President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of all U.S. troops and equipment from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 is nearly halfway finished, but questions remain about how the United States will fight terrorists and safely evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters who helped the post-9/11 coalition.
U.S. Central Command announced Tuesday that 30% to 44% of the withdraw is complete, a range given as a security precaution. The Defense Department declines to say how many of the 3,000 U.S. troops have been removed from the country. Likewise, some 13,000 Afghan applicants for special immigrant visas are still backlogged and would have little protection against Taliban retribution if they are not evacuated. The State Department-managed program has yet to detail how the immigrants could be assisted, and the DOD says planning is underway for a noncombat evacuation, but no order has been given.
“The U.S. has officially handed over six facilities to the Afghan Ministry of Defense,” Centcom said in a statement updating the withdrawal tempo. “We anticipate additional transfers of bases and military assets in the future.”
The Tampa-based command that manages the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq said the equivalent of 300 C-17 loads have been removed, and 13,000 pieces of equipment have been designated for destruction.
Early reporting after the April 14 announcement by Biden indicated that the troop withdrawal may be working on a July 4 timeline, but the Pentagon since denied such reporting, emphasizing the Sept. 11 deadline. European NATO coalition partners are said to have asked the U.S. to remain longer while they withdraw their troops. NATO has an estimated 5,000 troops in Afghanistan on a training mission, while the U.S. mainly performs counterterrorism operations and supports the Afghan Armed Forces, which have taken heavy fire from the Taliban.
The U.S. negotiated a peace deal directly with the Taliban in February 2020 that called for the U.S. to be fully withdrawn by May 1. Biden missed that deadline but announced that al Qaeda had been sufficiently “degraded” and the mission in Afghanistan was complete, allowing the U.S. to begin an orderly withdrawal.
The Taliban, in turn, have yet to attack coalition forces as they withdraw, but the organization, which once supported al Qaeda and has yet to break with the terrorist group, continues to attack the Afghan government. The GOP says this is a sign of things to come and has heavily criticized the Biden decision.
U.S. commanders have promised “over the horizon” support for the Kabul government and continued counterterrorism operations but have yet to negotiate a basing agreement with a nearby country.
Costs for providing such protection are expected to be high as manned and unmanned aircraft must travel four hours each way to depart from Gulf bases where America has agreements.
Despite the challenges of providing military support to the Afghan government, the DOD is hoping $3.3 billion in Biden’s defense budget will be enough for the Afghan forces to pay their own costs.
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A fighting force of some 300,000 Afghan troops and high-end aircraft theoretically could do the job, but U.S. contractors provide vital maintenance. An alternative has not yet been announced.
More than 2,000 Americans have lost their lives and tens of thousands more have suffered injuries seen and unseen fighting the nearly 20-year-long war in Afghanistan.
