way for [the Taliban] to take every necessary countermeasure, hence the American side will be held responsible for all future consequences.”

US Experts has warned Biden that “By many measures, the Taliban are in a stronger position now than at any point since 2001, controlling as much as half of the country, though many once-public U.S. government metrics related to the conflict have been classified or are no longer produce”.

But on other hand, Biden censured Experts’ opinions by stating that if he went back on the agreement that Trump made, the Taliban “would have again begun to target our forces” and that “staying would have meant U.S. troops taking casualties. Once that agreement with the Taliban had been made, staying with a bare minimum force was no longer possible.

Blinken Visits Afghanistan After Biden Announces U.S. Troop withdrawal

Biden US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 15th, 2021, less than a day after President Biden formally announced plans to withdraw all remaining troops from the country by September 11. The trip was intended to signal continued cooperation amid the major shift in policy. He visited the United States Embassy and then met with Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, and Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the Afghan government council that has led peace negotiations with the Taliban. The withdrawal has already raised profound questions within the country about its effect on Afghan civilians and the ability of the government and the Taliban to negotiate a peace deal.

“I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan,” Mr. Blinken said before his meeting with Mr. Ghani began. “The partnership is changing, but the partnership is enduring.”

Later, speaking at a news conference, Mr. Blinken said that the time had come for American troops to leave the country, but that there was “strong bipartisan support” for a continued commitment to Afghan security forces.

“Even when our troops come home, our partnership with Afghanistan will continue, our security partnership will endure,” he said, adding that diplomacy would be intensified with the Afghan government and with its regional and international partners.

Blinken said that America had “succeeded” in achieving the objective it set out nearly 20 years ago — Al Qaeda had been significantly degraded and bin Laden “brought to justice.”

Afghanistan President Ghani said the Afghan government respected the decision and was “adjusting our priorities.”

Mr. Blinken and Mr. Ghani “discussed the importance of preserving the gains of the last 20 years, especially in building a strong civil society and protecting the rights of women and girls,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department[11].

Naheed Farid, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament, told reporters she was “very pessimistic” about the future of her country. Farid was among half a dozen prominent Afghans, mainly women, who met Blinken at the U.S. Embassy on Thursday

Kirby echoed that sentiment in comments on Wednesday and pushed back on the suggestion that the US is “passing the buck” for the deteriorating situation on the ground. “Nobody’s passing any bucks,” he said at the Pentagon briefing[12].

During Blinken visit to Kabul, many have started comparing Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan to America’s flight from Saigon during the Vietnam War in 1975. Blinken pushed back against that comparison[13].

US Intelligence Failure

On August 11th, 2021, Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban in the next 30 to 60 days, increasing the potential that the Afghan capital could fall under the control of the militant group, according to a senior administration official familiar with one US intelligence assessment[14].

Another assessment puts the potential collapse within 90 days, according to another US official.

Officials warn that there are multiple assessments with differing timelines.

Although US intelligence analysts had predicted it would likely take several more weeks before Afghanistan’s civilian government Kabul fell to Taliban fighters. In reality, it only took a few short days.

The collapse of Afghan Forces

Despite 20 years of outside support, billions of dollars of funding, an extensive program of training, and US air support, the Afghan security forces largely collapsed.

In some areas, they did stand and fight[15].

In Lashkar Gah, Afghan troops were pinned back in key positions, as the Taliban attacked repeatedly. Hundreds of commandos were sent in to restore order but when the Taliban detonated a massive car bomb outside the police headquarters, on 11^th August 2021, the battle was largely over.

In many areas, Afghan units that found themselves running out of ammunition and other supplies simply fled. Troops armed and trained by the US to safeguard ordinary Afghans left them to largely fend for themselves.

And in some places, the authorities agreed to allow the Taliban to take over, to avoid further bloodshed.

In Ghazni, reports suggest the police chief and governor were both allowed to leave the city in return for agreeing to a Taliban takeover.

Carter Malkasian, a former senior adviser to the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is also the author of “The American War in Afghanistan: A History,” said the Afghan forces sometimes lacked coordination and suffered from poor morale. The more defeats they had, the worse their morale became, and the more emboldened the Taliban were[16].

"Afghan forces, for a long period of time, have had problems with morale and also their willingness to fight the Taliban," he said. "The Taliban can paint themselves as those who are resisting and fighting the occupation, which is something that is kind of near and dear to what it means to be Afghan. Whereas that's a much harder thing for the government to claim, or the military forces fighting for the government."

Taliban spokesman Shaheen said they weren’t surprised by their successful military offensive.

