Gitmo Prisoner Released By Obama Are Now Leading The Taliban

Gitmo Prisoner Released By Obama Are Now Leading The Taliban

Just a month and a half ago, the U.S. president promised that Kabul would not produce images reminiscent of Saigon in 1975, when hopeless Vietnamese tried desperately to board the last American helicopter. Then, after the Kabul airport had been surrounded by the Taliban and Afghans tried to cling to U.S. airplanes as they were taking off, Biden promised to evacuate every American citizen from the country. This, promise, too, proved impossible to fulfil.

Now, the Americans are left to hope that the Taliban learned their lesson from 2001. Back then, they made the mistake of allowing al-Qaida to stay, says Vali Nasr, who worked for the State Department during the Obama administration and now teaches at Johns Hopkins University. But he doesn't think they will repeat it. "The Taliban know that the Americans won’t return because of Shariah or women’s rights. That would only happen if Americans were to die in New York because of a terrorist plan hatched in Afghanistan," he says.