Currents News Staff
Taliban fighters were firing off celebratory rounds after nearly 20 years: The war in Afghanistan is officially over.
“It’s a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end along with many of his Al-Qaeda co-conspirators and it was not a cheap mission,” said Commander at U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie. “The cost was 2,461 U.S Service Members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured.”
The U.S. Military conducted what it called its largest “non-combatant” evacuation in history over the span of 18 days.
“More than 123,000 people have been safely flown out of Afghanistan,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “That includes about 6,000 American citizens.”
Despite the United States’ historic efforts, our nation’s top general in the Middle East says that they weren’t able to get everybody out that they wanted to get out.
“I think if we’d stayed another 10 days, we wouldn’t have gotten everybody out that we wanted to get out and there still would’ve been people who would’ve been disappointed with that,” said Gen. McKenzie. “It’s a tough situation.”
The mission to get people out is still underway. The United Nations Security Council has now approved a resolution for creating “safe passage” for people still seeking to leave Afghanistan from the Kabul airport. All the while warning the Taliban that they should know that the world is watching them closely.
“Everybody must be allowed to safely leave Afghanistan for whatever reason,” said the U.S.’s U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, “whenever they want by air or by land.”