Hasty, chaotic troop pullout ends America's longest war as Afghans pray for lasting peace

 

-- About an hour after the U.S. Central Command announced the completion of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, "Our country became completely free and independent." Taliban members also fired their guns into the air in celebration in the Afghan capital.

-- Over the past two decades, the U.S.-led operations on Afghan soil have caused more than 30,000 civilian deaths and more than 60,000 injuries, and turned about 11 million people into refugees. Nearly 10 million children in Afghanistan are left in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

-- The longest war launched by the United States has also claimed the lives of over 2,400 U.S. troops, wounded 20,000 others, and cost some 2 trillion U.S. dollars.

-- Media and analysts from across the world unanimously declared the U.S. anti-terror war a "failure" with war-torn Afghans still praying for lasting peace. The U.S. unilateral handling of the withdrawal has also deepened the rift with its Western allies.

KABUL, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- As a U.S. Air Force C-17 took off from the Kabul airport just one minute before midnight on Monday, the U.S. Central Command announced in Washington the completion of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year war in the Asian country.

About an hour later, the Afghan Taliban welcomed the U.S. withdrawal with its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeting, "Our country became completely free and independent." Taliban members also fired their guns into the air in celebration in the Afghan capital.

People are seen on a road in Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021. The Taliban welcomed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan early Tuesday after the last U.S. troops left the Kabul airport, ending a 20-year invasion war in the Asian country. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua)

As the U.S. withdrawal has been marred by chaos and loss of lives amid attacks and gunfire at the Kabul airport, media and analysts from across the world unanimously declared the U.S. anti-terror war a "failure" with Afghans still suffering form war praying for lasting peace.

"INSTABILITY, EXTREME POVERTY AND UNCERTAINTY"

The U.S.-led military forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of searching for Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

On Thursday, 13 U.S. soldiers and at least 170 Afghans were killed and about 200 wounded in a suicide bombing by an IS-affiliated group near a gate of the Kabul airport.

The U.S. retaliation and more attacks from militants have put Kabul and other Afghan territories in a state of renewed violence in recent days. Afghanistan's security situation remains volatile.

Abdul Satar Saadat, former legal advisor to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and ex-chairman of the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission, said that the IS group could be a big threat to Afghanistan and countries in the region.

"The last terror attack on the airport would alert regional countries that there could be a serious threat to their national security," he tweeted Friday.

The United States and its allies "have left Afghanistan in the grip of a potential fight between ISIS and Taliban," Moeed Pirzada, CEO and editor of Pakistani media outlet "Global Village Space," told Xinhua on Monday.

Over the past two decades, the U.S.-led operations on Afghan soil have caused more than 30,000 civilian deaths and more than 60,000 injuries, and turned about 11 million people into refugees. Nearly 10 million children in Afghanistan are left in desperate need of humanitarian aid, said Herve De Lys, the United Nations (UN) Children's Fund representative in Afghanistan, on Monday.

Photo taken on Aug. 30, 2021 shows injured people at Wazir Akbar Khan hospital in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. After the deadly suicide blast which killed some 170 Afghan people and 13 U.S. soldiers at the Kabul airport on Thursday, some survivors have raised the possibility that a number of Afghan people were actually killed by American fire amid the chaos and confusion instead of by bombing. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

The U.S. mission was to "end the war, bring about peace and prosperity in Afghanistan." However, they left the war-torn country in the lurch amid "instability, extreme poverty and uncertainty," Mohammad Bakhsh, a man from Afghanistan's central Daykundi province told Xinhua early Tuesday, while lying in a hospital bed after being injured in the bomb blast at the Kabul airport.

"The U.S. had withdrawn from Afghanistan after two decades of struggle, but the Americans left a mess in Afghanistan," 42-year-old Kabul resident Khoja Wahid told Xinhua on Tuesday. "The U.S. is defeated and they are badly defeated," he added.

