The fall of Afghanistan happened
quicker than almost anyone expected passport offices
overwhelmed. Visa agencies are overwhelmed.
And so are embassies ultimately they lost confidence political
military confidence, Afghanistan political leaders gave up and
fled the country. An estimated 47,000 Afghan
civilians died during the last 20 years of conflict. The US
lost 2325 servicemembers in Afghanistan and more than 20,000
were wounded. Afghanistan's former government lost over
66,000 members of the army and police during the course of the
war. In total, the United States has spent about $2.26 trillion
dollars on the war in Afghanistan. But before the
final withdrawal could occur, the Taliban made rapid gains
across the country considering we went to
Afghanistan to oust the Taliban in 2001. To give it to them back
on a silver platter basically, with no resistance, or no
fighting is where that a sense of abandonment and betrayal
actually comes from. And then you start watching them
systematically suck up all the small provinces, so they're
gaining traction. Some people have called it a blitzkrieg, and
that's what it looked like at first. But it seems clear that
actually, Taliban commanders were calling up people all
around the country, local mayor's police officials, as the
country crumbled in the lead up to the withdrawal 10s of 1000s
of Afghans who helped coalition forces desperately sought refuge
from the retribution of the Taliban. I would not take
seriously as some commentators unfortunately, have Taliban's
offers of amnesty and promises they'll work with people and
that people will be safe in their homes we've already seen
this isn't true. And on August 26, a deadly
attack on US forces an Afghan seeking to flee left 13 service
members and dozens of Afghans dead, they were heroes, heroes, who have been engaged in
a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others. With the world's attention on
the massive international evacuation on going out of
Kabul's International Airport, it's apparent that no one could
have predicted what was in store for Afghanistan in August of
2021. On paper, the Afghan national
defense and security forces had around 300,000 troops, but
because of widespread corruption, this number was
likely much lower. For years, I've been writing
about the fact that the government was a corrupt
government that aid and money went in and these officials
pocketed it and the fact that Ghani and his cohort ended up
taking from what we understand bags of money with them on their
way out again shows that money was more important than people's
lives. During former President Donald
Trump's final year in office, a peace deal was reached with the
Taliban that would have all US forces out of the country by May
1 2021. In his last few months in office, he accelerated the
pull out of US troops leaving only 2500 on the ground in
January of 2021. The US and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization committed to paying $4 billion per year for the
Afghan national defense and security forces until 2024. But
that wasn't enough to stop the Taliban. The reality is there was no
stalemate with the Taliban. The government has been losing its
war against the Taliban steadily week by week, month by month
since at least 2012. If not earlier, they've been losing
districts across the entire country. And let's not forget
most of Afghanistan's population is rural in nature. And this is
where the Taliban is at its strongest or was at its
strongest. So in order to recreate a stalemate, which we
have previously failed to do, we would have actually had to add
more forces into the country. The US withdrawal took a
dramatic turn on July 5 2021, when the US left Bagram Airfield
in the middle of the night without notifying Afghan
officials. The Afghan national security and defense forces were
largely dependent on the US for air support, medical support,
and most importantly, logistics like wages and food. Canada's
Herat and Kandahar fell to the Taliban advance. Afghan
government forces low on supplies and demoralized by the
US withdraw, negotiate and surrender to the Taliban that
besieged them. By August 14. Jalalabad and Kabul were the
only two major cities left surrounded and cut off Jalalabad
surrendered on the 15th. And they just marched across the
country. There was a lot of shooting, but not nearly as much
as one would have expected from a Taliban takeover. Shortly after Kabul stood alone
as the only major city under government control. President
Ghani fled the country signaling the end of the Islamic Republic
of Afghanistan. Taliban walked into Kabul virtually unopposed
as residents began to look to the airport for a way out of the
country. By August 1, the US had withdrawn a significant amount
of troops in material and without the US providing
security. The bulk of contractors who provided
critical technical support to the Afghan military had also
left as well. As the situation deteriorated. 1000s of Afghan
men, women and children ran onto the runways at Karzai
International Airport. One Air Force C-17 flew a reported 823
people out of the war zone. have many flights by the US and
allies to get 1000s of non combatants out of the country.
