2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed the United States–Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar, which stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The deal, and then the Biden administration's final decision in April 2021 to pull out all US troops by September 2021 without leaving a residual force, were the two critical events that triggered the start of the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban at the detriment of the ANSF fighting the Taliban insurgency, leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15 August 2021.
American airmen board a C-17 at Al Udeid Air Base during the withdrawal, 27 April 2021
U.S. President Donald Trump and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the United Nations General Assembly, 2 October 2017
General Austin S. Miller became commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in September 2018 and oversaw the withdrawal until July 2021.
General Austin Miller, US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meet with Taliban representatives Abdul Ghani Baradar, Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai and Suhail Shaheen in Doha, Qatar, on 12 September 2020
Resolute Support Mission (RSM) or Operation Resolute Support was a NATO-led multinational mission in Afghanistan. It began on 1 January 2015 as the successor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was completed on 28 December 2014. Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2189 of 2014, RSM was a noncombat mission aimed at advising and training Afghan security forces to provide long-term security to the country, under the aegis of the Security and Defence Cooperation Agreement BSA between the United States and Afghanistan, which was originally supposed to run from 1 January 2015 and "shall remain in force until the end of 2024 and beyond" unless terminated with two years' advance notice.
Change of Mission Ceremony from ISAF to Resolute Support, 28 December 2014, Kabul
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to soldiers at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, 9 April 2016
A Dutch soldier fires a Panzerfaust 3 in Afghanistan, 30 September 2020. Over 100 Netherlands Armed Forces personnel participated in the Resolute Support Mission.
Image: General John W. Nicholson, Jr. (cropped)