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Rabat – After two decades of war the US presence in Afghanistan is set to come to a definitive end as the military prepares to evacuate the American embassy in Kabul.
The war in Afghanistan, which started in reaction to the September 11 attacks in the US, has cost the US roughly $2 trillion, killed and injured thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Afghani lives. The conflict led to an estimated three million Afghani refugees, a number that is set to rise as the hard-line Taliban advances across the country.
The war in Afghanistan has been described as a war without a clear “end game.” What started as a conflict to eradicate training camps and strongholds of Al Qaeda extremists, evolved into a conflict with the Taliban who ruled the country and were accused of hosting the extremist group and its leadership.
The US and a coalition of international nations struggled for decades to gain control over the mountainous country against a battle-hardened Taliban force that had gained valuable experience fighting the Soviet Union.
The Taliban used guerilla tactics, avoiding large-scale battles and inflicting heavy casualties against coalition forces. Local resistance against the US and its allies benefited from combattants’ ability to retreat to Pakistan whenever fighting would favor their opponents.
Washington is now facing a difficult reality as embassy staff prepare to destroy twenty-years worth of documents before abandoning the last US diplomatic presence in the country.
US President Joe Biden has decided to send 3,000 troops back to Afghanistan to protect the massive US embassy complex in Kabul. In July Biden still considered it to be “highly unlikely” for the Taliban to make significant military gains, yet one month later it is becoming increasingly evident that even the capital Kabul is likely to soon fall.
Losing the war in Afghanistan presents a difficult political reality for Biden as the American public opposes further US engagement in Afghanistan. Still, the rapid take-over by the Taliban is likely to be blamed on the current administration, despite the decision for the US withdrawal being made under the previous administration.
