KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Days after President Joe Biden said there will not be a Vietnam-style evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, the U.S. has announced it is sending 3,500 troops back to the county to evacuate the capital city of Kabul.
The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating as the Taliban have captured most of Afghanistan’s major cities in recent days and Kabul is expected to fall in weeks.
Now, the prospect of an American withdrawal similar to the fall of Saigon in 1975 is imminent. As North Vietnamese Army tanks rolled down the streets of Saigon, thousands of desperate South Vietnamese citizens begged to be taken away with the Americans at the embassy gates. Iconic photos of the embassy evacuation with helicopters landing on the roof as the NVA rolled into the city depicted a tragic and national embarrassment for America as our involvement in the Vietnam war ended.
Now, Joe Biden is hoping his administration doesn’t meet the same fate after the Taliban launched an offensive tied to Biden’s withdrawal of troops.
The Afghanistan army has been defeated and in some cases, simply retreated from the advancing Taliban forces.
On Thursday, the Taliban had captured the famed Helmand Province where American soldiers and Marines fought tough battles to secure the province during America’s twenty-year war there. 126 American troops died during the 2006 Helmund campaign.
Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Kandahar has also fallen into the hands of the Taliban in the past 24 hours. Now, the U.S. is asking the Taliban not to attack the American embassy when the city is captured later this summer.
The U.S. will now send three combat infantry battalions into Kabul to assist with the evacuation. Now, Joe Biden’s plan to pull all U.S. troops out of the country by September 11th has been delayed as the U.S. instead will have the additional troops in the country within the next 24 hours.