Afghans make day of US withdrawal national holiday

The departure of last Western troops will be celebrated on August 31 each year

Afghanistan has made the day the last US soldier left the country an annual public holiday. According to the Taliban government’s website, the final departure of foreign troops will be celebrated each year on August 31. 

Festivities were first organized last year, when the authorities and Taliban supporters were marking the first anniversary of the withdrawal. Taliban fighters held a rally at Massoud Square in Kabul outside the former US embassy building. 

The last American soldier, US Army Major General Chris Donahue, boarded a military transport plane shortly before the deadline for the withdrawal expired on August 31, 2021, ending the grueling two-decade long campaign. 

The US and its allies sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to fight Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups as part of Washington’s global ‘War on Terror’ that was proclaimed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

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The Western forces quickly took Kabul, but the Taliban remained active in large swaths of the country, and the war with insurgents dragged on for many years, while the campaign was becoming more unpopular in the US.

The Taliban eventually recaptured several provincial capitals and seized Kabul with little to no resistance in August 2021. The unexpected fall of the city forced the Pentagon to frantically organize the evacuation of diplomats, American nationals, and their Afghan helpers.

Washington was criticized for the handling of the evacuation, and because, despite the airlifts from Kabul, thousands of allied Afghans were left behind.

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