Some Afghans and US citizens flew out of Kabul on commercial
flights before the security situation deteriorated in some
seats on private flights after the Taliban took the city sold
for around $100,000. According to The New York Times, as Afghan
security forces fled their posts as the Taliban gained control
over the capital, the US military stepped in to provide
air traffic control and assist local and NATO forces with crowd
control. refugees were flown out to third countries such as
Qatar, Kuwait, and Germany, among others for processing and
eventual travel to the US. This is also going to bubble
into a crisis because even once we get these people out of the
country, we do not have the capacity to process this many
refugees at once. Neither does the United Kingdom. Turkey is
dealing with its own massive refugee crisis, obviously at the
moment with Syria, as is the rest of Europe. So this is going
to be the next big problem. Afghans and US citizens in Kabul
found it difficult to get to the airport and pass Taliban
checkpoints. And although over 100,000 people
were evacuated from Kabul, many Afghans seeking to flee the
Taliban were left behind the suicide bombing that targeted a
US man checkpoint pointed to a deteriorating security situation
for US forces as the deadline for the final withdrawal
approached the deaths of the service
members as well as the tragic loss of life on the part of so
many Afghans seeking nothing more than security and
opportunity is something on the hearts and minds of everyone here. The shocking image of
Afghans grabbing onto a C 17 Globemaster cargo aircraft in a
desperate attempt to flee made it clear just how high the
stakes were in Kabul on August 16. Watching Afghan men so desperate
to leave this country so scared to their life, they'd rather
fall out of the sky, holding on to a C-17 then try something
else. The UK has promised to take in
20,000 refugees Canada, another 20,000. And the number the US
will take in will also likely be in the 10s of 1000s. It's a welcome move, of course,
I don't think it's enough. I think what's going on and the
fact that this is, you know, this isn't just an Afghan
crisis. This is a regional crisis. I think there's a huge
responsibility that we have towards the people, and the
burden now falls on that to protect them. On August 24. The Taliban
cut off access to the airport for Afghan citizens back on the abbey gate was
followed by a number of ISIS gunman who opened fire on
civilians and military forces, this complex attack on the 26th
made clear the risk of staying beyond the August 31 withdrawal
date. In the US, there's a debate brewing over how many
African refugees to let in or whether to let them in at all.
Now 1000s of Afghan refugees are awaiting visa processing to
eventually settle in the United States. During the Trump administration.
We know that Steve Miller was successful in actively
undermining attempts to get the State Department in gear and get
moving on this. But there's a bigger bureaucratic problem that
is like moves across administration's is Consular
Affairs at the State Department is chronically underfunded, and
under resourced. And so we shouldn't be surprised that when
we under resourced, this important part of the State
Department that they're not able to deliver. There's also a
cultural problem at the State Department. So it's sort of the
perfect storm. The Taliban have captured a
significant amount of military equipment and the US had spent
$83 billion, equipping the Afghan security forces over the
last 20 years, which means that millions of dollars worth of
items including armored vehicles, small arms, and even
aircraft are now in the Taliban's hands. We've been leaving behind
equipment and the Taliban have been taking equipment for many
years in Afghanistan. This isn't a new problem, but the scale of
it in the in recent months is pretty staggering. Women in
Afghanistan are in a precarious position of hoping that the
Taliban's implementation of Sharia law is less cruel than
when the group was in power in the 90s. Maybe they've changed
strategically in terms of their use of the social media and
trying to seem a lot more diplomatic and the moat with the
sole motive of seeing seeming legitimate and wanting the
international community to accept them as the government of
Afghanistan. But in reality, you know, there's a lot of
skepticism in terms of what what those words mean, it's really
unclear if the gains that have been made for women and girls in
the country under a supported democracy, backed by the United
States, as well as coalition forces, if that's going to
continue, or if those gains have been erased. Much of the Taliban's funding
came through illicit markets tax collection and trade when Kabul
fell only a small fraction of Afghanistan's reserves were
available inside the country. The Taliban could be facing a
cash crunch as they shift from an Insurgent Army to a governing
body. Not like the US where, you know,
you check your bank account at 1201 on payday that morning, you
don't see it you're upset, right? You're like what the hell
do Chase Bank or you know, for you CNBC, like where's my money
over there? It's like, we'll get it to you in a week and two
weeks later, maybe you get half of it. You're like, well, thank
god my family can eat again, and the final piece When it comes to
the money is, you know Is it is it enough to get through the
next 90 days.
