The Taliban took control of Afghanistan for the first time in 1996, years after the USSR invaded and sparked an insurgency that, with US and Pakistani assistance, the USSR withdrew after it became clear that Afghanistan was a lost cause and domestic issues arose at home. On September 11, 2001, the US was attacked by al-Qaeda in which over 3,000 people would die, triggering Article 5 of the NATO alliance. In less than a month on October 1, 2001, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom that would see the removal of the Taliban from power and the eventual push for the building of an allied democracy.
The US and its allies would remain in Afghanistan for 20 plus years until the chaotic withdrawal in 2021. The withdrawal was made possible by then President Trump by directly negotiating with the Taliban. The taliban a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of over thousands of Americans, committed multiple massacres, violated multiple human rights, regularly rape women, and harborers of other terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State-Khorasan Province, and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan many of which are still operating in Afghanistan.
Trump began negotiations in 2019 which lead to a US Afghan joint statement which in three parts reaffirms previous comments from the US and Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In which confirmed the US handing over all the security responsibilities to the Afghanistan government, and the US would be respectful with diplomatic relations relating to Afghanistan the would require the US and Afghanistan to release Taliban Prisoners (terrorist) and the US and coalition forces to withdrawal. A deal was reached and signed in Qatar called “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America” known as the Doha agreement. This was essentially the same as the US Afghan joint statement with a few additions such as stipulations included, as found in the treaty “The United States and its allies will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs.” “the Taliban will prevent any group or individual in Afghanistan from threatening the security of the United States and its allies, and will prevent them from recruiting, training, and fundraising and will not host them in accordance with the commitments in this agreement” and “The United States will seek economic cooperation for reconstruction with the new post settlement Afghan Islamic government as determined by the intra-Afghan dialogue” The Doha agreement was signed by Taliban representatives and Zalmay Khalilzad, who was appointed by Trump overseen by Qatari officials.
There are multiple issues with the Doha agreement. The US can’t interfere with Afghanistan domestic conflict which is a problem because the US is a participant in the Afghanistan domestic conflict which is known as an insurgency. The release of over 5,000 Taliban fighters (terrorists) and the big white elephant in the room that was the importance of success placed on the doomed to failed Intra-Afghan Dialogue.
The Intra-Afghan Dialogue was set up to begin peace negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban in 2020. The two parties would negotiate on how to end the conflict, main talking points for the Taliban was the release of 5,000 prisoners (terrorist) and the enforcement of some Taliban ideals, such as women being barred from government. Now the Taliban was aware that all Allied Forces were supposed to withdrawal by May 2021 and there would only be two parties in the country the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan the Taliban knew that if they just waited delayed talks they would be able to steam role the Afghan government and not have to make deals with a government that doesn’t exist and that’s what they did. The Taliban waited until the end of the witdrawal and took over Afghanistan again.
The flaw of the negotiations was the belief that the Taliban can be trusted to do what is right for the people of Afghanistan. The Trump administration opened the door for negotiations of what they believed was a political group rather than what it really was, a terrorist organization. The US forced a deal to be made by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in which they had to make the most compromises and be held accountable, while the Taliban could say they would do something and not do it just like every other terrorist organization. There should have been serious redflags going off at the fact that the Taliban at the time wasn’t even united and there was serious discontent for negotiations in the first place, the fact that there was no way to hold them accountable. Multiple US diplomats objected to the deal being made in the first place. The reason why the negotiations went through was because the US wanted out and the Trump administration didn’t care about the fact they were negotiating with terrorists.
There were calls from within the US military during both administrations about how the Taliban can’t be trusted, the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) wasn’t capable to hold off, yet alone, fight back against the Taliban forces. The Afghan government had no real power outside of Kabul and select cities. These should have been massive red flags, not including how there was no plan to withdraw the remaining 2,500 personnel, Afghan allies, or an evacuation plan for the US embassy staff. When the Biden administration took the place of the Trump administration. The Biden administration was extremely limited in actions it could take by the Trump administration’s lack of understanding of how withdrawals work, the importance of not creating a power vacuum with the absence of US forces, the terms of the Dodha Agreement, and the nativity of how logistic work and moving thousands of personal isn’t simply solved by booking a few flights of Boeing 474s.
In the end, the US withdrew from Afghanistan getting every American out of the country, and attempted to get as many Afghan allies out through a massive logistical challenge in which the US air force was tested in its ability to move massive amounts of people through the mountains of Afghanistan with only one airport. Afghans desperate to escape the Taliban flooded the airport, seeking to continue a life with the freedoms brought to them by the overthrow of the Taliban, while multiple Afghans were on the airfield climbing on the planes gripping onto them while they take off, whether it be in a seat from the inside of the plane or on the fuselage on the outside. US service members try their best to get as many Afghans out, one giving up their coat to c
omfort a sleeping child, another taking a baby from a crowd not knowing the parents, another rushing through the paperwork to get to the next afghani, a crew chief attempting to cram as many Afghans into one plane, one aircraft commander breaking the record for most people on a C-17.
The last flight out of Afghanistan was on August 30, 2021 at 11:59 p.m a kabul time, US air force C-17
departing Hamid Karzai International Airport, with the last Americans on board, 20 years in Afghanistan over with a chaotic withdrawal in which the US military faced one of the biggest logisti
cal challenges of the 21st century -all made possible by a bad deal made with terrorists.
