As Taliban capture cities, US says Afghan forces must fend for themselves

If the Taliban had seized three provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan a year ago, like they did on Sunday, the American response would most likely have been ferocious. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships would have responded in force, beating back the Islamist group or, at the very least, stalling its advance.

 

But these are different times. What aircraft the US military coul­d muster from hundreds of miles away struck a cache of weap­ons far from Kunduz, Tali­qan or Sar-i-Pul, the cities that already had bee­n all but lost to the Tali­ban. The muted American response showed in no uncertain te­rms that America’s 20-year war in Afgh­anistan is over. The mismanaged and exhausted Afghan forces will have to retake the cities on their own, or leave them to the Taliban for good.

 

The recent Taliban military victories has not moved Biden to reassess his decision to end the US combat mission by the end of the month, senior admini­stration officials said. But the viol­ence shows just how difficult it will be for Biden to extract US from the war while insisting that he is not abandoning the country in the middle of a Taliban offensive.