U.S. trying to get out of Afghanistan as Taliban rage across war-torn nation

KABUL – The U.S. continues to try to get out of Afghanistan as the vicious Taliban rage across the war-torn nation.

As President Biden said in April, the United States will be out of Afghanistan by September 1. The pace of the withdrawal has picked up, and President Biden said in July, “Our military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31st. The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart. Our military commanders advised me that once I made the decision to end the war, we needed to move swiftly to conduct the main elements of the drawdown. And in this context, speed is safety. And thanks to the way in which we have managed our withdrawal, no one — no one U.S. forces or any forces have — have been lost. Conducting our drawdown differently would have certainly come with a increased risk of safety to our personnel.”

However, the Taliban have emerged from their caves, and are raging across the nation taking city after city and spreading death and destruction in their wake. As this chaos engulfs the country, American diplomats from the U.S. Department of State are attempting to console and calm the terrified leaders there.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke Thursday, August 12, with President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani to stress that the United States remains invested in the security and stability of Afghanistan in the face of violence by the Taliban. Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin informed President Ghani that the United States is reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation and will accelerate the tempo of Special Immigration Visa (SIV) flights. The Secretaries both emphasized that the United States remains committed to maintaining a strong diplomatic and security relationship with the Government of Afghanistan. During the call, Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, and President Ghani exchanged views on the security environment in Afghanistan, efforts to curb violence, and ongoing diplomatic efforts. Secretary Blinken affirmed that the United States remained committed to support a political solution to the conflict.

As the drawdown gets uglier, 3,000 U.S. troops are being sent back into the meat grinder to ensure no Americans are lost in this process.

“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 States,” President Biden said.  “We achieved those objectives.”