August 31 is the anniversary of the day that the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Now a national holiday in Afghanistan, it celebrates the Afghan victory after a 20 year war that killed millions.
The US had entered the war because the Taliban had refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the US without evidence or trial. The US chose to attack instead, and for the next 20 years the US military was able to rape, murder, pillage, and torture with impunity.
Thank you for your post! I'm out of town for the next week or so, and all my posts for the next week are all prewritten. But I really want to read into this in more detail when I'm back in town.