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

KABUL, Afghanistan — By the time Ghulam Maroof Rashid’s fiftieth birthday handed, he had spent greater than one-third of his life preventing for the Taliban on one battlefield or one other in Afghanistan. He believed they might ultimately win the warfare however had no concept that this 12 months would lastly be its finish.

“We once thought that maybe the day would come when we would not hear the sound of an airplane,” he stated this month whereas sitting on the dusty pink carpet of a governor’s compound in Wardak Province. “We’ve been very tired for the last 20 years.”

In the final 12 months of the warfare, the Taliban’s lightning navy offensive, the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities and the withdrawal of the final American troops, have led to an upheaval as profound because the U.S. invasion in 2001 — 20 years in the past this month.

Now, former fighters like Mr. Rashid are grappling with governance. A technology of girls are struggling to maintain a sliver of area in public life. And Afghans throughout the nation are questioning what comes subsequent.

Mr. Rashid’s story is just one within the kaleidoscope of experiences Afghans have shared through the years of the American warfare that formally started on Oct. 7, 2001, when the darkish silhouette of U.S. bombers clouded the Afghan skies.

Since then, a technology of Afghans in city areas grew up spirited by an inflow of worldwide support. But for greater than 70 % of the inhabitants dwelling in rural areas, the lifestyle remained largely unchanged — aside from these caught below the violent umbrella of the Western warfare effort that displaced, wounded and killed hundreds.

The New York Times spoke to 5 Afghans concerning the sudden finish of the American warfare in Afghanistan, and the uncertainty that lies forward.

The Insurgent

A younger intelligence officer with the Taliban within the Nineties, Mr. Rashid remembers the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: “I started farming at first but then became a teacher in the village school,” he stated about his life after the Taliban’s collapse. “Then, we started our jihad.”

Soon, they have been planting Russian-made mines and home made explosive units on the roads, one of many deadliest techniques of the warfare. Mr. Rashid stated he primarily fought in Chak, his dwelling district. That district fell to the Taliban about 4 months in the past.

“I remember because we paid the army soldiers some money so they could travel to their homes,” he stated. “I didn’t expect that two months later all Americans would have left and we would be visiting our friends in Kabul.”

Mr. Rashid has discovered himself as soon as extra within the Taliban authorities. He goes to work on the Wardak governor’s workplace on daily basis, sleeps along with his household each night time and not shudders on the metallic whir of plane overhead.

The NGO Worker

When the Taliban started its brutal advance throughout the nation this 12 months, Khatera, 34, thought of her daughter, simply 14 years previous — the identical age Khatera was when she discovered of her impromptu engagement throughout the first Taliban regime to stave off the potential of being compelled to wed a Talib.

“I knew what life would look like,” she recalled because the insurgents returned in what appeared like an unstoppable pressure. “Female season was over.”

She mirrored on the profession she constructed — from a broadcaster at a radio station to the challenge supervisor for a world support group — over the previous 20 years. “I had the pleasure of independence and economic freedom,” she stated. “When I was getting into those doors, I saw what life could be.”

In the primary few weeks for the reason that Taliban took over, a lot of that freedom is gone. Khatera is afraid to ship her youngsters to highschool. She is afraid to go to her workplace and is aware of that even when she is ready to, she couldn't return to her previous job. The worldwide support group she works for put a person in her place to speak with the Taliban.

“This is the worst feeling as a woman, I feel helpless,” she stated.

The Soldier

On a latest day in September, Shir Agha Safi, 29, stood in entrance of two Marine navy law enforcement officials outdoors the tent metropolis on the bottom in Quantico, Va., that was now his non permanent dwelling. He had been evacuated from Afghanistan this summer season, together with hundreds of others.

“I never believed that would happen, that all of Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban,” Mr. Safi stated, though he had spent the final 12 months on one of the vital risky entrance strains in Afghanistan.

Until Aug. 15, he had been an intelligence officer within the Afghan Army, after becoming a member of the U.S.-backed navy pressure greater than a decade earlier.

Both of the Marines, when requested, had by no means heard of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province, the place Mr. Safi had spent months locked in a bloody city battle with the Taliban. A cascade of suicide bombings and airstrikes, each Afghan and American, destroyed a lot of town, leaving tons of of combatants and civilians useless and wounded.

“At that time we still had hope,” Mr. Safi stated of the battle for Lashkar Gah, which dragged by the summer season as surrounding districts collapsed. “We never thought to surrender.”

Where Mr. Safi will find yourself after he leaves Quantico is something however clear, although he understands he could be positioned in a house elsewhere within the United States.

“Do you know about Iowa?” he requested.

The Civilian

Abdul Basir Fisrat, 48, has pushed vehicles alongside the Herat-Kandahar-Kabul route for 35 years, however throughout the twilight months of the American warfare, that path traced the collapse of a lot of the nation because the Taliban swept towards the capital.

The first district that he noticed fall was Nawrak, in Ghazni Province, about 5 months in the past. He was relieved to see it go: A safety checkpoint staffed by troopers from the earlier authorities used to fireside on his truck, demanding cash to go. After it was seized, he stated, “we thanked God that we were saved from the oppression of the government soldiers.”

Mr. Fisrat lives in Kandahar along with his household, however he makes the 1,000-mile journey at any time when there's work. He has made due with out an schooling and pushed below 5 completely different Afghan governments for the reason that Eighties, two of them dominated by the Taliban.

Now Mr. Fisrat, who owns three vehicles, has the potential to pocket what he was paying in hundreds of {dollars} in bribes to the Afghan authorities. Under the Taliban, he pays none. It could be a big windfall, if it was not for the worsening economic system that has made journeys fewer and much between. But the dearth of preventing means he can go the place he needs when he needs: “If I want to, I will leave in the middle of the night,” he stated.

The Civil Servant

The lifetime of Samira Khairkhwa, 25, encapsulates the positive aspects made for Afghan girls throughout the warfare years, and the ambition these advances spurred in lots of them.

After ending faculty within the north, she discovered her strategy to Kabul, the capital, by a program for youth management funded by U.S.A.I.D., and by 2018, she landed a job engaged on the re-election marketing campaign for Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani. From there, she grew to become the spokeswoman for the state-run electrical firm in Kabul. She had desires of ultimately operating for president herself.

But because the Taliban pressed their relentless advance over the summer season, Ms. Khairkhwa started to have nightmares. “I dreamed that the Taliban came to our office and our house,” she stated. She stored these visions to herself, frightened that telling anybody may make them a actuality.

On Aug. 15, Ms. Khairkhwa was headed to the workplace when she bought caught within the snarl of panicked site visitors in Kabul. She stopped in a restaurant, uploaded a clip of the chaos that ended up on the information, and made her means dwelling.

“We didn’t believe that America would leave Afghanistan in this situation,” she stated. “That the Taliban would return or that Ghani would surrender. But once it happened we were shocked.”

Safiullah Padshah and Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting.