Afghanistan exit strategy

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Up to 15K Americans Are Still in Afghanistan, and It's a Big Mess

It's not clear what will happen to those outside Kabul

(Newser) - Americans are being evacuated from Afghanistan amid the Taliban's takeover of the country, but as many as 15,000 still remain there, according to administration sources who spoke to NBC News and the Washington Post . About 1,100 had been evacuated as of Tuesday night, but "now that...

US Officials Fooled Themselves Into This Mess Over 20 Years

Daniel Silverberg and Fred Kaplan see a mission that was misguided and unsuccessful all along

(Newser) - Afghanistan was never America's to lose. The US and its Afghan allies did not, at any point, control the country, Daniel Silverberg writes in the Atlantic . Instead, officials in Washington deluded themselves and each other for two decades, until President Biden was left with nothing but bad choices . A...

What Newspaper Editorials Are Saying About Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal Has
Scathing Words for Biden
OPINION
Aug 16, 2021 11:20 AM CDT

Wall Street Journal Has Scathing Words for Biden

Highlights of editorials from big newspapers on Afghanistan

(Newser) - It's not only individual pundits weighing in on Afghanistan but newspaper editorial boards as well. The Wall Street Journal , for instance, skewers President Biden in particularly harsh manner (details below), while other big papers also chide his decision-making. Biden will get a chance to defend himself Monday afternoon when...

'One of the Saddest Images' Out of Afghanistan

People at Kabul's airport are desperate to get out

(Newser) - The dire situation in Afghanistan might be demonstrated most clearly by scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The BBC's Nicola Careem tweeted this video Monday of people jamming a bridge to a parked jet in hopes of getting out. "This is, perhaps, one of the saddest...

After Afghan Cities Fall Without a Fight, Biden Announces New Deployment

Another 1K Americans will go for a 'safe drawdown'

(Newser) - The Taliban advance through Afghanistan rolled on Saturday unchecked, with government forces surrendering territory without a fight. When the central province of Daykundi fell, a lawmaker said, only two gunshots were fired in the capital. President Biden announced a series of steps, while reiterating that he will not "pass...

Americans Don&#39;t Seem to Care About Afghanistan (For Now)
Biden's Tone
on Afghans'
Plight Is
'Strikingly Cold'
the rundown
Aug 13, 2021 1:21 PM CDT

Biden's Tone on Afghans' Plight Is 'Strikingly Cold'

President is resolute about withdrawal, but criticism mounts as Taliban keeps advancing

(Newser) - President Biden is enduring the harshest criticism of his presidency to date in the wake of the Taliban's swift spread throughout Afghanistan. As of Friday afternoon, the group had completed its takeover of the south and now controls two-thirds of the nation, reports the AP . All eyes are now...

US Sends Troops to Help Evacuate Embassy

With Taliban closing in on Kabul, administration asks that its diplomatic post be spared

(Newser) - If the Taliban successfully storm Kabul, the US is asking that they please spare the American Embassy. In the meantime, troops are being sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate Americans stationed at the embassy. Other diplomatic stations in the country already have been closed as the Taliban overrun the nation...

Taliban Slaying of Online Comic Sparks Anger, Apprehension

Watchdog group says even mild criticism isn't safe

(Newser) - The Taliban's killing of a Kandahar police officer, better known as a goofy comic who posted his bits on social media, has drawn condemnation across Afghanistan. Nazar Mohammad Khasha, also known as Khasha Zwan, was dragged from his home and shot to death last week, the Washington Post reports....

Biden Message to First Afghan Evacuees: 'Welcome Home'

First group of interpreters arrives in US, with hundreds more to be brought over to escape Taliban retaliation

(Newser) - The Biden administration promised to help thousands of translators in Afghanistan flee their homeland ahead of the US troop withdrawal there next month. That promise is now coming to fruition, as the first 200 or so Afghans, mostly interpreters and their families, were evacuated and transported to Dulles International Airport,...

