Unfortunately, the path forward is not going to be a cookie-cutter one.
For years, Americans hoped we could end the endless war of Afghanistan on a note of peace and prosperity. Four United States presidents later, that expectation never manifested. As the American troops began withdrawing, the Taliban forces returned to power in the capital of Kabul on August 15, toppling the government and shedding more blood in the streets of Kabul. Thousands of Afghans are displaced, and many who helped us fear for their lives. The war in Afghanistan is far from over. Thanks to the botched evacuation efforts of Biden’s administration, the Taliban are now able to pose direct harm to the Americans and its allies by accessing the tools and resources we have left there. Additionally, they can leverage their newly gained power to build new ties with our adversaries, most notably China. As a result, having the Taliban in power will be more costly to humanity now more than ever. One aspect that has been downplayed so far in the media is the Taliban’s access to NATO’s digital information in Afghanistan. While the American forces and diplomats destroyed their sensitive data on Afghans, many data centers across Kabul are readily available for exploitation. For example, the Taliban has seized U.S. military biometric devices containing iris scans and fingerprints of Afghan citizens that can now be utilized to track down those who helped U.S. and NATO forces. According to Politico, “Telecom companies store reams of records on who Afghan users have called and where they’ve been. Government databases include records of foreign-funded projects and associated personnel records. And stashes of biometric data like fingerprints make people easy to identify.” Thomas Warrick, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism official, has also stated that, “There’s almost no doubt that they’ve gotten their hands on an enormously valuable trove of information that they can exploit at their leisure.
