The United States formally begins to withdraw all its last troops from Afghanistan on Saturday, bringing its longest war almost to an end, preceding an uncertain future for a country in the tightening grip of a fortified Taliban.
The on-ground, US officials say the withdrawal work is already in progress — and May 1 is just a continuation. But Washington made an issue of the date because it was a deadline agreement in 2020 with the Taliban to complete the evacuation.
The skies have been buzzing with more US helicopter activity than usual as the pullout gears up above Kabul and nearby Bagram airbase, following the start Thursday of a simultaneous NATO withdrawal.
The thought to an end of 20 years of US presence comes in spite of fighting to rage across the countryside without any peace deal.
A distinct reminder came on late Friday with a car bomb in the Pul-e-Alam, south of the capital, killing almost 21 people and wounding 100 more.
US President Joe Biden is adamant about ending what he called “the forever war,” announcing the withdrawal of the remaining 2,500 American forces last month would be completed by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
“A horrific attack 20 years ago… cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021,” he said.
The Taliban have not directly involved foreign troops since the US withdrawal deal was struck. Still, the insurgents have mercilessly attacked government forces in the countryside and waging a terror campaign in the urban areas.
The exit of US forces has intensified the fear endured by ordinary Afghans.
Mena Nowrozi, working at a private radio station in Kabul, says, “Everyone is scared that we might go back to the dark days of the Taliban era.”
“The Taliban are still the same; they have not changed. The US should have extended their presence by at least a year or two,” she told the AFP.
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani claims that the government forces for months have carried out most of the ground fighting against Taliban — are “fully capable” of keeping the insurgents at bay.
President Ghani says that the pullout also means there is no reason for the Taliban to fight.
“Who are you killing? What are you destroying? Your pretext of fighting the foreigners is now over,” Ghani said in a speech this week.
Worst-case analysis
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, has still not eliminated chaos.
Earlier this week, he said, “On the worst-case analysis, you have a potential collapse of the government, a potential collapse of the military.”
“You have a civil war and all the humanitarian catastrophe that goes with it.”
Police officer Abdul Malik, former insurgent bastion of Kandahar, said that they were prepared.
“We have to take care of our homeland… We will do our best to defend our soil,” he told the AFP.
The US-led military aggression in Afghanistan began in October 2001 as the consequences of the September 11 attacks.
After two decades, following the deaths of almost 2,400 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans, Biden says the final withdrawal was sustained as US forces had now made sure the country will not again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West.
There are high concerns that the Taliban might yet strike at the retreating US forces. In the southern province of Kandahar, where the enemies clashed regularly, security sources say that several areas are planted with explosives by the insurgents.
Afghan specialist Nishank Motwani said, “If the Taliban attack retreating US or allied forces, it would be to bloody the nose of a defeated enemy and to humiliate it further.”
Andrew Watkins, of the International Crisis Group, said that the situation becomes a more purely local conflict in the coming months.
“The United States and its NATO partners are stepping back and giving the two primary sides of this conflict, their first instance to fight with and assess their opponents without the extra factor of the United States,” he said.
(This story is edited by THG staff with inputs from a syndicated feed.)
