Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal

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Event.png Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Chris Donahue.jpeg
Maj.-Gen. Chris Donahue, last US soldier to leave before midnight on 30 August 2021
Date29 February 2020 - 30 August 2021
LocationAfghanistan
PerpetratorsUSA, UK, NATO
DescriptionThe end of the US–led NATO occupation of Afghanistan

The Afghanistan 2021 withdrawal was agreed on 29 February 2020,[1] planned for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and was completed before midnight on 30 August 2021, when Major-General Chris Donahue was the last American soldier to leave Kabul, and US–led NATO troops ended 20 years of occupation in Afghanistan.[2]

What's happening?

Afghanistan

Afghnempires.png

The Taliban took control by mid-August and its co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar returned from exile in Qatar.[3]

USA

Joe Biden initiated the chaotic withdrawal.

Most of Congress condemns, two congressmen (Peter Meijer and Seth Moulton) flew secretly there to get a perspective on the situation.[4][5]

Some in favour include Matt Gaetz, Rand Paul and Donald Trump.

Some Hummer with different setups in Iran.[6][7]

CIA Director William Burns was sent to Kabul for a high level meeting on 23 August 2021.[8][9][10] Topics that were probably discussed:

  • extension of the evacuation deadline set by the Taliban for 31 August, or assurances of safe passage for foreigners that remain thereafter
  • handing back of some military and intelligence equipment,[11][12][13][14] to prevent other state actors having a closer look at the technology (not unlike the Stinger buy back program of the 1980s)[15][16][17]
  • handing back of data

Tom Luongo is of the opinion that the withdrawal is chaotic by design, leaving Afghanistan with a huge number of military rifles and warfighting equipment in a region that has been unstable due to foreign interventions for the last decades. [18]

Other writers, such as Roger Simon, highlight the fact that the democratic establishment around Biden and the Clintons, have aided the Chinas interests on a number of occasions.[19][20][21][22][23]

“I have believed for some time—only underscored by our extraordinarily rapid and ill-conceived evacuation of Afghanistan, leaving behind not only Bagram but enough U.S. weaponry to make the Taliban’s army nearly equivalent to Italy’s, not to mention putting our advanced military technology in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians—that a large percentage of our Democratic Party leadership, as well as a tragically significant percentage of the GOP, have long believed the Chinese regime is winning the battle between China and America for global hegemony.
They are, therefore, overtly or covertly, consciously or subconsciously, throwing in with the Chinese side for their own economic advantage, and, to a lesser extent, their survival, though the two intersect.”

Roger Simon (12 September 2021)  [24]

Britain

UK/Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says that Al-Qaeda will re-enter Afghanistan. Johnny Mercer said the UK had "chosen defeat", describing the lack of "political will" as "shameful", "sad", "humiliating for the British army", and above all a "tragedy for the Afghan people".[25]

Tom Tugendhat and Rory Stewart condemned the withdrawal.

As part of the Official opposition narrative, Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy also opposes the withdrawal.[26]

On 18 August, UK Parliament was recalled. All mainstream newspapers condemned Boris Johnson.[27] Johnson wants to negotiate with the Taliban.

“What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan, working with the Taliban, of course if necessary, will go on.”
Boris Johnson (20 August 2021)  [28]

Evacuation from Afghanistan

Full article: Evacuation from Afghanistan

Lots of countries evacuated their citizens in the largest airlift in history.

The British embassy failed to destroy sensitive documents.[29]

Terror threat

On 26 August 2021, a British minister warned of an "imminent, highly lethal" terror attack at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport within hours:

Armed Forces minister James Heappey said there were "very credible" reports of a "severe" threat in the capital.

The Foreign Office last night issued new guidance telling anyone near the airport to "move away to a safe location and await further advice".

It comes amid a race to airlift thousands from Afghanistan before foreign troops depart.

The US has set a deadline of 31 August 2021 for the withdrawal of its troops, with President Joe Biden rejecting calls from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other allies for an extension.

Mr Heappey did not give a date for the last UK evacuation flights, but said it was likely that UK and other foreign troops would have to leave before the last American airlifts.[30]

Terror blasts

Full article: 2021 Kabul Airport attacks

At 4:15pm on 26 August 2021, the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner tweeted:

Kabul hospital reports 30 wounded from airport blast. 6 died on the way to hospital. Suspicion falling on ISIS-K as the culprits.[31]

The Australian newspaper reported:

US President Joe Biden said he stood ready to authorise further military force in Afghanistan and the US would “hunt down” the terrorist attackers that have left more than 100 dead, including 13 US marines, near Kabul airport.

In a televised address, he said the US would not be deterred by terrorism and the attacks would not shift the US from its timetable to complete the evacuation of US citizens by August 31.

