As Americans reflect this week on the 25 years that have passed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, CBS News has returned to Afghanistan, where the war those attacks triggered ended five years ago with the
.When
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attacks → reflect → the
the last U.S. and allied soldiers left after a brutal two-decade war, the Taliban's fighters seized billions of dollars worth of American-purchased military hardware.
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fighters → ally → hardware
President Trump, whose first administration
, has accused the Biden administration of "totally botching" the withdrawal.
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Trump → accuse → withdrawal
Five years later, the hardware of America's longest-ever war is still easy to spot on the streets of Kabul.
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hardware → spot → Kabul
Taliban fighters patrol in armored vehicles once supplied to Afghan forces, wearing American tactical gear and carrying American weapons.
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fighters → patrol → weapons
CBS News saw one Humvee in the Afghan capital still adorned with a faded Green Bay Packers decal — a remnant from its past operators.
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News → see → operators
President Trump has been fiercely critical of the former Biden administration, accusing his predecessor of allowing the U.S. military to abandon billions of dollars in military hardware.
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military → accuse → hardware
Mr. Trump has demanded that the Taliban hand it back.
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Taliban → demand → it
But the Taliban has proudly shown off its American-funded arsenal, even staging military parades through Kabul's streets.
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Taliban → show → streets
Pentagon figures released last year show some
fell into the group's hands when the Afghan National Army collapsed.
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Army → release → hands
Shortly after the 2021 withdrawal, CBS News filmed as "Badri 313," an elite Taliban special forces battalion, patrolled in their American vehicles, American commando gear and with their American weapons.
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Badri → film → weapons
Asked about President Trump's determination to reclaim the equipment, Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told CBS News the hardware now belongs to "the state of Afghanistan, and we are not in the business of doing transactions and deals on the assets of the state of Afghanistan."
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we → ask → Afghanistan
When it was pointed out that American taxpayers purchased the equipment, Balkhi said: "The Americans did a lot of things.
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Americans → point → things
Americans killed a lot of people, destroyed the majority of the country.
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Americans → kill → country
Should we not be paying for that first?"
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we → pay → that
The Taliban waged a vicious insurgency during a war that killed more than 2,400 U.S. service members and tens of thousands of innocent Afghans.
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that → wag → Afghans
But critics of the Biden administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal say it's allowed the Taliban to transform from insurgents into a state military force armed with billions of dollars in American-funded firepower.
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Taliban → say → firepower
They have used those weapons to
on Afghanistan's people, almost completely to work and study, and in the country in ways that some analysts say are even harsher than during the group's previous reign.
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analysts → use → reign
Biden has offered little public commentary on the Afghanistan withdrawal, but he said in September 2021, a month after the Taliban took back control, that he "was not going to extend this 'forever war,' and I was not extending a 'forever exit.'
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I → offer → exit
"
"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision," said the then-president in August 2021, as the Taliban reasserted their rule 20 years after being ousted by the U.S.-led military campaign.
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Taliban → reinforce → campaign
"American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves."
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forces → fight → themselves
In 2023, the Biden
a 12-page summary of a classified review of the Afghanistan exit that largely blamed the Trump administration for the deal it struck with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces from the country by May 2021.The so-called Doha Agreement brokered by the first Trump administration laid out a series of conditions for the Taliban to fulfill in order for U.S. forces to leave.
uncertain
forces → blame → for
Another
partially declassified and released by the State Department in 2023 faulted both the Trump and Biden administrations for "insufficient" planning surrounding the withdrawal.
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Another → declassify → withdrawal
The Aporia
