With the last U.S. military plane departing before Monday midnight, America's chaotic and bloody flight in Afghanistan finally came to an end, but things are far from over.
Criticism over the chaotic withdrawal, political uncertainty and possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan became the dominant arguments of the first day after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
'Complete and utter failure'
In his first remarks after the final pullout on Monday, Biden defended his decision on Tuesday, saying that it was the best available option to end both the United States' longest war and decades of fruitless efforts to remake other countries through military force.
He portrayed the chaotic exit as a logistical success that would have been just as messy even if it had been launched weeks earlier, while staying in the country would have required committing more American troops.
However, Biden's decision is not popular: 51 percent of Americans disapprove of his approach to the pullout and only 38 percent support it, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls. He faced criticism from Republicans and fellow Democrats as well as from foreign allies.
Oklahoma Representative Markwayne Mullin tweeted that Biden turned his back on Americans and the administration should be held accountable for this "complete and utter failure."
Screenshot from the Twitter account of U.S. Oklahoma Representative Markwayne Mullin.
U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the departure had abandoned Americans behind enemy lines. "We are less safe as a result of this self-inflicted wound," he said in his home state of Kentucky.
Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, said in an interview with the China Media Group that the Western invasion of Afghanistan was supposed to eliminate terrorism but it had re-emerged in the country with heavy casualties, making the West's so-called war on terror a joke.
About 47,600 civilians have been killed and more than double that number injured in Afghanistan during the 20 years of war, according to figures by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
More uncertainties
Afghan media reported Monday that many Afghan political analysts and citizens criticized that 20 years of aggression and hasty withdrawal of the United States have left a power vacuum that could have dire consequences.
The Taliban hailed victory in a press conference following the exit of the last batch of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, promising peace and stability for the country and saying they would respect the rights of women within the framework of the Islamic Sharia Law, despite its brutal enforcement history between 1996 and 2001.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released Tuesday found that three of four participants believe Afghanistan will once again be used as a sanctuary for terrorists that target the United States.
Senior officials from European Union member states on Tuesday pledged coordination with the United Nations on the stabilization of the region, urging Taliban to cut ties with international terrorists, amid fears of illegal migration.
The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution on Afghanistan, focusing on counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance.
"The chaos in Afghanistan is directly related to the hasty and disorderly withdrawal of foreign troops," Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council.
"We hope that relevant countries will realize the fact that withdrawal is not the end of responsibility, but the beginning of reflection and correction," he said, while urging them to learn from the lessons, and truly respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, and the rights of the Afghan people to determine their own future.
Evacuees wait to board a C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 30, 2021. /Reuters
Humanitarian catastrophe looms
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that a humanitarian catastrophe looms in Afghanistan. "On the day Afghanistan enters a new phase, I want to express my grave concern at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country and the threat of basic services collapsing completely," he said after the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Next week, the United Nations will release details of the most immediate humanitarian needs and funding requirements over the next four months in a flash appeal for Afghanistan. Under-secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths is coordinating the entire UN system in the preparation of the appeal, he said.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, 550,000 people have been forcibly displaced inside Afghanistan this year, joining 2.9 million others already internally displaced across the country at the end of 2020, and 2.6 million Afghans have fled to other countries over the past decades.
The United States spent $2 trillion on fighting that war, but little has been seen on improving the well-being of the Afghan people.