“To those who carried out this attack, know this, we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said. “We have some reason to believe we know who they are, although we aren’t certain,” he added at a press conference at the White House.[32]


 

An example

Page nameDescription
Evacuation from AfghanistanThe evacuation of foreigners from Afghanistan, one of the largest airlifts in history

 

Related Quotations

PageQuoteAuthorDate
Evacuation from Afghanistan“There's so many people arguing about the withdrawal from Afghanistan blaming Trump, blaming Biden. 'Oh we should withdraw like this'. No no there's only one way to withdraw it's called get the f*** out of Afghanistan. Okay people in the west need to stop with this colonial mindset thinking they can just invade countries kill people stay there for 20 years and then act like they are the victims at Kabul Airport.”Richard Medhurst27 August 2021
Peter Jennings (ASPI)“The only person who thinks there is no chance of militarily victory in Afghanistan is Joe Biden”Peter Jennings (ASPI)June 2021
Bob Seely“I know we have a duty to the world, I mean we think to the world's poor and we should be doing what we can to help. We don't have a duty to quote 'save the world'.”Bob Seely3 September 2021

 

Related Documents

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:A warring nation, united against usLetter19 August 2021Craig MurrayCraig Murray's letter to The Herald from prison in Edinburgh: "As with the previous three times when UK invasions were defeated in Afghanistan, we have united a warring nation in hatred of us."
Document:Afghanistan is not about youArticle19 August 2021Ella WhelanNeocon MPs are concerned about the Afghanistan/2021 withdraw. The only problem is that they only care about themselves, and thereby show us the narcissism of Western intervention.
Document:Britain’s delusions that it could take on the Taliban alone are ludicrous - what are our empire-nostalgic MPs smoking?Article19 August 2021Tom FowdyThe UK Parliament was recalled for an emergency debate over the Afghanistan/2021 withdraw. While the BBC focused on the divide between the sides of the house with their face mask wearing, Parliament was united against the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan. Most MPs are urging Boris Johnson to go back to Afghanistan, and take on the Taliban, alone if necessary.
Document:The 20-year war on Afghanistan was a mistakeSpeech18 August 2021Zarah SultanaSpeaking outside Parliament on 18 August 2021, prior to the Afghanistan emergency debate, Zarah Sultana joined colleagues including Jeremy Corbyn to say: "The war on Afghanistan shows – once and for all – that the West cannot deliver liberal democracy at the barrel of a gun. This war – the first 'War on Terror' – must be Britain's last war of aggression."
Document:The bloody legacy of Bomber BlairArticle1 January 2022Alex Snowdon"Petition for Tony Blair to have his 'Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter' rescinded" Such an honour rests upon expecting us to conveniently forget or ignore the enormous damage that Blair did. People are right to be angry.
Document:Twenty Years On, We’ve Learned Nothing From 9/11Speech17 September 2021Ron Paul20 years on from 9/11, Ron Paul says that The Establishment in the United States has learned nothing since the attacks.
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References

  1. "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (which is not recognised by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban) and the United States of America"
  2. "Who Is Major General Chris Donahue? The Last American Soldier To Leave Afghanistan In C-17"
  3. "Who are the Taliban and how did they take control of Afghanistan so swiftly?"
  4. https://www.9and10news.com/2021/08/25/michigan-massachusetts-congressmen-took-secret-trip-to-afghanistan/
  5. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/2-congressmen-including-michigan-rep-peter-meijer-flew-unannounced-to-afghanistan
  6. http://archive.today/2021.09.14-185744/https://twitter.com/KianSharifi/status/1433038861903532034
  7. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-military-equipment-left-behind-afghanistan-spotted-iran-report
  8. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cia-chief-met-secretly-taliban-leader-monday
  9. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/afghanistan-cia-director-william-burns-met-taliban-leadership/ar-AANlH2G
  10. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/world/asia/cia-taliban-william-burns-afghanistan.html
  11. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-captures-us-military-biometric-devices
  12. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/quantifying-staggering-costs-us-military-equipment-left-behind-afghanistan
  13. http://web.archive.org/web/20200915105125/https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/frontline-november-aerostats#:~:text=Each%20TARS%20fully-outfitted%20aerostat,in%20the%20air%20by%20helium.
  14. http://web.archive.org/web/20200725051751/https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/history/ptds.html
  15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/03/07/cia-falters-in-recovery-of-missiles/73a9a4d7-2952-4077-9746-46bd2e5b81ca/
  16. http://web.archive.org/web/20201028055427/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2001/10/stingers-stingers-who-s-got-the-stingers.html
  17. https://erenow.net/ww/ghost-wars-the-secret-history-of-the-cia-Afghanistan-and-bin-Laden/20.php
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  19. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/hillary-clintons-china-problem-15763
  20. http://web.archive.org/web/20210913152301/https://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.com/2019/09/hillarys-e-mails-all-sent-to-chinese.html
  21. https://sputniknews.com/20210812/blackmail-sex-tapes-and-more-hannity-asks-why-no-arrests-made-in-hunter-biden-laptop-scandal-1083586225.html
  22. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-deals-china-military-documentary
  23. https://nypost.com/article/hunter-biden-china-timeline-business-ties/
  24. https://www.theepochtimes.com/why-did-the-usa-hand-afghanistan-to-china_3989959.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge Epoch
  25. https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/13/betrayal-uk-and-us-politicians-slam-afghanistan-troop-withdrawals-as-taliban-advance/
  26. https://twitter.com/lisanandy/status/1424299893636714499?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet/
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  28. https://www.rt.com/uk/532664-johnson-taliban-raab-kabul/ RT
  29. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58351938
  30. "Afghanistan: Attack could strike Kabul airport within hours, minister warns"
  31. "Kabul hospital reports 30 wounded from airport blast"
  32. "Kabul terror bombings kill at least 100, including 13 US marines"