A well-thumbed copy of Not a Good Day to Die, which tells how American forces practically got here undone combating in Afghanistan within the early levels of the conflict, lies on a mattress in a abandoned United States barrack room at Kabul airport.
On a desk subsequent to it are two water bottles, a few empty bullet casings and a smoke grenade. A bottle of Tabasco scorching sauce – a United States army staple – sits on one other.
In a separate room, an amazing scent of rotting meals pervades as a Taliban fighter armed with an M16 rifle takes footage on his cell phone.
A month after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, indicators of the 20-year US-led occupation are nonetheless seen at Kabul’s airport, together with clear proof of Washington’s humiliating exit.
US medical kits, vests, footwear, mattresses, rest room paper, paperwork and different objects are scattered in regards to the army quarters of the airport, not but disposed of by the brand new rulers of the devastated nation.
“The Taliban takeover was unimaginable … however the US exit was really unthinkable,” stated an Afghan safety guard who had a front-row seat of the withdrawal operation from the civilian facet of the airport.
The panic and confusion because the Taliban entered the capital was plain to see, he stated.
“It was the primary time I noticed US troopers like this.”
The state of what has been left behind bears testimony to the panicked exit.
In a discipline clinic on the US camp, subsequent to a small hearth station, first support kits are held on sandbags a couple of metres from an outside gymnasium, a volleyball courtroom and a gathering room with crimson chairs that resembles an indoor cinema.
A robust scent of disinfectant rises from the rooms, the place containers of medical tools are nonetheless untouched and folding beds lined in gray sheets are left open.
In a part of the army facet of the airport this week, dozens of broken planes and automobiles had been cordoned off by Taliban barricades product of something from umbrellas to folding metallic chairs.
Deserted Afghan army uniforms litter the flooring of hangars stuffed with bullet-riddled helicopters.
Standing subsequent to a small airplane with no doorways, a Taliban fighter appears to be like at shattered home windows and says loudly with a smile: “Growth, growth, growth.”