afghanistan, many are feeling a sense of loss, particularly for women in that country. for 20 years, many have had an opportunity to live more freely than they were used to. the sense of loss is mixed with fear, that the taliban will take away opportunities and dreams. kelly cobiella has the story. reporter: in afghanistan, girls are used to dreaming big. doctor. dentist. reporter: for them, going to school is normal. you have many students. so is coping with a constant threat from men who don t want them to learn. they say you might die. but i try to keep the girls motivated to study, the principal tells me. under the taliban in the 1990s, women and girls were banned from work and education, shrouded,
for 20 years in afghanistan. they were given a counterterrorism mission. and a counterinsurgency mission. and was doomed to fail because the counterinsurgency must have a solution. and the anger and frustration must be located to two places. one to the establishment, for 20 years in countless meetings, knew that this result was inevitable and did not have the courage to tell that to the american people until this president. and, two, to the leadership in kabul, who had a once in a generation opportunity to truly achitect a new state for the people and instead lined their own pockets. go ahead. i hear you in terms of the lack of a political road in
monday. at least as of now. we were told by a senior administration official, there is discussion going on, how best the president can address the public. they acknowledge there is a desire for the american public to hear from him, given the real shocking developments and past developments on the ground there. right now, the post we have gotten from the president in the past 48 hours was a lengthy written statement, where he laid out where his priorities were, which would focus on getting the americans out and assisting the afghans who helped the u.s. military and other international efforts over the years in afghanistan. and again, laying out his rationale for staying the course. saying he was not going to hand this war off to a fifth president. and he does not believe that one year or five years longer would change the outcome if the afghan
evacuate u.s. embassy personnel. helicopters and airplanes circled over kabul, shuttling between embassy, where sensitive documents were barned, and the airport, as the taliban closed in. the militants had taken every city except kabul. u.s. trained and equipped afghan soldiers just melted away. by early afternoon, the taliban s advance got even stronger. they broke into kabul s main jail, freed thousands of prisoners and instantly added them to their ranks. the american evacuation does not apply to the vast majority of afghan citizens. i went to a shopping mall packed with afghans getting a visa request. most worked for the u.s. military in minor roles. afghans swarmed around me, thinking as an american, perhaps i could help. they showed me documents,
her daughter is 19 now. would you leave the country again? it s like life cannot. reporter: but there is some hope, these women say. for the younger generation, not willing to give up what they gained. kelly cobiella, nbc news, kabul. the nation has spent more than $1 trillion on the war and thousands of lives were lost. so many americans are asking the same question were all of that time and effort and bloodshed worth it? here s nbc s megan fitzgerald. more than 25 flag-draped coffins coming home from afghanistan. the nation honoring our heroes who sacrificed it all, starting in 2001, when the world trade