US forces leave chaotic Afghanistan

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of the XVIII United States Airborne Corps, Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, was the last American soldier to board the C-17 aircraft that left Kabul yesterday, signaling the end of US military operations in Afghanistan.

The Oracle Today reports that the withdrawal of US forces from the war torn country completed in strict compliance to August 31 deadline imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration for troop withdrawal Afghanistan.  

Allied forces from other NATO members including the United Kingdom also hurriedly pulled out their troops from the troubled country ahead of the departure of American troops, leaving Afghanistan in total chaos as the dreaded Taliban militants quickly moved overran Afghan troops within weeks and toppled the government.

General Donahue who was flown in to secure the Kabul international airport as Americans carried out massive evacuation of its citizens and desperate Afghans out of the country where the marauding Taliban forces have already started massive slaughter of citizens they suspected to be Christians or western allies.

Since the withdrawal began in July, the military has evacuated around 122,000 people from the country. Most people airlifted by American flights are being ferried through U.S. military bases in the Middle East and Europe, especially in Qatar and Germany.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday afternoon that about 6,000 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since efforts began.

There still remain tens of thousands of Afghans eligible for special immigrant visas to the U.S. or other coalition countries on the ground in Afghanistan. Many more people who have sought to escape the Taliban also remain in the country with few prospects for escape.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was working with countries to keep Kabul’s airport open and allow eligible Afghans to leave the country after full U.S. troop withdrawal “in a timely fashion.”

According to various news outlets in the United States, the Pentagon has begun counting the cost of chasing the Taliban and its key actors, including Osama Bin Laden who was tracked and killed in a hideout in Pakistan.

Trillions of dollars are said to have been pumped into the military operations by the allied forces in Afghanistan; and the United States alone counts over 2,400 soldiers killed in the 20 year military campaign which ousted the Taliban government and tried in vain to train conventional military force for the Afghan government.

The Taliban is perceived to be the main source and state sponsor of global terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State which has developed cells across the Middle East and Africa. Its Nigerian affiliate, the Boko Haram insurgents, is very active with massive destruction in the northern parts of the country and also threatens the whole country.

Maj. Gen. Donahue’s 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps is based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The airport security which he manned during the chaotic evacuations by allied forces suffered a bloody suicide attacks by IS. The suicide bomber and gunman killed 13 American service members and hundreds of Afghans in a bombing at the Abbey Gate of the airport. The U.S. retaliated with a drone airstrike against Islamic State affiliates in Kabul.

The Biden administration officials repeatedly said the U.S. would fully leave Afghanistan by the Aug. 31 deadline, and Taliban and ISIS-K militants sustained belligerence as the number of US soldiers thinned down.

Apart from the suicide bomb attack at the airport, the militants fired rockets at the airport but the US air defence system intercepted most of them.  

With mission accomplished, Gen. Donahue was the final soldier to board the last C-17 on last evacuation flight out of Afghanistan.

The Pentagon tweeted a photo recognizing Donahue as the final soldier in America’s longest war, which saw more than 775,000 American troops serve over two decades.

In the photo, Donohue is alone and stone-faced, carrying his firearm, with a Kabul airport hangar behind him as he gets ready to climb aboard the aircraft that left just before a self-imposed U.S. deadline to evacuate.

The photo is shot through a night-vision lens, giving the scene an eerie green tint.

Gen. Donahue is a former special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon and previously served as the commander of special operations joint task force on Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Over his long military career, he has been deployed 17 times to carry out operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, North Africa and Eastern Europe.

“In awe of our Sky Dragon Soldiers,” the XVIII Airborne Corps tweeted alongside the photo of Donahue. “This was an incredibly tough, pressurized mission filled with multiple complexities, with active threats the entire time. Our troops displayed grit, discipline and empathy.”