The days and nights following the Taliban’s capture of Kabul and the collapse of the Afghan government have been remarkably calm.
Most shops and businesses are closed. Ordinary Afghans are hiding in their homes. The Taliban are acting as a police force, protecting the city from marauders. And yet, in this moment of relative stillness, Afghans are facing a monumental realization: They now live in a completely new country.
In defending his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan, U.S. President Joe Biden acknowledged that events unfolded “more quickly” than U.S. officials had anticipated. According to Biden, that is because Afghanistan’s political leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani, “gave up and fled the country,” and “the Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight.” Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, defended the military, tweeting, “They tied our hands from behind and sold the country. Curse Ghani and his gang.”