We don’t know yet what the consequences of the events in Afghanistan will be. We do know that there are more than 250,000 Afghans internally displaced since the end of May, thousands more in recent days living in makeshift tents and in parks and on the streets in Kabul. We do know Afghanistan’s borders are almost all closed, and that people are terrified. People are afraid of the rising violence, afraid of the Taliban coming to power, afraid of the U.S. bombing underway across the country all week.
Questions are everywhere. How did the Taliban, with 75,000 or so scattered forces, defeat the 300,000-strong U.S.-trained, U.S.-armed and U.S.-supported Afghan government troops? Why didn’t that U.S.-trained military fight? Why did the U.S. withdraw most of its troops—and shouldn’t Biden send troops back to protect Afghan women from Taliban control?
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