On August 30, 2021, the last of the United States forces left Afghanistan due to President Biden’s orders to pull out, attempting to end the 20 year war.

It is known that eliminating military presence is not a great choice when fighting a group such as the Taliban. Not only did we leave citizens in danger, but we left expensive equipment that is now in use by the Taliban. The Taliban are using the equipment against citizens of Afghanistan.

I wanted to know what Afghanistan is like after the Taliban’s takeover. I also wanted to learn about their current situation and what the people do about it, and it seems a large percentage of families are poor with some selling their kidneys to pay for food.

The U.S has frozen assets that if given back would help businesses pay employees for their work, and families would then be able to feed themselves. President Biden is now planning on splitting the seven billion dollars of assets to give to victims of the September 11th attacks.

The Taliban has claimed they have goals and promise to “restore peace and security” even though they treat the people horribly. Right now the United States government has classified Afghanistan as a level four on their travel advisories (Do Not Travel) because of its dangerous conditions. The travel advisory has given a list of risks in Afghanistan that consists of terrorism, armed conflict, kidnapping, civil unrest, and COVID-19. The Taliban is known to disregard human and women’s rights, but how do they do that? Well, education is banned for women, and they are also confined to their homes unless accompanied by a male from their family.

Afghanistan was never a great environment but now it is worse. The Taliban treat other human beings like wild animals and have no respect or value for life. I never truly paid any attention to Afghanistan nor the Taliban, but I believe that the media has not covered it to its fullest extent. I also believe President Joseph Biden did not execute the withdrawal from Afghanistan properly. Not only is their government reformed by the Taliban but they also have the United States forces equipment that is used against the people.

I asked fellow student Mya DiDonna what she knew about the Afghanistan crisis to which she replied “I know very little. It’s been going on since 2001. I know that it’s between the US and the Taliban and it’s about defeating the Taliban and it’s still ongoing but that’s all I know.”

I also asked her if she believed the media covered the crisis adequately and, she told me “I’m sure the media has covered it well and then there’s many many news sources out there but I just recently started paying attention to the news so I’m not really sure but the fact that I don’t know much about it and I’m like in the US history class kind of shows me that I feel like school, and like education should be more about that because that involves the US a lot, but I think like I’m assuming the media is probably covered it I see articles every once in a while unlike my news apps.”

Afghanistan is no longer safe for Americans, or it’s own people. Will there ever be a peaceful time there? Only time will tell.