Afghanistan withdrawal: CNN host Fareed Zakaria says the almost 20-year war was a failure

Despite receiving support from many Americans especially army veterans, there are those who have opposed the withdrawal and argued that the US can still win the almost 20-year occupation in Afghanistan. CNN host Fareed Zakaria said that the US was never able to succeed in building a nation during its occupation in the last two decades.

Speaking with Anderson Cooper, Zakaria said that the US ultimately did not succeed in its supposed mission in Afghanistan, especially in building a nation that would be regarded by Afghans as legitimate. Zakaria added that the American effort in the war-torn country has already been on the decline for the last several years, not just in recent months.

“The United States was not able to achieve its mission in Afghanistan,” said Zakaria. “The mission in Afghanistan was to defeat the Taliban and establish a democratic government that could command the legitimacy of the Afghan people and control the country.”

“The Taliban, in the last 10 years, has kept gaining ground. Even after the surge -- remember at one point there were 130,000, 140,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan -- by 2015, the Taliban had made gains and controlled almost 30, 40 percent of the country,” Zakaria added.

Most of the criticism aimed at the administration of US President Joe Biden came from Republicans, who sought to allege that Biden left the remaining 100-200 Americans in Afghanistan behind after all the evacuation efforts that were done in the past several weeks. To note, the State Department had already warned Americans in the war-torn country multiple times to leave as early as April but a number of Americans seemed to ignore the warnings and appeared to wait until the actual evacuations took place.

A report by NBC News explained that Americans who stayed behind in Afghanistan have “nuanced and complicated cases.” Those cases may be attributed to having dual citizenship and those with deep roots in Afghanistan, those with large extended families including non-citizens, or even those who waited until the very last minute to decide whether or not they wanted to leave.

The report goes on to say that there are NGOs that are still on the ground already seeking out those who have stayed behind on whether or not they wish to leave or if they needed assistance getting to the airport.