By Bonnie Kristian
Following the Biden administration's drawdown of the 20-year US war in Afghanistan, American intelligence officials predicted earlier this month, the Taliban could take control of the entire country within 90 days.
Just 72 hours after that forecast published, Afghanistan's president fled the country and his government had disintegrated. Kabul fell to Taliban fighters, whose march across Afghanistan met remarkably little armed resistance as government forces largely surrendered, defected, or fled. The Taliban itself was reportedly surprised by the speed with which it was able to declare apparent victory in Afghanistan's multi-decade civil war.
This denouement raises plenty of questions for US policy moving forward, the most immediately pressing of which involve how to safely evacuate Americans and Afghans who supported the US intervention (like translators and their families) from Kabul. It makes uncertain the fate of President Joe Biden's longstanding plan to keep a smaller American military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely.
This piece was originally published in Insider on August 24, 2021. Read more HERE.