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By Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington Chaotic scenes in Kabul accompanied the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The fundamentalist Islamic group was able to retake power after President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from the country. The withdrawal brings to a close nearly 20 years of American military presence in Afghanistan. Without the ongoing prospect of U.S. military support, the Washington-backed Afghan government quickly fell – and on Aug. 21, 2021, the Taliban declared the creation of a new political order, the Islamic Emirate of...

As the Biden administration faces criticism for not doing enough to assist those fleeing Afghanistan, an analysis released on August 16 showed that the roughly $19 billion the Pentagon budgeted for the U.S. occupation of the country in 2020 alone could cover initial resettlement costs for 1.2 million refugees. Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project estimated that the $18.6 billion the Pentagon allocated for its 2020 operations in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is in the process of retaking power after two decades of deadly U.S. occupation, could pay up-front refugee relocation costs of $15,148 for the more than...

By Thomas Alan Schwartz, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University; and Catesby Holmes, The Conversation US “While they are very different, many are looking at the 1975 fall of Saigon to try to understand what is happening in Afghanistan. Walter Cronkite perhaps said it best, ‘We’ve reached the end of a tunnel and there is no light.’” – Ken Burns As headlines proclaim the “end” of “America’s longest war,” President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of the remaining U.S. military personnel from Afghanistan is being covered by some in the news media as though it means the end of the conflict, or even...