Taliban fighters ride yesterday on a Humvee in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“Less than two weeks after the Taliban seized its first provincial capital, the Afghan government is no more. The Islamist group has now retaken Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani has fled, and Western powers are scrambling to evacuate their embassy staff.
Even as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken protested: ‘This is manifestly not Saigon,’ on ABC on Sunday, thousands sought refuge at Kabul’s international airport in scenes that struck some observers as reminiscent of the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 as crowds fled toward departing aircraft.
One thousand more U.S. troops are now being deployed to Afghanistan to speed the exit mission, bringing total U.S. military numbers to 6,000 in the country. There were reports of five deaths amid gunfire at the airport on Monday morning, possibly due to a stampede, as desperate Afghans sought to board airplanes by climbing baggage chutes.
Ghani gone. While Ghani has fled—with some reports placing him in Uzbekistan or Tajikistan—his predecessor Hamid Karzai has stayed, as has Ghani’s one-time rival Abdullah Abdullah, with both remaining leaders offering to help facilitate a peaceful transition—presumably to complete Taliban control.
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem told Al Jazeera that the ‘war is over’ and that the makeup of its new government would be announced soon. Seeking to assuage concerns that the country would once again become a haven for terrorist groups like al Qaeda, Naeem said the group would ‘not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others.’
Nation building no more. As U.S. officials wake up to a new reality for Afghanistan, the concept of U.S.-led nation building is in tatters, as Afghan National Security Forces funded to the tune of more than $80 billion offered little resistance to the Taliban’s takeover. Questions must also be asked of the U.S. intelligence community, whose June estimate of an Afghan government collapse within six to twelve months of U.S. withdrawal now seems generous, if not outright naive.
Some U.S. government agencies—like the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which has been ringing alarm bells over incompetence and corruption for years—found their warnings ignored.
The political cost. U.S. President Joe Biden, who as recently as July 8 deemed it ‘highly unlikely’ that Taliban forces would overrun Afghan government forces, is expected to give a national address on Afghanistan early this week.
If the issue is to turn into an August political mud fight in Washington, it’s not clear how many Americans will be moved by the spectacle. A July poll by the Chicago Council on World Affairs found 70 percent of those surveyed supported Biden’s plans for withdrawal. Opinions are more split by party, with 56 percent of Republicans supporting withdrawal versus 77 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of independents.
The rationale.Speaking to NBC on Sunday, Blinken was at pains to point out that the Biden administration felt its hands were tied by a May 1 withdrawal deadline agreed with the Taliban by the previous administration: ‘If the president had decided to stay, all gloves would have been off. We would have been back at war with the Taliban attacking our forces. The offensive you have seen throughout the country almost certainly would have proceeded. … And I would be on your show right now explaining why we were sending tens of thousands of forces back into Afghanistan to restart a war that we need to end.’
New rulers. As Americans indulge in recriminations, Afghans face a new day and new rulers. Lynne O’Donnell, reporting for Foreign Policy from Kabul, observed a city where women are staying behind closed doors, bracing for life under the Taliban, and where government employees scramble to leave before they become targets. ‘Just trying to get out,’ one Afghan government worker told O’Donnell. ‘All I can do is work on it, but who knows if anyone will be able to leave or just be forced here to wait for their own death.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Here's how the day unfolded in AP bulletins:
1:56 a.m. ET: Helicopters land near U.S. embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles leave compound amid Taliban advance.
3:07 a.m.: Officials say Taliban now hold all of Afghanistan's border crossings, leaving Kabul airport as only route out.
3:40 a.m.: Afghan officials say Taliban militants have entered outskirts of Kabul.
4:04 a.m.: Taliban say in a statement they don't plan to take Kabul ‘by force,’ as sporadic gunfire echoes in Afghan capital.
6:09 a.m.: Troops surrender Bagram Air Base, the Grand Central of America's 20 years in Afghanistan, to the Taliban.
9:54 a.m.: Afghan officials say President Ashraf Ghani has left his country.
11:54 a.m.: Acting U.S. ambassador is evacuated by military from the embassy to Kabul airport.
