Evacuees from Afghanistan walk at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany, August 28, 2021. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Tara Copp, Defense One: The Last U.S. Military Plane Has Left Kabul. What’s Next for Americans, Afghans Left Behind?
"Do not count on Americans to save you," one volunteer rescue group warns Afghans now at risk.
The last U.S. military plane has left Afghanistan, U.S. officials announced, ending 20 years of war but also closing down the main route home for stranded Americans and Afghans who are now running for their lives.
"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters via videoconference.
“The last C-17 lifted off from Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 30, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m., East Coast time. And the last manned aircraft is now clear of the airspace above Afghanistan.”
Pentagon and White House officials had earlier acknowledged that operations would end with some American citizens and others left behind.
For “Americans and other individuals that want to be able to leave Afghanistan after our withdrawal is complete, the State Department is going to continue to work across many different levers to facilitate that,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “We do not anticipate a military role in that.”
The lightning-fast collapse of Kabul just two weeks ago exposed just how ill-prepared the State Department and supporting U.S. government agencies were to get their employees out.
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WNU Editor: So what is next?
For the Afghans who fought against the Taliban, their lives are at great risk. Now is the time to look for an avenue to escape the country ASAP.
And for the Afghans who had nothing to do with the war, their lives are going to take a turn for the worse.
The country is already facing severe food shortages, but the current chaos in Afghanistan is only going to guarantee starvation and the real possibility of famine.
I expect critical infrastructure like communications, power, and water will break down in the coming weeks and months. The people who manage these vital services have fled and/or are in hiding. And even if some do want to go back to work, there is no money to pay them.
Ditto for government services. Anyone who worked for the Afghan government is now a marked person.
Afghanistan's financial and banking system is finished. Something new will need to replace it. How long that will take is anyone's guess.
The Taliban will try to put together a government, but it is not going to be easy. The Taliban is made up of different groups, and many of them have different agendas. If they cannot present something to the world in the coming days, that will tell me that they do not have a consensus on how to govern.
The countries that surround Afghanistan are positioning themselves to take advantage of the situation. But they are going to take their time and wait until the Taliban get their act together. That may take some time.
The U.S. and its allies are now facing a different crisis. Millions of Afghans are going to flee Afghanistan in the coming year. They are all going to go to Europe.
The terror threat will rise to levels that we have not seen in years. Jihadists around the world are now rushing to Afghanistan with the belief that everything will return to pre-9/11. That means training camps, a friendly Islamist government, and the resources of an entire country with a massive captured American arsenal to help them grow and plot their dreams of a caliphate.
President Biden said that the reason why he wanted the US out of Afghanistan was to not burden future Presidents with Afghanistan. The contrary is going to happen.
Future Presidents are going to face a growing and dangerous threat of Islamic radicalism from Afghanistan, and it will be a foreign policy headache that will exist for years.
This is why I disagree with supporters of President Biden who think that by unilaterally leaving Afghanistan it will mean the war has ended. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Radical Islamists belief in a global Caliphate is not going to change because President Biden and Washington DC has made the decision to leave and abandon Afghanistan. They will be striking again. Or to quote Trotsky. You (the U.S.) may not be interested in war, but war (radical Islam) is certainly interested in you.
