The Taliban offensive continued in Afghanistan Wednesday and Thursday, as six more provincial capital cities came under their patrol. The video above shows Pentagon spokesman John Kirby discussing the future of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city.
“No potential outcome has to be inevitable, including the fall of Kabul, which everybody seems to be reporting about. It doesn’t have to be that way,” Kirby said. “And I think it’s going to be it really depends on the kind of political and military leadership that the Afghans can muster to turn this around. They have the capability, they have the capacity. And now it’s really time to use those things.”
The fall of the capitals of Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces to the northeast and Farah province to the west Wednesday gave the Taliban control of two-thirds of the nation. On Thursday they sized Ghazni, which allowed them to cut off a crucial highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s southern provinces. Later in the day, they captured Kandahar and Herat, Afghanistan’s second and third larges cities respectively. There is increasing pressure on the country’s central government to stem the tide of the advance, even after it lost a major base in Kunduz.
Despite this, Kirby expressed confidence in the Afghan government.
“They have the advantage in numbers, in operational structure, in air forces and in modern weaponry, and it’s really about having the will and the leadership to use those advantages to their own benefit,” Kirby said. “We are providing some support from the air. But this is really an Afghan strategy and they should speak to that.”
As Kirby noted, the U.S. military has conducted some airstrikes, but largely has avoided involving itself in the ground campaign. Those airstrikes have not made a strategic difference thus far and are scheduled to end when the United States formally ends its role in the war on Aug. 31. President Joe Biden could continue airstrikes after that, but given his firm stance on ending the war, that seems unlikely.
“They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation,” Biden said.
Senior U.S. military officials had cautioned Biden that a full U.S. withdrawal could lead to a Taliban takeover, but the president had decided back in April that continuing the war was a waste.