"The horrific U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan began with killing Afghans 20 years ago and ended with tragic scenes as fighting continues, terrorist attacks claim the lives of Afghans and poverty is high as the majority of Afghans live under the poverty line," an Afghan man who only gave his name as Kamyab and who was also injured in last week's airport attack, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"PARALLEL TO VIETNAM"

The longest war in U.S history has also claimed the lives of over 2,400 U.S. troops, wounded 20,000 others, and cost some 2 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the Pentagon. Although President Joe Biden has insisted that the United States has achieved its goal of eliminating al-Qaida militants who had masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks, the hasty, chaotic withdrawal and the costly war have sparked a backlash by American politicians and media outlets.

"The U.S. and its allies waged war for 20 years to try to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan. A double-suicide bombing demonstrated that they remain a threat," a recent report by The New York Times said.

"When I was in government, I very much thought that the U.S. had too many expectations about what it could achieve in Afghanistan," David Gordon, a senior advisor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.

"The notion that we were going to achieve the modernization of Afghanistan under U.S. and Western tutelage was overly ambitious," said Gordon, who served as director of policy planning in the State Department under the George W. Bush administration.

Gordon noted that "from a strategic perspective, (this) is not a good end game for this 20-year war."

"I do think that the Afghanistan experience has been a humbling one for the U.S., and that's one of the parallels to Vietnam," he said.

According to a recent poll by U.S. broadcaster NBC, only 25 percent of respondents said they approve of Biden's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The U.S. unilateral handling of the withdrawal has also deepened the rift with its Western allies. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Aug. 21 blasted the United States for the "imbecilic" decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, saying "the abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary."

Taliban members are seen at Kabul airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021. The U.S. Central Command announced Monday that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has completed. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement last week that "scenes of despair at Kabul airport are shameful for the political West."

The "failure" of the West's years-long efforts in Afghanistan "raises questions about the past and future of our foreign policy and military engagement," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that the international deployment in Afghanistan was "disappointing," urging countries to learn lessons from the failure in Afghanistan. Czech President Milos Zeman described the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as "cowardice and a dramatic failure" of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said it was "rather catastrophic."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there was a need for "an honest, clear-eyed assessment of NATO's own engagement in Afghanistan," adding that the collapse was "swift and sudden."

"Despite our considerable investment and sacrifice over two decades, the collapse was swift and sudden. There are many lessons to be learned," said Stoltenberg.

In an interview with Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, David Criekemans, professor of international politics at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, accused Biden of making a monumental mistake in withdrawing all U.S. military troops from Afghanistan.

"President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw all military forces is simply the West's biggest strategic mistake since the turn of the century," he said.

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution on Afghanistan, focusing on counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance.

Resolution 2593 demands that the Afghan territory not be used to threaten or attack any country, or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or finance terrorist acts.

The resolution also calls for strengthened efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. It calls on all parties to allow full, safe and unhindered access for the UN, its specialized agencies and implementing partners, and all humanitarian actors engaged in humanitarian relief activity, to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all those in need.

Besides, it calls on all donors and international humanitarian actors to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and major Afghan refugee-hosting countries, and underlines that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law under all circumstances, including those related to the protection of civilians.

After taking over Kabul on Aug. 15, the Taliban has promised to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan and said it does not want to have any internal or external enemies.

Hours after the last batch of U.S. troops left Afghanistan on Tuesday, the Taliban deployed special forces at the Kabul airport.

"Safety is ensured at the airport" with the deployment of the Badri Special Forces, Mujahid told reporters.

"We are ready to secure the airport. Everything will be back to normal soon," Mujahid said. "The U.S. troops have left a lot of mess at the airport, so it is a technical issue and will take some time to be solved, and efforts are underway to restart commercial flights as soon as possible."

Photo taken on Aug. 31, 2021 shows passenger airplanes in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Command announced Monday that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has completed. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Kabul started a normal day on Tuesday in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, with the main business hub Mandawi open, traffic jams seen in the central part of the city, and many vendors conducting business on the roadside.