In the first signals of what Taliban rule in Afghanistan could look like in the twenty-first century, a member of the group’s cultural commission promised amnesty (AP) for those who opposed the Taliban and said women will still be allowed to work and study. But many Afghans doubted those assurances and continued to try to leave the country as evacuation flights recommenced at Kabul’s airport today.
President Joe Biden defended the United States’ military drawdown in an address at the White House, acknowledging that the withdrawal was “messy” but saying that he stood by the decision to end U.S. involvement in the war. Biden also said Afghan troops had shown a lack of willingness to fight despite years of U.S. support. A Pentagon official said the United States is making plans to evacuate some twenty-two thousand applicants (CQ Roll Call) for special visas for Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort. Meanwhile, checkpoints set up by the Taliban have blocked many people (WSJ) trying to reach Kabul’s airport.
Analysis
“The non-Taliban side doesn’t have any leverage to force anything,” the American University of Afghanistan’s Haroun Rahimi tells the Wall Street Journal. “But if the Taliban exclude their opposition, if they don’t try to expand the domestic base of their support, they may be laying the seeds for a resistance to emerge against them.”
“The Biden administration’s short timetable for withdrawal, tied to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and in the middle of the fighting season, was a mistake. But the situation on the ground is the result of two decades of miscalculations and failed policies pursued by three prior U.S. administrations and of the failure of Afghanistan’s leaders to govern for the good of their people,”
