Consequences of Withdrawal of US Forces From Afghanistan

The Biden administration announced in April 2021 that it would continue the withdrawal beyond the initial deadline, with an expected completion date by 11 September 2021. Withdrawal from Afghanistan isn’t a new thing. It was actually a commitment given by the Obama which wasn’t accomplished by Obama Administration and Obama was criticized by that case. But, our main concern is what will happen and how will US withdrawal from Afghanistan affect the situation in Afghanistan.

First of all, I want to start with a quote that evaluates the future of Afghanistan. The Afghan War is likely about to escalate. Even the commander of US troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller, said publicly on Tuesday that Afghanistan faces the possibility of a disastrous civil war. The withdrawal of US troops effectively hands the Taliban a long-awaited victory as it gains increasing control in Afghanistan. More than a quarter of the country's 421 districts have already been captured by the Taliban, and the US intelligence community has concluded that the Afghan government could collapse just six months after the American forces are gone (Bergen, 2021). This quote shortly explains most of things that we are concerned with. Afghanistan has the worst global piece index in 163 countries (Wikipedia). The situation is not imaginable if you include the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. But from other perspective, Biden said something different. “As I said in April, the United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan: to get the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and to deliver justice to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks could be continued against the United State,” Biden said in July. “We achieved those objectives. That’s why we went. We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build. And it’s the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.” (Taddonio, 2021) From Biden’ statement, I understand that Afghan people can make their future without US’ support. I don’t think that Biden was honest when he was giving the speech. Because, Taliban is now controlling most of  the country and is very powerful and can control the whole country. That means Afghanistan will be base for jihadists and other terrorist groups that can organize their activities in the future events.

 

Consequently, Afghanistan will become more and more hard to live in for casual citizens. This will cause some immigration problems, which has been going on for several decades. Therefore, Biden’s decision will not solve the problem in Afghanistan, it will just worsen the situation in Afghanistan and will deteriorate the countries power of controlling its borders, like in Turkey we have seen in several years.

References

Bergen, P. (2021, 07 04). The many US blunders that contributed to looming disaster in Afghanistan. CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/04/opinions/afghanistan-us-withdrawal-looming-disaster-bergen/index.htm

Taddonio, P. (2021, 07 19). Amid the U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan, 14 Documentaries Explore the Two-Decade War and Its Impact. Frontline: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/us-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-14-documentaries-explore-war-impact/

25/07/2021