NATO debates the lessons of mission creep in Afghanistan

NATO foreign ministers are debating a report on the lessons to learn from the military organization’s 18-year presence in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan

RIGA, Latvia -- Barely 3 months after the chaotic U.S.-run troop evacuation from Afghanistan, NATO foreign ministers met Wednesday to debate a rapidly compiled report on the lessons to be learned from the military organization’s 18-year security presence in the conflict-ravaged country.

NATO took over the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2003, almost two years after a U.S.-led coalition invaded the country to oust the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who was shot dead in Pakistan in 2011.

It helped build up an Afghan army said to be around 300,000-strong, although the force was so riddled with corruption that even real troop numbers were unclear. Whatever its size, that army withered in just days in August in the face of a Taliban offensive.

In late August, more than 100,000 people were evacuated from Kabul during the frenzied final days of a U.S. airlift after President Joe Biden said American troops would leave. Thousands of Afghans remained, desperate to escape the uncertainty of Taliban rule.