October 15, 2021

'I Never Believed That Would Happen': After 20 Years of War, an Abrupt End

By the time Ghulam Maroof Rashid's 50th birthday passed, he had spent more than one-third of his life fighting for the Taliban on one battlefield or another in Afghanistan. He believed they would eventually win the war but had no idea that this year would finally be its end.

"We once thought that maybe the day would come when we would not hear the sound of an airplane," he said this month while sitting on the dusty red carpet of a governor's compound in Wardak Province. "We've been very tired for the last 20 years."

Clockwise from top left: Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times (2); Victor J. Blue for The New York Times (2); Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

In the last year of the war, the Taliban's lightning military offensive, the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the withdrawal of the last American troops have brought about an upheaval as profound as the U.S. invasion in 2001 — two decades ago this month.

Now, former fighters like Mr. Rashid are grappling with governance. A generation of women is struggling to keep a sliver of space in public life. And Afghans across the country are wondering what will come next.

Mr. Rashid's story is only one in the kaleidoscope of experiences that Afghans have shared over the years of the American war that officially began on Oct. 7, 2001, when the dark silhouette of U.S. bombers clouded the Afghan skies.

Since then, a generation of Afghans in urban areas grew up spirited by an influx of international aid. But for more than 70 percent of the population living in rural areas, the way of life remained largely unchanged — except for those caught under the violent umbrella of the Western war effort that displaced, wounded and killed thousands.

The New York Times spoke to five Afghans about the sudden end of the American war in Afghanistan, and the uncertainty that lies ahead. Read their stories here.

— Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Victor J. Blue, Jim Huylebroek and Christina Goldbaum

Continue reading the main story

Editor's Picks

Here are four stories you might have missed this week.

Lining up for food aid in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia on Sunday.Jemal Countess/Getty Images

"The enemy has been preparing for months, and so have we." The conflict in northern Ethiopia has sharply escalated in recent days, as Ethiopian forces began a sweeping offensive in a bid to reverse recent gains by Tigrayan rebels, according to Western officials and Tigrayan leaders. [Read the article.]

Continue reading the main story

"We need to get them out because the Taliban is actively hunting." More than a month after a frenzied U.S. effort to evacuate thousands facing retribution from the Taliban in Afghanistan, members of Congress are still quietly pushing the government to help extract a small group of stranded Afghans who are direct relatives of American military service members. [Read the article.]

"What he wants is to live in a stable country in peace." Two men who have been held for years without charges at Guantánamo Bay — a Yemeni and an Afghan whose repatriation would most likely require reaching an agreement with the Taliban — have been approved for transfer, according to documents released on Wednesday. [Read the article.]

"It was a rare collaboration." Martin Sherwin originally expected to spend five years on his biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atom bomb, but was incapacitated by what his future co-author called "biographer's disease" — the inability to stop researching and to start writing. Mr. Sherwin died on Wednesday at his home in Washington. He was 84. [Read the article.]

We would love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to atwar@nytimes.com. Or invite someone to subscribe through this link. Read more from At War here, or follow us on Twitter.

Continue reading the main story