Afghanistan Is Facing Disaster As U.S. And NATO Forces Quickly Leave The Country

A makeshift sign reminds US Marines, who with other forces are in the process of pulling out of Afghanistan, that the Taliban could be anywhere. Photograph: Jim Hollander/Reuters 

Simon Tisdall, The Guardian: Catastrophe stalks Afghanistan as the US and UK dash for the exit 

Little has been achieved in 20 years of war, and as the Taliban regroup, ordinary Afghans brace for an uncertain future 

Military retreats from Afghanistan are problematic, as the British (1842) and the Red Army (1989) discovered to their cost. The cliffs of the Khyber Pass feature many memorials and plaques to departing or defeated foreign forces. 

The 2021 Afghan withdrawal is less fraught – the US is not yet retreating under fire. But the march to the exit has nonetheless turned into an undignified sprint. 

Most Americans will welcome this accelerated end to an unpopular war. Yet it spells catastrophe for Afghans who pinned their hopes and their country’s future on western support in fighting Taliban and Islamist terrorism and who believed the nation-building promises made by George W Bush and others. 

Fighting is currently spreading like a bushfire from district to district. There is no peace deal in place, no power-sharing, no intra-Afghan ceasefire, and growing fear of nationwide conflagration – and yet still the Americans are leaving.  

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WNU Editor: The Taliban are now launching urban attacks in Afghanistan's northern cities .... Taliban Enter Key Cities in Afghanistan’s North After Swift Offensive (New York Times).