The recent withdrawal of United States troops has shed even more light upon the effects and the extent of their effects. 

President Biden planned to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan over the next month or so. The goal is to complete the planned military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.  

Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said in a statement last week that “The President conveyed that our mission in Kabul will end based on the achievement of our objectives.” 

After decades of war in Afghanistan and the cycle of several presidencies, and just a few weeks just before the scheduled withdrawal of United States forces planned by Biden, the Taliban quickly returned to power in the capital of Kabul. They restructured the government and drove thousands of people to try to flee the country.  

“Heavily armed Taliban fighters fanned out across the capital, and several entered Kabul’s abandoned presidential palace,” AP News states. “Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.” 

The Taliban openly states that they do not want a U.S. military presence occupying the country after Aug. They warned that there would be consequences to the United States. 

Aljazeera states, “A NATO official has said that at least 20 people have died in and around the airport in the past week as American citizens and vulnerable Afghans attempt to get to the facility.” 

The U.S. originally planned to leave behind about 650 troops in order to secure its embassy in Kabul. However, by late last Sunday, Aug. 22, the State Department said that all the embassy personnel were evacuated to the airport. Panic soon spread across the now Taliban-controlled country. 

“As military and government charter flights took off every 45 minutes as part of an airlift, Biden administration officials said they had evacuated about 82,300 people since Aug. 14, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban,” the New York Times said. “Around 4,500 of them were American citizens, with 500 more expected to depart soon.