“Because we have roots among the people because it was a popular uprising of the people because we knew that we had been saying this for the last 20 years,” he said. “But no one believed us. And now when they saw, and they were taken by surprise because before that they didn’t believe.”

President Biden Botched Plan

Emboldened by the withdrawal of the US and other international forces, in June 2021, the Taliban campaign accelerated as the Afghan military’s defenses appeared to collapse.

Although renewed clashes had been going on for several weeks, after 6 August, their advance accelerated with new momentum and within 10 days Taliban make a rapid advance across the country. The Taliban took some areas from the government by force. In other areas, the Afghan National Army withdrew without a shot being fired.

 

Taliban fighters took their first provincial capital on 6 August – and by 15 August, within 10 days, they were at the gates of Kabul.

Earlier on August 15th, Taliban insurgents captured the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, giving them control of one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan. They also took over the nearby Torkham border post with Pakistan, leaving Kabul airport the only way out of Afghanistan that is still in government hands.

The capture of Jalalabad followed the Taliban’s seizure of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on August 14th, also with little fighting.

“There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. “Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives.”

Two influential militia leaders supporting the government – Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum also fled. Noor said on social media that the Taliban had been handed control of Balkh province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, due to a “conspiracy.” A video clip distributed by the Taliban showed people cheering and shout Allahu Akbar – God is greatest – as a convoy of pick-up trucks entered the city with fighters brandishing machine guns and the white Taliban flag.

Taliban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter[17].

US forces based outside Afghanistan had launched airstrikes against Taliban positions during the week, but they failed to slow the advance of the insurgents.

The plight of Afghan Women under Taliban Regime

Afghan women are forced out of banking jobs as the Taliban take control of the Landlocked country.

In early July, as Taliban insurgents were seizing territory from government forces across Afghanistan, fighters from the group walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave.

The gunmen escorted them to their homes and told them not to return to their jobs. Instead, they explained that male relatives could take their place, according to three of the women involved and the bank’s manager[18].

The incident is an early sign that some of the rights won by Afghan women over the 20 years since the hardline Islamist militant movement was toppled could be reversed. When they last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes.

Women who broke the rules sometimes suffered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban’s religious police under the group’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.

On August 17th, 2021, Taliban shot and killed a woman for not wearing a burqa in Afghanistan — the same day the group pledged to usher in a new inclusive era in the country that honors “women’s rights[19].”

A photo emerged of a woman in Takhar province lying in a pool of blood, with loved ones crouched around her, after she was killed by insurgents for being in public without a head covering, according to Fox News.

The killing came amid the group’s version of a charm offensive, after its swift takeover of the country in the absence of US troops, who had been propping up allied military groups since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Intelligence Agency of Pakistan (ISI) worked in tandem with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Pakistan to create the “MONSTER” that is today Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, a leading US expert on South Asia has said once.

"I warned them that we were creating a monster," Selig Harrison from the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars said at the conference on "Terrorism and Regional Security: Managing the Challenges in Asia.” in early 2000.

Harrison said: “The CIA made a historic mistake in encouraging Islamic groups from all over the world to come to Afghanistan.” The US provided $3 billion for building up these Islamic groups, and it accepted Pakistan’s demand that they should decide how this money should be spent, Harrison said[20].

Biden Paranoidal Response to Fall of Kabul

On August 14^th, 2021, President Joe Biden authorized the deployment of 5,000 U.S. troops to help evacuate citizens and ensure an “orderly and safe” drawdown of military personnel. A U.S. defense official said that included 1,000 newly approved troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.

Although most US troops left in July, several thousand returned to Kabul to help evacuate American and allied personnel from the capital.

The airport in the capital was the only official route out of the country after the Taliban took control of all the major border crossings[21].

Taliban’s lightning advance prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many arriving in the Afghan capital, others heading for neighboring countries.

And there was chaos in Kabul, as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and thousands of his countrymen and women tried to do likewise.

US Congress reaction to Biden Administration Afghanistan failure

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.57 trillion collectively since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a Defense Department report.

America’s top diplomat appeared on political TV shows on Sunday to defend the US’s mission in Afghanistan and attempt to hold back a tide of comparisons between the chaotic scenes unfolding in Kabul, where the Taliban is now poised to retake power and the humiliating fall of Saigon 46 years ago.

“This is manifestly not Saigon,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told ABC’s. Blinker’s rejection of any parallels with the iconic image of helicopters evacuating personnel from the US embassy in Saigon in April 1975 at the end of the Vietnam war came as the skies over the Afghan capital were filled with Chinooks and Black Hawks ferrying US embassy staff to a secure location at the international airport. The secretary of state made his remarks with Taliban forces amassing inside the capital, and with their representatives already negotiating a “peaceful transfer” of power at the presidential palace.  “We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to testify before his panel about Afghanistan. 

