DNA Explainer: Why is August 31 chosen as deadline for US troops pullout from Afghanistan

After spending more than USD 2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan or let's say USD 300 million dollars per day, for two decades the United States is all prepared to leave Afghanistan for good by August 31 after pulling out all its last left forces there. US President Joe Biden announced this on Tuesday, ending a massive two-week airlift from the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, a Taliban official declared that they would not agree to any extension of US and NATO troops pullout from Afghanistan.

Amid all the controversy surrounding the sudden pullout of the US troops from Afghanistan, leading to huge chaos and one of the biggest human exodus with heart-wrenching scenes of desperate Afghans trying to flee the Taliban, we look into why was August 31 chosen by Joe Biden administration to bring the two decades spanned operations to an end.

Why August 31 was chosen as the pullout date?

Former US President Donald Trump and Joe Biden's predecessor to the White House entered into an agreement with the Taliban in February last year that all US forces would withdraw from war-torn Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

When Joe Biden took over as the US President in January this year, he ordered a review of the deadline that the previous administration had set. On April 14, Biden announced a four-month postponement of the pullout deadline.

President Biden had then said that the US and NATO troops will be out of Afghanistan before the country marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. However, critics had warned the administration about the consequences.

In early July, President Joe Biden announced that the US military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31 and the remaining US troops, NATO soldiers, and civilian contractors would be brought back from Afghanistan.

Around 2,500 US troops, several thousand NATO soldiers, and some 16,000 civilian contractors needed to be pulled out of Afghanistan in the last phase, and the focus of the US administration has been on this evacuation.

How things changed

The US also wanted to give the Afghanistan government more time to organise its fight against the Taliban, including handing over previously US-controlled bases and equipment to Afghan forces.

It was expected that the Afghan forces would be able to stop the Taliban for some time. US intelligence was of the belief that the government forces should be able to hold on at least six months after the US departure.

They thought this would give enough time for US citizens and thousands of Afghans and their families who worked for US forces to leave the country and go to the US where they were promised 'special immigrant visas'.

However, this did not happen exactly the way it was planned and the Afghan forces in no time surrendered to the Taliban and subsequently, the US had to emergency airlift the US forces along with the Afghans.

Officials of Britain, France, and Germany signaled they probably could not complete all of their planned evacuations by August 31 and wanted the US to extend into September.  

On Tuesday leaders of the G7 advanced countries held a video summit to discuss staying beyond August 31. However, a Taliban official declared that they would not agree to any extension.

Hours later President Joe Biden announced that he was sticking to the end-of-August target and that his country was on pace to finish the US mission on that date.

(With Agency Inputs)