As Evacuations Near, Taliban Behead Translator

US has promised to evacuate translators but won't protect Afghans trying to reach planes

(Newser) - Sohail Pardis was last seen trying to run a Taliban checkpoint on a desert road. The Taliban opened fire, CNN reports. When the car stopped, Pardis was dragged from it and beheaded. He had been threatened after the Taliban learned he had served as a translator for US troops for...

Pulitzer-Winning Journalist Killed in Afghanistan

Danish Siddiqui was embedded with Afghan troops in covering the US withdrawal

(Newser) - Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who documented war, the toll of the pandemic and the violent plight of refugees, was killed in a Taliban attack Friday in Afghanistan. He was 38. Siddiqui, who was based in Mumbai as Reuters' chief photographer in India, was embedded with Afghan forces to...

US to Evacuate Translators This Month

Bush says he fears for Afghan women and girls

(Newser) - The Biden administration said Wednesday that it is prepared to begin evacuation flights for Afghan interpreters and translators who aided the US military effort in the nearly 20-year war. The Operation Allies Refuge flights out of Afghanistan in the last week of July will be available first for special immigrant...

Taliban Go After Air Force By Assassinating Its Pilots

Afghan military pilots are being tracked down in their neighborhoods

(Newser) - The Taliban have been rolling through Afghanistan on the ground as US forces leave, seizing territory sometimes without resistance. But Afghanistan's government still has a tactical advantage, something it has that the Taliban don't: an air force. In an apparent campaign to eliminate that advantage, Taliban forces have...

Taliban: We Now Control Almost All of Afghanistan

Group says it has 85% of territory amid American withdrawal

(Newser) - The Taliban claimed Friday that they now control 85% of Afghanistan's territory amid a surge in wins on the ground and as American troops complete their pullout. The announcement came at a press conference at the end of a visit by a senior Taliban delegation to Moscow this week—...

Biden Poses Question to Critics of Afghan Strategy

'How many more thousands of American daughters and sons are you willing to risk?'

(Newser) - President Biden on Thursday said the US military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on Aug. 31, adding that “speed is safety” as the United States seeks to end the nearly 20-year war, per the AP . “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build,” Biden said in...

After Nearly 2 Decades, US Exits Bagram Airfield

Hands it over to Afghans as it works to end 'forever war'

(Newser) - After nearly 20 years, the US military left Bagram Airfield, the epicenter of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, two US officials said Friday. The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force...

In Afghanistan, German Military Has a Beer Problem

It finds a contractor to squirrel nearly 6K gallons of alcohol out of the country

(Newser) - The German military says it has found a solution for an unusual logistics problem its troops in Afghanistan face: a glut of beer. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi said Monday a decision by the German commander in Afghanistan to ban the consumption of alcohol for security reasons had resulted in...

US Trashes Leftover Gear, Angering Afghan Scrap Dealers

Even the most innocuous items were cut to bits before being sold

(Newser) - The twisted remains of several all-terrain vehicles leaned precariously inside Baba Mir’s scrap yard, alongside smashed shards that were once generators, tank tracks that have been dismantled into chunks of metal, and mountains of tents reduced to sliced up fabric. It’s all US military equipment, per the AP...

Biden: 'It's Time to End the Forever War'

Afghanistan war was never meant to be a 'multigenerational undertaking'

(Newser) - President Biden confirmed Wednesday that he will not be taking the Afghanistan war into its third decade. "It's time to end the forever war," he said in a speech from the Treaty Room of the White House, which CNN notes is the same room in which George...

Biden Sets a Noteworthy Date for Afghan Withdrawal

Troops to be out by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of attacks

(Newser) - The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is this September, and President Biden has decided US troops will be out of Afghanistan by then. Biden plans to make the announcement Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. President George W. Bush launched the invasion after the 9/11 attacks, and President Trump signed...

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