Afghanistan: US forces land in Kabul

US troops have started landing in Kabul to help evacuate US embassy staff. A number out of the 3000 troops announced for deployment have started arriving.

With the fall of Kabul imminent, countries have started evacuating their consular staff from Afghanistan which has failed to defend itself and foreign crew from a Taliban takeover.

With over a dozen of provincial capitals secured the Taliban have control of major trading routes and checkpoints all across Afghanistan and have surrounded Kabul from all sides. The Afghan government replaced the army chief at a time when the troops were already low on morale, the move which the government expected to change their strategy has had no effect if not damage the already low spirit.

Taliban have reportedly executed Afghan troops who surrendered before them and Ashraf Ghani has shown interest to arm militias, raising fears over another everlasting tribal civil war led by various warlords against each other and the Taliban.

Afghanistan lost a quarter of its provincial capitals within a week and US intelligence reports suggest Kabul’s fall within the next 30 days, while judging by the pace of the Taliban it looks like Kabul might fall in a matter of days without outside help.

Billions had been given to Afghanistan and all the equipment given to them was left by their troops for the Taliban and black markets to take. The training given to the 300,000 Afghan troops looks nonexistent in action and it looks like the troops only care for their respective tribes and ethnicities rather than all of Afghanistan and a national image.

Without an interim setup and a share for the Taliban in the government civil war looks inevitable, and even with Taliban approval for an interim government, the approval of other warlords looks ludicrous. Without national reconciliation peace looks unthinkable and how to bring national reconciliation is a puzzle itself as the Afghan ethnicities see each other as outsiders who don’t want to live with the other or under the other’s control.