Sacrifice & sorrow

Looking back over 20 years of U.S. war in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Joe Biden has announced a withdrawal of all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September, about 20 years after the start of a war provoked by the deadliest terror assault on the United States.

Biden’s plan, announced Wednesday, is to pull out all the American forces — now numbering 2,500 — by Sept. 11, the anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon that were coordinated from Afghanistan by the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

There were 2,500 to 3,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when Biden took office, the smallest number since early in the war. The number peaked at 100,000 during President Barack Obama’s first term.

Associated Press photographers have recorded the two-decade conflict from every angle. So many of their images have conveyed the drama and grim reality of battle: U.S. Marines nearly swallowed in clouds of swirling sand as they returned fire on Taliban shooters; a Marine with shrapnel wounds to his face and body peering out from behind bloodied bandages; an Air Force paramedic draping an American flag over the remains of two U.S. soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device; Marines rushing a comrade who had been shot in the chest to a waiting medevac helicopter.

They also have captured the unexpected — such as when a soldier roused from sleep during an attack rushed to a defensive position in Restrepo wearing his bright red-and-white “I Love New York” boxer shorts — and the poignant, including a frame of a soldier sitting on his top bunk after hanging a hand-drawn American flag sent by friends with the message “We Support Our Troops!”

As U.S. war casualties have declined, the American public has lost interest in the Afghanistan conflict, and the withdrawal of troops is likely to be politically popular.

But some are warning that it could lead to another power grab by the Taliban and an undoing of the democratic gains the country has made over the past 20 years.

The move is also likely to spark criticism from Republicans — even though former President Donald Trump also said he wanted a full troop withdrawal.

(File Photo/AP/Anja Niedringhaus) A U.S. Marine walks to pick up food supplies after they were dropped off by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 9, 2011. The smoke in the background comes from burning parachutes the Marines destroy after they reached the ground.

(File Photo/AP/Brennan Linsley) Wounded U.S. Marine Sgt. Shane Hanley (center), a squad leader from Easy Company, 2-2 Marines, receives treatment by U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan while airborne in an Army Task Force Pegasus medevac helicopter, shortly after Hanley was wounded, in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan on Feb. 9, 2010. Hanley, of Punxsutawney, Pa., who agreed to have photos of himself published, suffered shrapnel injuries to the left side of his body, face and eye when an improvised explosive device detonated below him while he was on a foot patrol.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province on May 11, 2009. Spc. Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, (far left) was wearing ‘I love NY’ boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, La., and Jordan Custer of Spokane, Wash., center.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) U.S. Marines, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, return fire on Taliban positions near the town of Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan on May 2, 2008.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, 1st Battalion 5th Marines rest along a tree line after arriving in an overnight air assault near the Taliban stronghold of Nawa in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on July 2, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/ David Goldman) Tyson Hicks, 2, holds an American flag while in the arms of his father, Sgt. 1st Class Gabriel Hicks, who had just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan with the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team on Sept. 16, 2014, in Macon, Ga.

(File Photo/AP/Anja Niedringhaus) Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued on a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army’s Task Force Lift “Dust Off,” Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 11, 2011. The Army’s ‘Dust Off’ crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry fire mortars from the Korengal Outpost at Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province on May 12, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/Anja Niedringhaus) A U.S. soldier arrives at the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 16, 2013. A Muslim militant group, Hizb-e-Islami, claimed responsibility for the powerful explosion that killed and wounded many and rattled buildings across Kabul.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit try to take shelter from a sand storm at forward operating base Dwyer in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on May 7, 2008.

(File Photo/AP/Julie Jacobson) A CH-47 Chinook helicopter from Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade flies along the edge of red sand dunes where they collide with a river and farmland on its way to retrieve British soldiers after a five-day mission in the Helmand province in Afghanistan on June 24, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/Rodrigo Abd) Spc. Dallas Purdy from Hockley, Texas, hangs a message of support from friends Ashley and Katie Daniels while serving with the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division at COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan on July 29, 2010.

(File Photo/AP/Emilio Morenatti) A child looks on as military vehicles of 5th Striker Brigades drive past his village on the outskirts of Spin Boldak, about 63 miles southeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/David Goldman) 1st Lt. Nikesh Kapadia (center), 24, of Queens, N.Y., with the U.S. Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., stands in the rain while waiting to go through customs at the Transit Center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, on the way home after completing a deployment in Afghanistan on Aug. 10, 2011.

(File Photo/AP/Susan Walsh) Air Force Airman 1st Class Tyler Hitter stands by the transfer cases of Army Warrant Officer Joseph L. Schiro of Coral Springs, Fla., (right) and Army Staff Sgt. Justin C. Marquez of Aberdeen, N.C., as they wait to be lowered from a cargo plane after arriving at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on Oct. 8, 2012. According to the Department of Defense, Schiro and Marquez died in Afghanistan.

(File Photo/AP/David Goldman) Sgt. Joshua Engbrecht (left), 28, of Riverside Calif., and Pfc. Jack Shortridge, 21, of Long Beach Calif., of the U.S. Army’s 1st Platoon Apache Company, 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Combat Brigade 10th Mountain Division based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., give each other haircuts under the stars at Combat Outpost Tangi in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province on Aug. 18, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/Kevin Frayer) U.S. Marine LCpl. Franklin Romans of Michigan, from the 2nd Battalion 2nd Marines “Warlords,” searches a house during an operation in the Garmsir district of the volatile Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Dec. 23, 2009.

(File Photo/AP/David Guttenfelder) U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade rest inside a tent at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on June 9, 2009.

(AP/Jim Mone) A worker installs another board on a bank building across the street from the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.

(The New York Times/Aaron Nesheim) The downtown Minneapolis courthouse is surrounded by concrete barriers and razor wire, and the city has been heavily fortified by National Guard members.

(AP/Jim Mone) A deputy is reflected in the rainwater earlier this month outside the Hennepin County Government Center.

(AP/Jim Mone) A National Guard soldier (center) stands watch with deputies at the restricted-vehicle entrance of the Hennepin County Government Center.

(AP/John Minchillo) Fencing and concrete barriers surround the home of former Brooklyn Center, Minn., officer Kim Potter as police guard her residence last week in Champlin. Potter was charged with second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright. Brooklyn Center’s police chief said he believed that Potter had mistakenly grabbed her handgun instead of her Taser.

(The New York Times/Joshua Rashaad McFadden) Workers board up the Star Tribune newspaper building earlier this month near the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin is taking place. Chauvin faces charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd last year.

(AP/Jim Mone) A National Guard soldier directs traffic last week at a shopping area in Brooklyn Center. The fatal shooting of Daunte Wright led to protests that turned violent as officers and demonstrators clashed.

(The New York Times/Jenn Ackerman) The National Guard has provided extra security in Minneapolis during Derek Chauvin’s trial.

(The New York Times/Aaron Nesheim) Members of the National Guard secure the Hennepin County Government Center last month at the start of Derek Chauvin’s trial.