US draws down troops in Afghanistan, Taliban declares victory
The U.S. has formally ended the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban declared “defeat” of the U.S. and its allied forces, saying the Americans failed and didn’t accomplish “anything substantial or tangible.”
In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, “ISAF (the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force) rolled up its flag in an atmosphere of failure and disappointment without having achieved anything substantial or tangible.”
2015 marks the draw down of troops in Afghanistan
U.S. Air Force photo by by Senior Airman Grovert Fuentes-Contreras
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is shifting to a support mission for Afghan army and police.
While the U.S. and its allies say the Afghan army and police have been able to prevent the Taliban from taking significant territory, violence has shot up as the insurgents seek to gain ground.
For Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, keeping government control of territory and preventing security from further deteriorating is a top priority.
Vowing to restore their former hard-line Islamist regime, Taliban spokesman Mujahid vowed that “the demoralized American-built forces will constantly be dealt defeats just like their masters.”
Nearly 3,200 Afghan civilians were killed in the conflict between the militant group and the army in 2014, and more than 4,600 Afghan army and police died in Taliban attacks.
The Congressional Research Service, for example, just fired up its calculators and concluded that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost U.S. taxpayers $1.6 trillion.
A truer measure of the wars’ total costs pegs them at between $4 trillion and $6 trillion. This fuller accounting includes “long-term medical care and disability compensation for service members, veterans and families, military replenishment and social and economic costs,” Harvard economist Linda Bilmes calculated in 2013.
