On August 31, 2021, Major General Chris Donahue of the 82nd Airborne Division became the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan. His departure marked the official end of a 20-year war launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
A single image captured this historic moment. Taken with a night-vision device, the photo showed Donahue walking swiftly toward a C-17 aircraft on the runway of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. Rifle in hand, combat gear strapped on, and night-vision goggles fixed to his helmet, his face bore no expression—yet fear was visible.
That photo was shared by the Pentagon just hours after the final military flight departed Kabul, symbolizing the United States’ defeat and departure.
A War of Two Decades
For two decades, the United States poured its power and resources into Afghanistan, attempting every strategy from counter-terrorism raids to state-building projects. Yet Afghan fighters refused to yield. After years of relentless resistance, the Taliban re-entered Kabul on August 15, 2021, forcing the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government even before the final withdrawal deadline.
America’s retreat echoed the Soviet withdrawal of 1989, when Moscow too had left Afghanistan after nearly a decade of war. Analysts compared Donahue’s photo with that of a Soviet general leaving Kabul, and even further back to the haunting 19th-century painting “Remnants of an Army” depicting the lone survivor of the First Anglo-Afghan War.
History, once again, repeated its lesson: Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.
The Chaos of the Last Days
Donahue and his soldiers carried with them the grim memories of Kabul’s final days. Images of desperate parents handing babies over barbed wire, Afghan youths clinging to aircraft only to fall from the sky, and the devastating suicide attack by ISIS-K on August 26, 2021, which killed 13 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans, remain etched in the world’s conscience.
Though the U.S. managed to airlift 123,000 civilians in its final operation, the departure symbolized not triumph but turmoil. The Taliban had regained control, and the Afghan government had fallen apart before the last American soldier boarded his flight.
Three Years On
Today marks three years since that night. Much has been written—and much will continue to be written—about how the world’s sole superpower spent 20 years in Afghanistan only to depart in failure. The Afghan Taliban emerged victorious, but their victory was not theirs alone; multiple actors and states, overtly and covertly, played roles in shaping the outcome.
Yet, beyond politics, Afghanistan stands as a fortress of defiance, where countless powers have tried and failed to impose their will. From the British in the 19th century, to the Soviets in the 20th, and the Americans in the 21st, the outcome has been the same.
Iqbal’s verse still resonates:
Afghan remains, the mountains remain;
Power belongs to God, sovereignty belongs to God.
Also See : Earthquake Devastates Eastern Afghanistan, Tremors Felt in Pakistan