Meeks in a statement on Tuesday said the panel wants to hear about “the administration’s plan is to safely evacuate American citizens as well as Afghans who are vulnerable or who worked with the U.S. government”.

He said the panel also wants to hear from the two officials on the broader counter-terrorism strategy following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Biden requesting information about his “PLAN” for Afghanistan.

"For months, we have been asking you for a plan on your withdrawal from Afghanistan. You failed to provide us with one and based on the horrific events currently unfolding in Afghanistan, we are confident that we never received your plan because you never had one," the letter says.

“The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning. Pretending this isn’t your problem will only make things worse. We remain gravely concerned the void left in Afghanistan will be rapidly filled by terror groups. The Taliban now control the country. Al Qaeda used Afghanistan to plot and execute the 9/11 attacks and other acts of terrorism,” the letter continues. “YOU CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN.”

Notably, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. a member of the committee has also signed the letter.

Cheney appeared on ABC’s and said that Biden “ABSOLUTELY” bears responsibility for the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, as does former President Donald Trump and his administration.

“What we’re watching right now in Afghanistan is what happens when America withdraws from the world,” Cheney told ABC co-anchor, Jonathan Karl. “So, everybody who has been saying, ‘America needs to withdraw, America needs to retreat,’ we are getting a devastating, catastrophic real-time lesson in what that means.”

Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, exploded in anger, calling the withdrawal an “embarrassment”,

McCarthy said “I have passion and I have anger”, and asked: “Are we secure at home over the coming weeks?” His outburst came during an almost hour-long call with Blinken, the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Milley[22].

Biden told reporters last week at the White House that he did not regret his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, effectively ending America’s longest war, which started nearly 20 years ago[23].

Billions of US-Supplied Weaponry in Hands of Taliban

The Taliban has seized billions of dollars worth of U.S.-supplied military equipment in Afghanistan following their rapid defeat of government forces in that country.

Images of Taliban fighters posing with U.S.-made supplies are circulating widely in the media, The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel reports, and include weapons ranging from “M-16 rifles to armored Humvees. UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft” have also reportedly been captured

Videos show Taliban fighters inspecting vehicles left behind by the Afghan military and opening crates of new firearms and other military equipment, including drones and night-vision goggles. “Everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now,” a U.S. official told reuters[24].

The U.S. has provided the Afghanistan government with an “enormous supply of military equipment as part of the $83 billion it spent during the nearly 20-year course of the war to train and supply the national security forces“. According to a report from the Government Accountability Office reviewed by Kheel, the “U.S. supplied Afghan forces with more than 75,000 vehicles between 2003 and 2016, along with nearly 600,000 weapons, 160,000 pieces of communications equipment, and more than 200 aircraft“.

Some of the equipment has been lost or destroyed, but U.S. officials told Reuters that the Taliban now controls more than 2,000 armored vehicles and as many as 40 aircraft. Afghan military pilots reportedly used about 50 aircraft to flee the country, effectively removing them from Taliban control.

Given that some of the more advanced equipment will be hard if not impossible to use, the seizures may end up serving something other than a military purpose. “When an armed group gets their hands on American-made weaponry, it’s sort of a status symbol. It’s a psychological win,” Elias Yousif, deputy director of the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor, told Kheel.

Still, there are concerns that the equipment could find its way to more advanced operators, potentially including ISIS, Russian, or China.

Voices to Sanction complicit Pakistan

In a letter to US President Joe Biden, House Representative “Mike Waltz” said that Pakistan’s military strategy is dictating the Taliban.

It is a known fact that when any Terror attacks happened in the world, For example, whether it Colombo Bombing of Sri Lanka or Mumbai 26/11 or Uri or Pathankot or Pulwama Attacks in India or London Bombings of England or Paris attacks in France, all investigation leads to “ONE AND ONLY country which is PAKISTAN” (Safe Heaven of all Terrorist Organisation).

Amid accusations against “Terror State Pakistan“, of covertly assisting the Afghan Taliban, a US Congressman has urged President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Islamabad unless they “Change Course.” In a letter to Biden, House Representative Mike Waltz said that Pakistan’s military strategy is dictating the Taliban. “At the least, Pakistan is complicit with Taliban advance and is choosing not to coordinate with the ANSF. At worst, the Pakistani military and intelligence services may be directly aiding the Taliban offensive,” Waltz said, urging the Biden administration to cut off all aid to Pakistan.

