On August 15, 2021, the Afghan government collapsed as the Taliban took control of Kabul; President Biden defended

the withdrawal by sending military forces to help evacuate American and Afghan Citizens; Biden compromised on August 31, 2021, Afghan withdrawal deadline.

For the past 20 years, the United States has been restructuring and build the Afghan government. However, the Afghanistan government remained weak, allowing the Taliban to gain control on August 15, 2021. 

Now, why did America invade Afghanistan? The main reason was over the attacks on September 11, 2001. There was a group of terrorists established on October 15, 1999, called Al-Qaeda. The Afghan government refused to hand over their leader Osama Bin Laden who claimed responsibility for 9/11. The United States stated that they wanted to destroy al-Qaeda and its hosts in invading Afghanistan, secure the US from future terrorist attacks, bring democracy to the nation, and help Afghan women and children. The Taliban quickly lost control of this country and relocated to Pakistan.

A teacher from Anaheim High School, Mr. Zambrano, states, “They went in there about 20 years ago, they were supporting the Afghani government, they were controlling, or it seemed like to the outside world, the Taliban as soon as the U.S. started withdrawing their troops and government officials and another American personal from Afghanistan it seemed like the Taliban started gaining control in certain areas.”

In February of 2020, Donald Trump was the first to negotiate with Taliban leaders. President Biden was the first to initiate the U.S. troop withdrawal on May 1, 2021. He wanted to remove all troops and leave a stable government for Afghanistan before September 11, 2021. President Biden’s plan didn’t go to fruition due to the Taliban’s set deadline of August 31, 2021. 

A fellow student from Anaheim High School, Isaac Hernandez, states, “Well, we’re pretty much already seen the outcome; the Taliban has already gained total control of Kabul, and we had to send even more military people there to withdraw Afghan people and American people to have a safe travel and be protected and  as you can see this rapid withdraw had a tragic outcome with the dust of 12 U.S. soldiers and Afghan citizens.”

Due to this rapidly set deadline, the Taliban pressured American troops and their allies to evacuate as many American citizens and Afghanis as possible. Throughout this process, there were terrorist attacks on Kabul airport, which caused the death of over 100 people, including 13 American service members.