The Crucial Questions for Afghanistan
What will happen to women and minorities? Can the Afghan president hold on to power? These and other pressing questions face a fearful country as the United States military withdraws.
A view of Kabul last year.Credit.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
April 14, 2021Updated 1:02 p.m. ET
The reality of an imminent American withdrawal from Afghanistan differs from its long-anticipated likelihood. Already the anxiety engendered by this new certainty in the capital, Kabul, and other urban centers is making itself felt.
Afghans’ fear is multifaceted, evoked by the Taliban’s grim record, bitter and vivid memories of civil war and the widely acknowledged weakness of the current government. These conditions in turn push Afghan thinking in one direction: The country’s government and armed forces won’t survive without American support. Many American policymakers, security officials and diplomats concur with this gloomy view. Just this week,
Joe Biden risks new Afghanistan bloodshed by vowing to withdraw US troops by 9/11 - four months after Taliban deadline the-sun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the-sun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Joe Biden to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11
Postponing the US withdrawal carries the risk of the Taliban resuming attacks on US and coalition forces, military experts say
13 April 2021 • 5:35pm
A military helicopter flies over people during the Afghan Security Forces Exhibition, at the Darul Aman Palace in Kabul
Credit: AP
The Biden administration plans to withdraw the last US troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks later this year, ending American involvement in its longest war.
President Joe Biden is expected on Wednesday to announce that he will keep thousands of forces beyond the May 1 deadline that was negotiated last year with the Taliban, but will promise to be out by September 11, according to several reports.
Pakistan keeps an epoch-making record in peace diplomacy dailytimes.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailytimes.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
April 8, 2021 Share
Without coming right out and saying it, President Joe Biden seems ready to let lapse a May 1 deadline for completing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Orderly withdrawals take time, and Biden is running out of it.
Biden has inched so close to the deadline that his indecision amounts almost to a decision to put off, at least for a number of months, a pullout of the remaining 2,500 troops and continue supporting the Afghan military at the risk of a Taliban backlash. Removing all of the troops and their equipment in the next three weeks along with coalition partners who can’t get out on their own would be difficult logistically, as Biden himself suggested in late March.