Five years ago this month, the world watched Afghanistan collapse with stunning speed. Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021.
Two weeks later, following President Joe Biden’s order to withdraw all remaining U.S. forces, the last American troops departed Afghanistan.
But how much do you remember about what happened next?
A. The Taliban’s return to power reversed two decades of progress for Afghan women and girls.
B. The withdrawal ended America’s major counterterrorism concerns in Afghanistan.
C. Thirteen American service members were killed while carrying out the evacuation from Kabul.
A. TRUE. Before the Taliban returned, millions of Afghan girls attended school, women studied at universities, worked, served in government, and participated in public life.
That changed rapidly after August 2021.
The Taliban barred girls from secondary education and women from universities, imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s employment and movement, and steadily erased women from public life. By 2025, nearly eight in ten young Afghan women were outside education, employment, or training.
The consequences of the fall of Kabul were therefore not merely military or geopolitical. For an entire generation of Afghan women, they were profoundly personal.
B. LIE. Leaving Afghanistan did not mean the terrorist threat simply disappeared.
ISIS-K remained active in Afghanistan after the withdrawal, while the Taliban once again controlled the country that had previously provided sanctuary to al-Qaeda.
The most immediate reminder came before the withdrawal was even complete. On August 26, 2021, an ISIS-K suicide bomber attacked Abbey Gate at Kabul airport, killing approximately 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American service members.
Withdrawal ended America’s military presence in Afghanistan. It did not end the challenge of preventing Afghanistan from again becoming a sanctuary for terrorists.
C. TRUE. Thirteen American troops died at Abbey Gate while helping evacuate Americans and Afghans from Kabul.
They were 11 Marines, one Soldier, and one Navy corpsman.
They were killed just four days before the final American military aircraft departed Afghanistan. President Biden attended their dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, but several Gold Star families later publicly criticized his conduct and said they felt their loss had been handled without the gravity or accountability it deserved. In the years that followed, families repeatedly pressed for answers about the decisions surrounding the withdrawal and the security failures at Abbey Gate.
No senior administration official resigned or was removed over the collapse of Afghanistan, the chaotic evacuation, or the deaths at Abbey Gate.
Their deaths are an essential part of remembering the withdrawal because America’s departure from Afghanistan was neither bloodless nor without profound sacrifice.
Thirteen Americans carrying out their orders gave their lives in the final days of the war, while the argument over accountability continued long after the last plane left Kabul. In fact, it continues nearly to this day.
Bottom Line
The fall of Afghanistan was more than the chaotic conclusion of America’s longest war. It was a warning about what happens when American resolve collapses faster than the threats we leave behind.
The Taliban returned, women and girls lost freedoms they had been promised, terrorists regained space to operate, and 13 American service members were killed in the final days of the evacuation.
Five years later, the lesson is not that America should fight everywhere forever. It is that retreat has consequences, weakness is noticed, and the world becomes more dangerous when our enemies conclude that they can simply wait us out.