With stunning speed, the Taliban’s lightning onslaught across Afghanistan reached the capital Kabul itself. By late Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani was said to have left the country. Pictures of helicopters lifting off from the US embassy recalled the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975 — something President Joe Biden dismissed just last month as implausible. This is a tragedy for the people of the country, and a betrayal of the thousands of US and allied troops — and more than 120,000 Afghans — who died in 20 years of war. It is a grave setback, too, for the credibility of the US and of the community of democracies Biden hoped to cement.
塔利班以驚人速度在阿富汗全國各地發起的凌厲攻勢已經觸及首都喀布爾。上周日晚，阿富汗總統阿什拉夫?加尼(Ashraf Ghani)據說已離開這個國家。直升飛機在美國駐阿富汗大使館起飛的景象讓人想起1975年西貢淪陷的羞辱——就在上月，美國總統喬?拜登(Joe Biden)還滿不在乎地認為這種情況是不可能發生的。這是阿富汗人民的悲劇，也是對在20年戰爭中喪生的數千名美國及其盟國官兵以及逾12萬阿富汗平民的背叛。對美國——以及拜登希望鞏固的民主國家陣營——的可信度來說，這也是一個極其嚴重的挫折。