How the Taliban took back Afghanistan

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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0:00.0	It's today explained I'm Halima Shaw filling in for Sean Ramasferum and it's official.
0:13.0	Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban and for the first time President Biden
0:18.2	addressed the country about it today.
0:20.4	I stand squarely behind my decision.
0:24.4	After 20 years I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time with draw US
0:32.3	forces.
0:33.4	After the Taliban seized Kabul in a matter of hours and people rushed to evacuate the
0:38.1	country, Biden admitted that the withdrawal didn't go as planned.
0:43.1	The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.
0:48.7	But he also said that the US couldn't fight another country's civil war.
0:53.6	And that Afghanistan is back under Taliban control because Afghan forces didn't fight
0:59.2	hard enough.
1:00.9	We gave them every chance to determine their own future.
1:06.1	We could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.
1:10.9	Even if Biden wasn't willing to invest more in a war that is stretched on for 20 years,
1:16.5	the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan still has people wondering.
1:20.3	Did America's longest war really have to end like this?
1:24.2	Well it wasn't supposed to end nicely.
1:26.2	I mean everyone knew that when US and foreign troops left Afghanistan it was going to be brutal
1:31.1	and nasty and awful.
1:33.5	Alex Ward is a national security reporter at Politico.
1:36.2	In fact, US intelligence assessments were very clear about this.
	...

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