6 | NWSLTR
A Disaster in Afghanistan
By Thad Worth America’s removal of troops in Afghanistan prompts outrage
Source: Air Mobility Command Public Affairs 640 people in a C-17 Globemaster III
On September 11th, 2001, foriegn terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Centers in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. A final plane crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania after targeting the White House or the Capitol, but missing its target due to passengers onboard reclaiming control of the plane. Soon afterwards, President George W. Bush sent American troops to Afghanistan to eliminate the terrorist group responsible: Al Qaeda. He also ordered his generals to remove the government that allowed these terrorists to use that country as a safe haven: the Taliban.
After 20 years, 4 presidents (including President Biden), thousands of American lives, and trillions of dollars, America withdrew from Afghanistan on August 31st, 2021, leaving it in the hands of the same people who were there twenty years ago and ending America’s longest war. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, massive protests and riots across the country, and the 2020 election looming, President Trump signed a deal with the Taliban agreeing that America would begin to withdraw its troops in Afghanistan and begin the release of Taliban prisoners. Despite criticism, President Biden followed through with the peace deal. What has caused the current controversy is how President Biden continued to follow the
agreement when the Taliban openly broke it and took over Afghanistan. According to CNBC News, an additional 100 to 200 Americans are still in Afghanistan. The American exit caused panic among American allies, with people running alongside planes leaving the Kabul airport. According to Fasnaz Fassihi of the New York Times a 17 yearold soccer player named Zaki Anwari was so desperate to escape Afghanistan that he held onto an American plane as it took off and fell hundreds of feet and died. Women threw their children over the barbed wire fence to American soldiers hoping that they would take their children with them to America. Feminists were worried that the Taliban would enact strict rules on what women can wear
