After the return of the Taliban
Grief and shock among Afghan American veterans
American soldiers within the international coalition led by Washington that captured Kabul about 20 years ago.
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US military losses in Afghanistan to no avail have grieved veterans.
AFP
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Ten years after his return from Afghanistan, Mark Silvestri was convinced that his remaining comrades should leave, too, but the former US Army soldier was struck by the massive chaos left by the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.
"The last days have been tough," the 43-year-old, who oversees Prevere's Veterans Services in Massachusetts, told AFP: "I was in favor of withdrawal, I thought it was time, but after 20 years and billions of dollars spent, I still haven't been able to do so." I was not expecting the speed and boldness of the movement of the (Taliban).”
He continues, "I never expected that the training, and the money we invested in the Afghan army, would be in vain, and that he would hand over his weapons and surrender his country. This was a shock to me."
The reactions of the veterans of the Afghanistan war in the United States to the sudden victory of the "Taliban" movement varied between shock and anger, surrender and anxiety about their Afghan allies, and citizens in the United States suffering from the catastrophic end of the American intervention.
Within days, the Afghan army and government collapsed, and on Sunday Kabul fell without a fight, the Taliban entered the capital while President Ashraf Ghani fled.
These developments led to desperate scenes as thousands of Afghans flocked to the airport in an attempt to flee, while foreign governments struggled to evacuate their employees and nationals.
And the former combatant, Chad Fross, believes that the withdrawal of US forces "would have been chaotic anyway", regardless of who is in power in Afghanistan, because of the failure to truly understand this country.
“A lot of people will ask why this happened?
For me, my presence there was in vain and it was absurd, to see friends killed there, or lose members of their bodies or minds, and my awareness of the uselessness of that increases, as the same result was recorded after an existence that lasted 20 years.”
Help us..we left them
Frousse and others see the fate of women as a sore point with the Taliban seizing power.
During its rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2011, the extremist Taliban movement greatly limited women's freedom, forbidding them to leave the home without a mahram, and forbidding girls to attend school.
One of the objectives of the US invasion in 2001 was to change this situation, and this happened to most women, especially in the cities.
However, these gains, which were extracted with difficulty, may vanish with the return of the "Taliban" to power.
Fross confirms: "These ideals, which we thought we had intervened to guarantee, are among the things that annoy many people, and they bother me too."
Democratic US President Joe Biden defended his decision to move forward with the withdrawal, while acknowledging that the recorded footage was "disturbing and distressing."
He also pledged to evacuate thousands of American and Afghan nationals who had worked with the American forces and now feared Taliban reprisals.
This pledge is closely watched in the United States, where for many veterans it is unimaginable to leave the Afghans who worked alongside them, with a "real fear" of Taliban retaliation.
"Help us," Fros says, in a situation he shares with veterans, told by Agence France-Presse: "We are leaving them to manage their affairs.
In a statement on Monday, the Afghan American Veterans Association called on the US authorities to "not waste any more time" to remove Afghans who worked with the Americans and transfer them to the United States.
"We must deliver on our promises to those who have made so many sacrifices for us," the association's executive vice president, Tom Porter, said in a statement.
Everything went to waste
"I hear a lot of anger," Potter told AFP, adding that it was not due to the withdrawal, but to "the messy way we're taking them out."
He referred to the scenes of the Americans leaving Saigon, which are now widespread, with social media pioneers comparing what happened there and what is happening in terms of withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Silvestri says that a Vietnam War veteran called him with the collapse, to say: "I never imagined that I would witness this again, it brought me back to the scenes of the fall of Saigon."
He adds that he spoke to a number of the veterans and their families, who are now wondering if their sacrifices were in vain.
"I think the best thing each of us can do is listen," he told AFP, with many organizations sending messages in recent days reminding of the support and assistance services available to veterans.
He adds, "I want families to know that their children did not die for a lost cause, at least they were fighting for us. Some were unable to return home so that some of us could do so."
For many of the old soldiers, the idea of leaving the Afghans who worked alongside them is unimaginable, with a "real fear" of Taliban retaliation.
The reactions of the Afghan war veterans in the United States to the sudden victory of the "Taliban" movement varied between shock and anger, surrender and concern about their Afghan allies and citizens in the United States suffering from the catastrophic end of the American intervention.
• The veteran in Afghanistan, Mark Silvestri, says that one of the Vietnam War veterans called him with the collapse, to say: "I never imagined that I would witness this again, it brought me back to the scenes of the fall of Saigon."
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