In the end, everything happened in rapid succession: the arrival of the entire contingent of the security force could no longer be waited for.
On Sunday, aerial photographs showed the hasty evacuation of the American embassy in Kabul.
Black Hawk helicopters flew back and forth between the diplomatic mission complex and the airport.
Clouds of smoke rose from the roof of the embassy.
The American side confirmed that they were in the process of destroying “sensitive documents” that they did not want to leave the Taliban.
On Sunday it was said that most of the diplomats and civilian employees should be flown out in the next 72 hours.
So far, Biden's policy had been to leave the country by August 31.
First the embassy staff are brought to safety, then other American citizens, then Afghans with immigrant visas.
It is also examining whether people who are currently in the process of applying for their visas could be removed from the country, as well as Afghan nationals who worked as local staff in the embassy.
In the forward defense
A core group of diplomats was taken to an American facility at the airport, where they are to remain indefinitely. The embassy will be closed on Tuesday at the latest. Just two days ago, the State Department spokesman said the embassy would remain open. Given the circumstances, these words no longer lasted. The withdrawal is so chaotic that Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney said it was not about ending an endless war, but rather a surrender that strengthens the enemy.
In the face of the disaster, the Biden administration switched to crisis communication. While the American negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad continued to try to get assurances in talks with the Taliban in Qatar that the Islamists would not attack the embassy, they spread images via social media that were supposed to humiliate Washington: In several cities that the Taliban after the Some of the government troops took the collapse without a fight, they posed with armored "Humvee" vehicles and heavy weapons with which the Americans had equipped the Afghan armed forces. It was said that more sensitive equipment was taken with them when they withdrew. Video recordings from Kandahar airport showed how the Taliban presented a Black Hawk helicopter to the Afghan armed forces.
In view of these images and criticism from the Republicans, Biden went into forward defense: from his weekend seat at Camp David, after video consultations with his core security cabinet, he published a statement that was intended to demonstrate determination and assign responsibility for the disaster to others: The President first recalled that the operation in Afghanistan had led to the death of Osama bin Laden, whose terrorist network al-Qaeda had also been dismantled. Biden insisted that another military presence for a year or five years would not change anything if the Afghan armed forces “cannot or will not” defend their own country.