"Additionally, I ask that your administration also consider sanctioning "Pakistan" unless they change course and make greater efforts to prevent the Taliban from using their border region to regroup between firefights," he added[25].

Chaos and Desperations at Kabul Airport

Thousands of people have been trying to get to Kabul airport and on to military and civilian flights abroad, but amid chaotic scenes, some have been killed or wounded and armed Taliban members have been firing in the air to control the crowds.

American soldiers are also stationed there to prevent the airport from being overrun while evacuations of foreigners and Afghans are ongoing.
The soldier plucked the child, reported to be a girl, over the barbed wire during the chaos at Hamid Karzai International Airport, where families were attacked by the extremists as they sought to make their way to the airfield, The Sun reported[26].

“The mothers were desperate; they were getting beaten by the Taliban. They shouted, ‘Save My Baby’ and threw the babies at us. Some of the babies fell on the barbed wire,” a British officer told the UK’s Independent.

“It was awful what happened. By the end of the night, there wasn’t one man among us who was not crying,” he added.

Meanwhile, the US military is completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting, coinciding with the Islamist militant Taliban’s lightning conquest of the country.
An extraordinary photo shows the heartbreaking moment a wailing baby was handed over to an American soldier at the Kabul airport, where desperate Afghans have been trying to flee from the Taliban-controlled country.

It is not clear whether the girl was being reunited with her family within the airport premises or simply handed over to others in an attempt to get her on board a flight out of Afghanistan.

US Frozen Billions of Dollars in Afghan Reserves

The Biden administration on Sunday, August 15th, froze Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts, blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. institutions, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The decision was made by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and officials in Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the people said. The State Department was also involved in discussions this weekend, with officials in the White House monitoring the developments. An administration official said in a statement, “Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.” The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss government policy not yet made public.

Cutting off access to U.S.-based reserves represents among the first in what is expected to prove several crucial decisions facing the Biden administration about the economic fate of that nation following the Taliban takeover. Afghanistan is already one of the poorest countries in the world and is highly dependent on American aid that is now in jeopardy. The Biden Administration is also “likely to face hard choices over how to manage existing sanctions on the Taliban, which may make it difficult to deliver international humanitarian assistance to a population facing ruin“, experts say.

The Afghan central bank held $9.4 billion in reserve assets as of April, according to the International Monetary Fund. That amounts to roughly one-third of the country’s annual economic output. The vast majority of those reserves are not currently held in Afghanistan, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Among those, billions of dollars are kept in the U.S., although the precise amount is unclear[27].

President Biden Approval Plumped Amid Afghanistan Chaos

President Joe Biden’s net approval dropped by “11 percentage points and hit its lowest level of his presidency” after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in an upheaval that sent thousands of civilians and U.S. military allies fleeing for their safety, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The national opinion poll, conducted Aug. 18-19, found that 46% of U.S. adults approved of Biden’s performance in office, while 49% disapproved and the rest were not sure. The number of people who approved of the president this week is 5 percentage points lower than it was last week, and his level of disapproval is up by 6 points in that same period.

The poll found that Biden’s popularity has declined among Democrats, Republicans, and independents: “Nine in 10 Republicans, two in 10 Democrats, and five in 10 independents said in the latest poll that they disapproved of Biden’s performance in office”[28].

Scrutiny of Biden’s Presidency

President Joe Biden is “struggling against an intensifying examination of his judgment, competence, and even his empathy over the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan“. And each attempt the administration makes to quell a furor that’s “Tarnishing America’s Image” only provokes more questions about its failures of planning and execution.

A defiant Biden on August 17th, 2021 rejected criticism of his leadership, as he battled the most significant self-inflicted drama of a term that he won by promising proficient government and to level with voters.

“I don’t think it was a failure,” the President said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, referring to a US pullout that sparked scenes of desperate Afghans clinging to, and falling to their deaths from, US evacuation planes[29].

Questions which the world wants President Biden to Answer

Biden is a well-seasoned Politician with experience of over 50 years. He has well seen the Afghan situation from 2009 till 2017 when he was serving as Vice-President in Obama Administration even after the death of Osama Bin Laden by Us Navy seals.

The US is working with Afghanistan since the 1950s and has seen the “Fall of Kabul” many times. US Army is fighting a war since 1979, either directly or indirectly, in the landlock Hindukush country. US Military Experts have well versed with Afghanistan demography. So, US Military advisers didn’t act tactically?

