This month marked the 20^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Ironically, on the same day the United States remembered its departed, the Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace, officially pronouncing the start of a new regime — the Taliban 2.0. America’s war in Afghanistan started in October of 2001 when the US declared the “War on Terror” shortly after al-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden, attacked major sites in the US. The United States invaded Afghanistan under the pretext that the Afghan government had shielded and protected al-Qaeda. While the prolonged nature of the war and sometimes even its necessity has been questioned throughout the reigns of the four American presidents who presided over it, President Biden’s decision to evacuate American troops was met with mostly negative responses, especially as the Taliban swiftly rose to power. With no military presence in Afghanistan for the first time in 20 years, the question of whether the United States has accomplished what it set out to do two decades ago now remains.

Ending the War in Afghanistan has been raised time and again by politicians and commentators from all corners. After the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, just two weeks before the set deadline for US troop withdrawal, the current US administration is under scrutiny for how it handled its last days in Afghanistan. While admitting that they were surprised by the sheer speed at which the Afghan national forces collapsed, President Biden exclaimed that he still firmly believed in the timing of the withdrawal. Biden instead pinned blame on the Afghan government and military, mentioning the former president Ashraf Ghani by name. “We gave them everything,” said Biden, noting that the Afghan leaders could neither unite politically nor play their part well to keep the Taliban at bay.

One thing the US can claim to have achieved from their missions is weakening al-Qaeda’s networks, which were especially prevalent in the region in the 2000s, and assassinating their leader, Osama Bin Laden, in 2011. However, with the steady revival of al-Qaeda and the eventual triumph of the Taliban, it is debatable whether the 20-year-long mission was a success. Especially in the later years, it seems that the US had no clearly defined goals or metrics to measure its achievement. When questioned on this matter, Biden noted that the US has accomplished what it set out to do after Bin Laden’s assassination 10 years ago. Now the question remains whether staying for more than 10 years, spending a fortune, and losing thousands of lives were even necessary. 

Official reports show that during the 20 years, the United States spent about 1 trillion USD in its military and reconstruction expenses. According to a study conducted by Brown University, this figure rises to around 2 trillion dollars when accounting for other associated costs. To put things into perspective, this is equivalent to spending more than a staggering 200 million dollars every day, or more than 8 million dollars every hour for 20 years. The War in Afghanistan was, for the most part, financed differently from America’s previous wars. While previous wars mostly relied on an increased tax revenue collection, this was mostly financed by emergency and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) bills, exempting the government from any spending limits. To make matters worse, these bills were covered by accumulating on the national debt and so, accounting for interest, the cost of the war rises to 6.5 trillion USD by the year 2050. Generations of Americans will carry the burden of this debt, and as some refer to it, this was certainly a “Credit Card War”.

An exit from Afghanistan based on keeping a set deadline has proved to be vastly more complicated than anticipated. The chaotic airport scenes along with Taliban’s takeover of Kabul only serve to justify this. Many still claim that the US exit was premature, recalling the United States withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, which was followed by a costly return only a few years later as ISIS emerged to fill the power vacuum. With no clear end to the uncertainties in sight, it is to be seen what the future holds for Afghanistan.