The final U.S. military planes left Kabul on Monday, Pentagon officials said, capping a frantic two-week evacuation effort and ending the longest war in American history.
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the final American aircraft left the Afghan capital just before 3:30 p.m., just hours ahead of President Biden‘s self-imposed Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.
“Tonight’s withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after Sept. 11, 2001,” Gen. McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon. “It’s a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end … and it was not a cheap mission. The cost was 2,461 U.S. service members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured.”
Several hundred American citizens are believed to still be in the country, which is now back under the control of the Islamist Taliban. The group reclaimed power Aug. 15 after the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government.
In rejecting calls to stay in Afghanistan until all of those U.S. citizens are rescued, Mr. Biden said it was the consensus decision of military leaders that getting out now was the best course of action. Administration officials believe they have assurances from the Taliban that Americans will be allowed to fly out of Kabul in the weeks ahead.
“I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” the president said in a statement. “Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.”
The Taliban’s quick takeover of the country stunned U.S. military officials and upended the Biden administration’s plans to maintain an embassy in Kabul and to continue a close relationship with a friendly Afghan government.
Instead, the president ordered a rushed evacuation of thousands of American citizens and diplomatic personnel from a nation that suddenly was back under control of the Taliban — the very group that ruled Afghanistan and gave safe haven to al Qaeda in the years leading up to 9/11.
The U.S. was able to evacuate more than 5,000 Americans and more than 100,000 Afghans, but the effort was marred by tragedy. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed and another 18 wounded during an ISIS-K terrorist attack on the Kabul airport last week that also claimed scores of Afghan civilian lives. U.S. troops in recent days foiled at least two other attempted attacks on the facility.
Mr. Biden came to office determined to end the Afghan war. He overruled the private advice of Pentagon leaders earlier this year who urged him to keep a small contingent of U.S. troops in the country to maintain a sense of stability and to conduct counterterrorism operations.
Over the past several weeks, the president has rejected fierce calls to extend the Aug. 31 deadline until all Americans are rescued from Afghanistan.
Republicans on Capitol Hill wasted little time casting the president’s withdrawal as both a foreign policy blunder of historic proportions and a moral outrage.
“This national disgrace is the direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence,” Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, said in a statement. “The president made the decision to break our word to our Afghan partners. The president made the decision to tell one lie after another as the crisis unfolded. The president made the morally indefensible decision to leave Americans behind. Dishonor was the president’s choice. May history never forget this cowardice.”