People are losing their homes, their freedom and their hope. That should be more of a priority than US credibility
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” Joe Biden declared earlier this year, referencing the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. The Taliban are not yet at the gates of Kabul. But two decades after the US toppled the Islamist militants, it is scrambling to evacuate its nationals, as are its allies. On Wednesday, US officials warned that Afghanistan’s government could fall in as little as 90 days. Since then the Taliban have seized Herat, Kandahar and Lashkar Gah; on Friday they took four more provincial capitals.
Such developments have a momentum of their own. The Taliban have captured more equipment as troops have surrendered, and as others turn tail, fewer see the point or hope in staying on and fighting. As resistance collapses, even the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is seeking to distance the UK from its great ally, describing the Trump-negotiated withdrawal agreement as a mistake and a “rotten deal” which Britain tried to resist. Members of the wealthy Afghan political elite, many of whom prospered by plundering the country, have already departed or will do so with ease. But Afghans have been betrayed not only by their military and politicians, but by the long-term mistakes of the US and its allies and the abrupt and ill-planned rush for the exit.