Update May 2025: The Untold Collapse of U.S.–Afghanistan Relations and the Fall We Chose to Ignore

The Fall of Kabul

The fall of Kabul didn’t begin in 2021. It began when we stopped listening, started imposing, and mistook money for understanding.

As of spring 2025, U.S.–Afghanistan relations are strained, marked by humanitarian fallout, deportation controversies, and lingering consequences of America's hasty exit. Far from stabilizing, the situation continues to deteriorate.

 🇺🇸 Humanitarian Aid Cuts

Earlier this year, the U.S. enacted broad foreign aid reductions, resulting in the closure of more than 200 health facilities across 28 provinces. This has left nearly 1.8 million Afghans—many of them women and children—without access to healthcare. Diseases like measles, malaria, and polio are resurging. The World Health Organization warns of a rising maternal death rate due to shuttered reproductive services.

 🛂 Termination of TPS for Afghans

In April 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, under the Trump administration, formally revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 9,000 Afghan nationals living legally in the United States. The policy, effective May 20, 2025, leaves these individuals vulnerable to deportation—many of whom were evacuated in 2021 after assisting U.S. forces or escaping Taliban reprisals.

This move reverses protections originally granted by the Biden administration in 2022 and extended through 2023. Advocacy groups and lawmakers have condemned the revocation, warning that deporting Afghans back to Taliban-controlled territory is a direct threat to their safety and a betrayal of U.S. promises.

 🔐 Taliban Use of Biometric Data

Meanwhile, reports confirm that the Taliban are actively using biometric databases left behind by U.S. and Afghan security forces to identify former collaborators. This includes interpreters, soldiers, and aid workers. Many who returned to their home provinces are now being systematically hunted—using tools the U.S. itself built to fight terrorism.

 Camp Integrity: The Night the Fall Began

Though the world marks Kabul’s fall in August 2021, many point to August 7, 2015 as the moment it truly began—when a fortified U.S. Special Operations compound known as Camp Integrity was attacked by Taliban fighters.

The assault, which killed Green Beret 1st Sgt. Peter McKenna, came amid a series of devastating attacks:

 A truck bomb in Shah Shaheed injured over 240.

 A suicide bombing at the Kabul Police Academy killed 26 cadets.

 In September, the Taliban captured Kunduz, their first major city in over a decade.

These weren’t isolated events. They marked a shift in momentum and proved the Afghan government couldn’t hold the line without Western muscle.

 A Government Built on Fragile Foundations

Despite the U.S. spending over \$88 billion to build the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), they collapsed in weeks once American support was withdrawn. Why? Because the U.S. built a government in its own image—not Afghanistan’s.

 Ashraf Ghani: A Leader Without a Nation

Elected in 2014, President Ashraf Ghani had lived most of his life in the U.S., worked for the World Bank, and only returned to Afghanistan after 2001. Though he renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009 to run for office, his westernized demeanor and lack of tribal connections made him deeply unpopular among many Afghans.

His administration—viewed as corrupt, insulated, and elite—never built the loyalty required to lead a nation at war. His sudden escape from Kabul in 2021, reportedly with millions in cash, only solidified his legacy as a president who never had the country’s heart.

 The Taliban: A Government We Refused to See

By labeling the Taliban purely as terrorists, the U.S. ignored their political function. In many rural provinces, they governed more effectively than Kabul—collecting taxes, resolving disputes, and even delivering aid. This refusal to recognize the complexity of Afghan society led to strategies that failed again and again.

 A Warning for Iraq: History Is Rhyming

What happened in Afghanistan wasn’t just a failure—it was a blueprint for future mistakes. And now, that same pattern is unfolding in Iraq.

Since 2003, the U.S. has rebuilt Iraq’s military, poured billions into its institutions, and backed central governments that lack real legitimacy in key regions. Today, Iraq struggles to police its own cities, confront foreign militias, and assert authority over autonomous factions.

If we continue to impose American structures without cultural grounding, we risk watching another U.S.-backed state collapse the moment we leave.

 Conclusion: Kabul's Fall Was a Strategy Failure, Not a Tactical One

Kabul didn’t fall because of one bad day. It fell because we misunderstood the country, the enemy, and ourselves. We believed airstrikes could substitute for diplomacy, and dollars could build loyalty. We imposed leadership instead of fostering it, and when our institutions cracked, we blamed the Afghans for failing to hold up our illusions.

Now, even as Afghan allies face deportation and Taliban reprisals, we’re repeating these same mistakes elsewhere.

We didn’t lose Afghanistan in 2021. We lost it in our assumptions, and we’re doing it again.