The students of Allen High School have a very unique perspective on the Afghanistan War. In fact most, if not all students currently enrolled have never physically or cognitively lived in a world without it.

From the attack on the World Trade Center in 9/11, to the rapid fall of Kabul and the final U.S. troops leaving on August 30, our generation’s war has ended. And now, Allen students’ viewpoints are as important as ever. The majority consensus from the students interviewed is that yes, the U.S. should have left Afghanistan. 

“I do think it was a good idea to withdraw. Back then when we were trying to put in more and more troops to fight the Taliban and to fight whatever was going on over there, the more we put in, it never really worked that well,” sophomore Joyce Lin said. “I feel like if we stay there for even longer, we’re just going to be pulling on something that isn’t ever going to benefit us.”

The questions of whether or not this country’s constant efforts had any real effect on the region have been asked since the war’s inception.

“We’ve spent our soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan, there is American blood spilled in Afghanistan. For what joy,” junior Rhea Kanuparthi said. “We brought stability to that region, we brought freedom to that region, we trained their forces, we bolstered their defense, to some point, you have to ask the question, what more can the United States do.”

Whether or not we should have been there in the first place is a bit more divided. 

“It should have been done a long time ago, and we never should have been there in the first place.,” sophomore Logan Whisenhunt said.

The purpose of avenging 9/11 seemed like a valid justification.

“I do believe we should have captured Osama Bin Laden, but that was the only thing we should of come there for,” senior Noa Yurman said.

How the U.S. handled our withdrawal was unanimously criticized. 

“I think we had to withdraw at some point. It was bound to happen, but the way that we did it so suddenly, and the circumstances that Afghanistan was in especially after the president fled, and then we were all like ‘let’s just withdraw now.’ Such a bad move, I think.” Lin said.

Both President Biden and U.S. intelligence have been the primary targets for accountability. 

“I think Biden needs to take some responsibility,” Whisenhunt said. “I think the intelligence agencies also need to take some responsibility for failing to predict correctly how much time we had and executed.”

To some, taking accountability could be spread more universally.

“We should have prepared a little more efficiently, and we should have prepared them better,” junior Ryan Hwang stated.

A major comparison being used by many is the measurement between Kabul and the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Whether or not that’s a fair comparison isn’t black and white. 

“I think that the comparison is a little bit skewed. There’s no such thing as a peaceful retreat. I think I need to assert this, there is no such thing as us leaving a country in a graceful manner, that’s never going to happen,” Kanuparthi said.

The results of such an event could have possibly been the most favorable of a bad situation.

“I think it’s a pretty fair comparison,” Whisenhunt said. “Although I will give Biden a little bit of credit, he was under overwhelming pressure with the Taliban and their timeframe was just too short for him to make a safe withdrawal.”

Some students think that the best course of action as of right now is to evacuate as many civilians as possible. 

“It’s like, right now, it’s impossible to take all the innocent civilians and evacuate them from the horrible, horrible situation they’re currently in,” Hwang said. “But then right now, we should focus on evacuating a lot of them.”

Considering the living situations of many, accepting refugees is considered the highest priority.

“I think as a country right now, the best we can do is bring in as many migrants or refugees as we possibly can,” Whisenhunt said.

As the U.S.’s time overseas expires, many are left to worry for the lives left in Afghanistan once the last plane leaves, and if our decades over there meant anything. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the war and whether it was a good thing, one stance remains clear, and will continue to for a long, long time. 

“I think it’s a tragedy, what happened. I think it’s something that we’re mourning as a country,” Kanuparthi said.