12:15 p.m.: U.S. embassy tells Americans to shelter in place, says airport reportedly taking fire.
1:54 p.m.: U.S. military officials say Kabul airport closed to commercial flights as military evacuations continue.
2:43 p.m.: Al Jazeera airs live footage of Taliban fighters in Afghan presidential palace.” Read more at Axios
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials have been stunned by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan, as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuation.
The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed.
Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war, a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Western-style democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace it.
By Sunday, though, leading figures in the administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the utter speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces. The challenge of that effort became clear after reports of sporadic gunfire at the Kabul airport prompted Americans to shelter as they awaited flights to safety after the U.S. Embassy was completely evacuated.” Read more at AP News
“Afghan President Ashraf Ghani slipped out of his country Sunday in the same way he had led it in recent years — a lonely and isolated figure.
Ghani quietly left the sprawling presidential palace with a small coterie of confidants — and didn’t even tell other political leaders who had been negotiating a peaceful transition of power with the Taliban that he was heading for the exit.
Abdullah Abdullah, his long-time rival who had twice buried his animosity to partner with Ghani in government, said that ‘God will hold him accountable’ for abandoning the capital.
Ghani’s destination was not immediately known. In a social media post from an unknown location, he wrote that he left to save lives. ‘If I had stayed, countless of my countrymen would be martyred and Kabul would face destruction and turn into ruins that could result to a human catastrophe for its six million residents’ Ghani wrote.” Read more at AP News
“Coronavirus cases are surging in 40 states, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. With numbers still rising, the director of the NIH worries the US could soon be reporting more than 200,000 new cases a day -- a rate not seen since before vaccines became widely available. In addition to vaccine refusal and a lack of health precautions, experts say a new challenge could come in the form of complacency from people who have ‘followed the rules,’ so to speak, and are tired of it. Meanwhile, mask mandates are still stoking political battles. For instance, Texas' Supreme Court sided with Gov. Greg Abbott over a ruling that temporarily blocks local mask mandates recently issued in San Antonio and Dallas. City officials say they will enforce at least parts of the mandates regardless.” Read more at CNN
“More than 1,200 people have died and thousands more are injured after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients, and blocked roads have at times made it difficult to move medical supplies and personnel to where they’re needed most. The quake has also destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, complicating an already difficult path to recovery. Haiti was already in crisis before the quake as it dealt with the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last month and ongoing struggles with food insecurity, political instability and pandemic issues. While this quake wasn’t as damaging as the earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010, the island nation still bears scars from that disaster, as well.” Read more at CNN
“Many schools in Florida’s Panhandle are closed today as the area braces for the effects of Tropical Storm Fred. As of early this morning, Fred had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph while moving toward the state at 6 mph, with an expected landfall in the western Panhandle this afternoon or early evening. The storm is expected to bring dangerous storm surges, river flooding and possible tornadoes when it reaches the US coast. Fred is one of three Atlantic storms now being monitored by the National Hurricane Center. Tropical Depression Eight formed last night northeast of Bermuda, and Tropical Depression Grace is headed toward Haiti, setting up what could be a devastating complication after this weekend’s earthquake.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a procedural vote this month that would set up future passage of two economic measures crucial to President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, a move Democratic leaders hope will win must-have votes from unhappy party moderates.
In a letter Sunday to Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that the House will take a single vote that would clear an initial hurdle for both a budget resolution and a separate infrastructure bill. The budget blueprint would open the gate for Congress to later consider a separate, $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill for health, education and environment programs.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The Biden administration has approved a permanent increase in food stamp assistance for needy families — the largest single increase in the program's history, AP reports.
Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps — formally SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) — will rise more than 25% above pre-pandemic levels.
The average monthly per-person benefits will rise from $121 to $157.
