To stay or go? Afghans brace for Taliban rule as US exits.
The shock realization of Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban crystallized for Zarghona Alakozai as she raced home Sunday from the law courts in Kabul.
Her ears were ringing with the panicked cries of Afghans that the Taliban had arrived in the capital. On the way she found Afghan police officers begging their superiors to let them strip off their uniforms and give up their guns to the Taliban, so as to save themselves.
The female judge confronted the men, pleading.
“Why are you surrendering? ... Fight the Taliban!” Ms. Alakozai says she shouted. One officer replied, adding an apology: “Our [political] leaders are traitors; they don’t allow us to fight and they fled. We have to surrender. We are sorry, we can’t defend you.”
The episode – repeated countless times in recent weeks, as U.S.-trained Afghan security forces collapsed in the face of a Taliban juggernaut, often without
“Serve and secure our people”Leniency for captured troops