Episode 50: 2021 - US withdrawal from Afghanistan

In December 2001, Afghan delegates convened in Bonn, Germany, by the United Nations selected Hamid Karzai to serve as head of an interim national government, marking the beginning of post-Taliban governance. Nine years later, in late 2010, secret negotiations began between a Taliban representative and some U.S. officials. The talks centered largely on confidence-building measures, specifically the issues of a prisoner exchange and the opening of a Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar. In mid-2018, President Trump was reportedly frustrated with the lack of military progress against the Taliban, and he ordered formal and direct U.S.-Taliban talks without Afghan government participation. On April 14, 2021, President Biden announced that the United States would begin a "final withdrawal" on May 1, to be completed by September 11, 2021