The increased assistance will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries.” Read more at Axios
“Lives Lived: Pat Hitchcock O’Connell was an actress, but her father — the director Alfred Hitchcock — cast her in only three of his films. ‘I would have loved it if he had believed in nepotism,’ she once said. O’Connell died at 93.” Read more at New York Times
“The Chinese and Russian militaries have recently teamed up for a series of joint exercises that have allowed them to observe or test out each other’s methods and weaponry. Both countries say the exercises mark a high point in bilateral military relations, but outside experts question whether the countries have a shared motive. One expert called the exercises ‘mostly theater,’ without a lot of opportunity for either side to engage in activities that actually hone military skills. While China and Russia tout their close ties, another expert says a formal military alliance would actually limit each side's autonomy, which both highly value.” Read more at CNN
“Canada ballot | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an election for Sept. 20 as polls show many voters approve of his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Seeking to regain the legislative majority he lost in 2019, he’ll campaign on the message that continuity is needed to fight the virus and continue the economic recovery.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Leadership crisis | Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resigned after more than 17 months in power, bringing to an end an administration beset by opposition calls to step down because of a weakened economy and a surge in coronavirus cases. Muhyiddin will stay on as caretaker prime minister until a successor is named, with the king saying a fresh election is not the best option during a pandemic.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Zambia’s next president. Opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema was declared Zambia’s new president-elect by electoral authorities on Sunday following a decisive win with approximately 60 percent of the vote in the country’s Aug. 12 election.
His opponent, incumbent President Edgar Lungu has cried foul, calling the elections ‘not free and fair’ saying election agents from his Patriotic Front party were chased from polling stations and that election violence in other provinces made the whole election a ‘nullity.’ Hichilema, who lost to Lungu in the 2016 presidential election, has called Lungu’s statements the ‘desperate final act of an outgoing administration.’ Zambia’s electoral commission has yet to respond to Lungu’s allegations.” Read more at Foreign Policy
Roger Federer leaves the court after losing in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July. Credit...Aeltc/Edward Whitaker/Agence France-Presse, via Pool/Afp Via Getty Images
“There will be no U.S. Open for Roger Federer this year, and after his announcement on Sunday that he will have yet another knee operation, it is time to question whether he will play tennis on tour again.
For now, Federer, one of the greatest athletes of this or any era, does not intend to retire, but after turning 40 last Sunday and after two operations on his right knee in 2020, he is well aware that the odds are heavily against him.
He is an optimist, no doubt, long inclined to see the water bottle as half full. He has been successfully fending off retirement (and retirement questions) for more than a decade, but even he looked and sounded glum on Sunday as he described his situation in a post on Instagram, a medium that did not exist when he began playing Grand Slam tournaments in the late 1990s.” Read more at New York Times
“Donald Kagan, a Yale historian whose impassioned teaching and writing about the ancient Greeks inspired generations of scholars as well as Washington strategists, including many of the officials who crafted American foreign policy under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, died on Aug. 6 at a retirement home in Washington. He was 89.
His death was confirmed by his son Robert, himself a widely regarded figure in foreign policy circles.
Professor Kagan was considered among the country’s leading historians. His four-volume account of the Peloponnesian War, from 431 B.C. to 404 B.C., was hailed by the critic George Steiner as ‘the foremost work of history produced in North America in the 20th century.’
He was equally renowned for his classroom style, in which he peppered nuanced readings of ancient texts with references to his beloved New York Yankees and inventive, sometimes comic exercises in class participation, like having students form a hoplite phalanx to demonstrate how Greek soldiers marched into combat.” Read more at New York Times
James C. Hormel with members of his family in 1999 after being sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.Credit...Mario Tama/AFP, via Getty Images
“James C. Hormel, the first openly gay person to represent the United States as an ambassador, died on Friday in San Francisco.He was 88.
His death, at the California Pacific Medical Center, was confirmed by a family spokesman. His son, Jimmy, said Mr. Hormel had been in the hospital for two weeks.
Mr. Hormel, a philanthropist and the grandson of the founder of Hormel Foods, served as ambassador to Luxembourg under President Bill Clinton. But his nomination process was met with public opposition, spearheaded by conservative Republicans who portrayed Mr. Hormel as a sinner and equated being gay to having an addiction or being a kleptomaniac.
Mr. Clinton first nominated Mr. Hormel for the post in 1997. By then, Mr. Hormel had been openly gay for three decades. He also had an impressive record of accomplishments.” Read more at New York Times