In Afghanistan, there is a “fighting Season” which starts in spring – and then in winter, when the country freezes over, there is a time when the Taliban go home to their tribal homelands. Then Why Biden decided that the withdrawal should come during the “Fighting Season” – which seems rather odd, at least to me.

Did no one guide him that it might have been better to have ordered the withdrawal for the dead of winter when Taliban forces weren’t there, poised to fill the vacuum?

Many of my friends must remember that after the catastrophic “Bay of Pigs” invasion, when Cuban emigres backed by the CIA tried to overthrow Fidel Castro, John F Kennedy, then president at the time of that debacle – noted sorrowfully that “Victory has a hundred fathers, but Failure is an Orphan“.

Now, it’s very right to mention that USA President Joseph Biden is an orphan today after its failed foreign Policy on Central Asia. And that could have very bad consequences for his presidency, and far more important is that how Only Superpower "United States of America" has become a mockery. And how the rest of the world especilly Russia, China, North Korea , Iran will deal with America in the rest of his presidency?.

I should add here a view that is shared by millions of Americans. “Approving the policy is very different from the dysfunctional implementation. And what if terror groups, feeling emboldened by the Taliban victory, decide to launch their own attacks on Americans abroad – or Americans at home or its allies whether it’s NATO or QUAD members, (especially India, World’s Largest Democracy, which is already suffering Pakistan sponsored Terrorism on its soil from last 5 decades)?  Don’t you think, then it could be politically, economically, and also socially catastrophic especially when the World is already suffering a lot by China Sponsored Wuhan Virus !!!“.

Moreover, fascinating nugget from a briefing that’s just been given by Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, since the fall of Kabul, Jake Sullivan revealed, Biden hadn’t spoken to another world leader. Wasn’t that just a bit surprising, given that there were a lot of other nations – including Britain and other NATO members who’d committed vast resources to Afghanistan? Following Sullivan’s briefing, the White House announced that Biden had spoken with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. What’s the truth God only knows!!!

When the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the NATO nations met in Brussels earlier this year, the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward-looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded recently – “How America has been humiliated, How Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders” – there is now a good deal more wariness.

And who will feel they have gained most from America’s departure – apart from the Taliban, of course, Four countries near Afghanistan – Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and China. Correct…

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[1] BBC News – The man who helped blow up the Bamiyan Buddhas

[2] Afghanistan’s hated Sikhs yearn for India | Reuters

[3] Taliban Singles Out Religious Minorities – The Washington Post

[4] Osama bin Laden Fast Facts | CNN

[5] Microsoft Word – 10_v1-T_Draft Text [English – 20200229] – Edited (For State).docx

[6] Who are the Taliban and how did they take over Afghanistan so swiftly? – CNN

[7] U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal: What to Know | Council on Foreign Relations (cfr.org)

[8] Afghanistan: Background and U.S. Policy: In Brief (fas.org)

[9] Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan – FactCheck.org

[10] U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal: What to Know | Council on Foreign Relations (cfr.org)

[11] Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, Visits Afghanistan – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[12] Kabul: Intelligence assessments warn Afghan capital could be cut off and collapse in coming months – CNNPolitics

[13] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/15/blinken-says-remaining-in-afghanistan-is-not-in-the-us-national-interest-.html

[14] Kabul: Intelligence assessments warn Afghan capital could be cut off and collapse in coming months – CNNPolitics

[15] How the Taliban stormed across Afghanistan in ten days – BBC News

[16] Who are the Taliban and how did they take over Afghanistan so swiftly? – CNN

[17] Taliban enter Afghan capital as US diplomats evacuate by chopper | Reuters

[18] Afghan women forced from banking jobs as Taliban take control | Reuters

[19] Taliban kill woman not wearing burqa after vowing to honor ‘women’s rights’ (nypost.com)

[20] Osama Bin Laden Created by the US – various articles (montclair.edu)

[21] Afghan chaos undercuts Biden’s promise of competence – BBC News

[22] ‘This is manifestly not Saigon’: Blinken defends US mission in Afghanistan | Biden administration | The Guardian

[23] Meeks invites Blinken, Austin to testify about situation in Afghanistan | TheHill

[24] Taliban Seizes Billions in US-Supplied Weaponry (msn.com)

[25] ‘Pakistan is complicit’: US Congressman calls for sanction as Taliban advance | World News – Hindustan Times

[26]  Image shows crying baby being given to a US soldier in Kabul (nypost.com)

[27] Biden administration freezes billions of dollars in Afghan reserves, depriving Taliban of cash (inquirer.com)

[28] Biden approval polling tracker (reuters.com)

[29] Biden approval polling tracker (reuters.com)

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