Three years after the US withdrawal, Afghanistan looks as bad as it did before the war

As the third anniversary of the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, the region is starting to look like it did before 9/11 and the 20-year US intervention, according to multiple reports and former US officials who spoke to the Daily Caller. News Foundation.

The US lost thousands of soldiers and spent trillions of dollars during the 20-year war to fight terrorism in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack. attacks, seconds at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and ABC News. The Biden administration withdrew US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021 — in what was widely considered a disastrous operation — and the situation in the region returned to pre-war conditions, as the Taliban established an iron rule and al-Qaeda began to recover, despite the Biden administration's promise that this scenario would not occur, according to several reports and former US officials who spoke to the DCNF.

“Afghanistan has not returned to a pre-9/11 state; in many ways, it is much worse now, as our disastrous withdrawal has fueled a new global enthusiasm for Islamic extremism,” said Simone Ledeen , former Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. he told the DCNF. “The Biden administration's denials about the real and growing threat from Afghanistan are consistent with its reality-denying claims that its withdrawal was a success and that no US service members have been killed under his guard (a fake affirmation President Joe Biden did in June). The warning lights are flashing red.”

More than 2,312 US military personnel died in Afghanistan. That total includes 2,218 service members who died during the original combat mission that began in 2001 under then-President George W. Bush and the more than 100 service members who died after the mission was created training, known as Operation Freedom Sentinel in 2014, during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, seconds on ABC News.

After then-President Barack Obama's troop surge in 2009, 1,534 Americans died in the country between that year and 2012. In total, there were more than 20,066 American service members who were injured in action during the 20 Years War, ABC News reported.

After taking office in 2017, former President Donald Trump's administration finally reached an agreement in 2020 to begin withdrawing more troops as long as the militia did not use Afghanistan for terrorism-related activities and complied strict guidelines, according to CFR.

President Joe Biden withdrew the remaining US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, in a chaotic weeks-long effort that finished in the death of 13 military personnel at Kabul airport.

From 2001 to 2021, the US spent more than $2 trillion on humanitarian and military efforts in Afghanistan, seconds at Brown University's Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs. The United States left more than $7 billion military equipment in 2021, and the Taliban took control of the region in the days following the withdrawal.

The Taliban made several promises about how they would govern once the Biden administration withdraws US forces, including guaranteeing women's rights, refusing to work with al-Qaeda and working to boost the region's economy. seconds on the BBC. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan within days of the US withdrawal, eliminating the US-trained Afghan militia.

“All the evidence, remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaeda wouldn't be there. I said we'd get help from the Taliban,” Biden he said journalists in mid-2023. “What is happening now? What is happening? Read your newspaper. He was right.”

Afghanistan after the American withdrawal

The Taliban have taken away their rights from women since the US withdrew in 2021; Afghanistan ranked last in the Women's Peace and Security Index 2023. According to the BBC, the Taliban have banned women from attending university and school beyond the sixth grade, as well as from working in government roles. Simple activities like walking in a park or playing sports are obstacles for women in the region.

Opium production has dropped considerably, but not to zero, according to a 2023 UN report report. After the withdrawal of the United States, a humanitarian crisis swept Afghanistan, and the Taliban did not guarantee the availability of even basic services for the population. seconds at The Heritage Foundation.

“Afghanistan suffered massive starvation at the time we pulled out. It's the government's responsibility to provide for its people, not us,” Gabriel Noronha, a former State Department official, told the DCNF. and noted that there are “divided opinions” among experts about what the US role is in providing assistance to Afghanistan as it stands today.

Despite Biden's pledge that al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, would not recover or return to Afghanistan, the group has begun operating again in the region, among other terrorist networks like ISIS-K, Biden has reported. multiple reports. “The relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda remains strong” and the terrorist group “continues to pose a threat to the region and beyond,” according to a Congressional Research Service. report of May he said.

“The Taliban and al-Qaeda have a close relationship that has not changed since the days before 9/11,” Ledeen told the DCNF. “In Afghanistan, there are multiple different terrorist organizations that train, plan, and in some cases network with each other.”

Al Qaeda has built at least eight new training camps since August 2021 and has access to a network of safe houses across Afghanistan, according to a United Nations national security report from February, as obtained by CBS News. The terrorist group also runs several religious schools, where they teach and train children to become militants, the report said.

Al Qaeda began making millions of dollars a week from gold mines in northern Afghanistan from 2022, according to a research by a UK-based threat analysis firm, as Foreign Policy obtained in March. Some of the profits from the mines go “directly into the pockets of senior Taliban officials and their personal networks,” the report said, citing sources on the ground.

“You certainly have a massive buildup of ISIS and al-Qaeda present in Afghanistan,” Noronha told the DCNF.

Despite the group's resurgence, it is currently incapable of carrying out attacks on a scale similar to 9/11, according to the CRS report. A State Department spokesman told the DCNF that the United States' highest interest in Afghanistan is to ensure “that the country can never again be a launch pad for terrorist attacks against the United States,” and point out that “there is no clear indication that al-Qaeda is active”. rebuild an operational capacity”.

“I'm a little skeptical of the arguments that al-Qaeda will be fully operational again,” Defense Priorities Fellow and former CIA official Michael DiMino told the DCNF, noting the damage the group suffered during the war. of 20 years “These groups are threats. We have to keep an eye on them … but the idea that we're going to miss some kind of burst of activity, I don't buy that without more indicators.”

In an attempt to quell some of the problems plaguing the Afghan people under Taliban rule, the Biden administration has provided roughly $2.8 billion in humanitarian and development aid to the region since the withdrawal in 2021. seconds to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

An earlier SIGAR report found that US international aid to Afghanistan is delivered through methods that risk being diverted to the Taliban or other extremist groups.

There is no indication that US forces will return to the region in the near future.

“There is no American strategy for Afghanistan. The government has no game plan for how we want to approach the region,” Noronha told the DCNF. “Basically, the mentality was, 'OK, we screwed up.' It must be lost. We're just going to pretend it doesn't exist anymore.' And that's not healthy when they certainly haven't been able to carry out over-the-horizon counter-terror attacks.”

“The political reality is that there will never be a residence of US troops in Afghanistan for 100 years,” Noronha said.

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the total number of American casualties during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

We have zero tolerance for comments that contain violence, racism, profanity, profanity, doxing, or rude behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for engaging with us in a fruitful conversation.