Afghanistan one month after the fall of Kabul: Taliban back, Haqqanis in power, and al Qaeda lurks

One month after the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan is a more dangerous place. 

Americans and Afghan allies are still stranded, a new Taliban “caretaker” government is populated by terrorists, and there are worrying predictions al Qaeda's presence in the country will continue to grow.

The U.S. Embassy was abandoned in mid-August, and Hamid Karzai International Airport erupted into chaos as Americans and Afghans attempted to flee when the Taliban marched into Kabul, with at least one Afghan plummeting to his death after clinging to a U.S. aircraft. Thousands of U.S. troops had to be sent back into the country to assist with the airlift evacuation and to protect the airport, with the Taliban just outside the perimeter. 

Helicopters evacuating personnel out of the U.S. Embassy were immediately compared to infamous images from Saigon in the 1970s. President Joe Biden had promised that such imagery would not occur in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in a helicopter, denying reports he had taken suitcases full of money with him.