The toll for Afghans has been far higher: At least 240,000 Afghans have died, many of them civilians, according to the Watson Institute at Brown University. By some estimates, American taxpayers had spent nearly two trillion dollars on the effort, with few assurances of anything lasting to show for it. The Taliban, by contrast, went into the negotiations far stronger than before. Their safe haven in Pakistan, to which they had fled in 2001, had turned into a supply line. Nor did it keep the Taliban from an all-out military push to take over the country.

Source: International New York Times August 23, 2021 07:00 UTC