With collapse of Afghan government, 20-year-long U.S. odyssey draws to a close

Nearly all of Afghanistan lay in the hands of its old masters on Sunday, two decades after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, prompted the United States to wield its military might in an effort to topple the Taliban in the embattled nation.

The Taliban — which provided support to 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden — entered Kabul with little resistance, culminating a stunning week in which it captured almost the entire country.

The capital city was teeming with Taliban fighters reportedly walking the streets and zooming around on motorbikes and other vehicles. Militants took over abandoned police posts and promised to maintain order.

Firefighters work on Sept. 11, 2001 at the destroyed World Trade Center after a terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. The attacks in New York City and Washington killed almost 3,000 people and led to war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (MARK LENNIHAN/)

The Taliban’s approach triggered a stampede of local government officials, U.S. diplomats and ordinary citizens trying to flee the country.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani flew to Tajikistan, signaling the collapse of the fragile U.S.-backed government.

“In order to avoid a flood of blood, I thought it was best to get out,” he said on Facebook, according to The Washington Post.

Osama bin Laden (AP Photo/Mazhar Ali Khan, File) (Mazhar Ali Khan/)

Ghani’s predecessor Hamid Karzai announced the establishment of a “coordinating council” to oversee a transfer of power.

But it was not clear what power, if any, former Afghan officials had as Taliban fighters entered the presidential palace. Militants inside the building who gave an interview to news outlet Al Jazeera said they were securing Kabul so their leaders could arrive.

The White House stood by its decision to pull all U.S. troops out of the country, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Afghan forces were responsible for defending their land.

U.S. Army soldiers sit beneath an American flag raised to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Sept. 11, 2011 at Forward Operating Base Bostick in Kunar province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (David Goldman/)

But as Taliban forces advanced, the U.S. announced an extra 1,000 troops were heading to Kabul on Saturday and again on Sunday to help people get out of the country. That would bring the total number of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan to 6,000.

Helicopters were seen evacuating staff from the U.S. Embassy, where the American flag was lowered. Acting Ambassador Ross Wilson was reportedly among those who got out. Staffers rushed to destroy sensitive documents, sending smoke into the air.

To some, the scenes evoked the 1975 evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

The comparison rankled Blinken.

Army Secretary John McHugh, left, and Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno, second from left, watch as an Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014. Greene was killed in the Afghan conflict. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci/)

“Let’s take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

“The fact of the matter is this: We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked on 9/11. And that mission has been successful.

“We brought Bin Laden to justice a decade ago,” he said. “Al Qaeda, the group that attacked us, has been vastly diminished. Its capacity to attack us again from Afghanistan has been — right now, does not exist.”

President Biden spent the day in Camp David in Maryland, with no public appearances scheduled.

Earlier this year, he said all U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by the anniversary of 9/11. In July, he pushed the date up to the end of August.

New members of the Afghan National Army attend their graduation ceremony at the Afghan Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (Rahmat Gul/)

“The United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan: to get the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and to deliver justice to Osama Bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat,” the commander-in-chief said at the time, insisting the U.S. “did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.”

Still, the past two decades saw the U.S. and its allies expend enormous manpower and huge sums of money on trying to transform Afghanistan into a safe and democratic country.

As of April, 2,448 members of U.S. armed forces had died in Afghanistan. There were 47,245 civilian casualties, according to a Brown University study.

The U.S. spent more than $1 trillion on the Afghanistan effort, with trillions of dollars in interest payments coming in the years ahead.

The U.S. troops’ sacrifice did not come in vain, former Rep. Max Rose said on Sunday.

“I have friends that made far greater sacrifices than I did,” Rose, who served as an Army lieutenant in Afghanistan in 2013, told the Daily News. “What is happening right now cannot be misconstrued as an indictment of their service.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP, File) (Brendan Smialowski/)

“They rose to this nation’s need and challenges at a pivotal moment, and we are safer because of what we did,” said the Democratic former congressman who represented Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.

Nevertheless, the Taliban takeover sparked panic among Afghan civilians and widespread concern that progress on women’s and girls’ rights in particular will be reversed.

Afghans rushed to withdraw savings from banks and crowded Kabul’s airport, desperate for flights out of the country.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a ceremony celebrating the Persian New Year Nowruz at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 21, 2021. The embattled president left the country on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021, joining fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western effort aimed at remaking Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File) (Rahmat Gul/)

During a private briefing with Blinken, members of Congress reportedly pressed him on what the country is doing to aid women and also Afghans who assisted the U.S.

“There are a lot of Afghans who helped us indirectly,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at an unrelated news conference, calling for “every effort to bring those brave Afghans who helped our soldiers and helped our country” to the U.S.

“When the Taliban gets hold of them, Lord knows what will happen to them,” the New York Democrat said.

In Kabul, the Taliban contacted residents using the WhatsApp messaging service, claiming to be “taking over the city without fighting and no one will be at risk,” according to The Washington Post.

A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Helicopters were landing at the U.S. Embassy and diplomatic vehicles were leaving the compound amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (Rahmat Gul/)

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Taliban takeover was the lack of local resistance. At many locations, militants reportedly captured territory without firing a single shot.

But Afghans were wary of revenge killings and a return to the repression of basic human rights.

“You failed the younger generation of Afghanistan,” said Aisha Khurram, 22, a university student. “A generation ... raised in the modern Afghanistan were hoping to build the country with their own hands. They put blood, efforts and sweat into whatever we had right now.”

With News Wire Services