FAST THINKING: Leaving Afghanistan, twenty years later
Fast Thinking
by
Atlantic Council
JUST IN
Twenty years. America’s longest war is set to finally come to an end, with President Joe Biden expected to announce on Wednesday that all American troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks. After the deaths of more than 2,400 American service members and at least 100,000 Afghans, what’s the state of the nation that the US military will leave behind? Will we see a repeat of the brutal Taliban rule of the 1990s? And after so many withdrawal timelines issued by so many US administrations, will this one even hold? Our experts weigh in.