IOWA, USA — An Iowa veteran who served in Afghanistan for eight years said he feels his service was for nothing.
Army Medic Matt Courter's feelings come as the Taliban, a militant group, seizes power in Afghanistan.
Courter was wounded while serving in Afghanistan 10 years ago, according to a report by KCRG. After recovering, he kept serving oversees but was injured again when shrapnel from a rocket hit him in 2013.
He said the images coming out of the country showing the Taliban taking control are disappointing, especially given the effort that he and others put into training the Afghan military.
"I had actually put time into helping train individuals and seeing them just collapse without putting up a fight, it makes it feel like everything was worthless," said Courter. "I see that Afghanistan is going to go right back to where it was prior to our intervention in 2001 where the Taliban will have complete control over the country and the people."
KCRG reports that Courter has fears that Afghanistan is going to return to how it was 20 years ago, before U.S. intervention.
The crowds came while the Taliban enforced their rule over the capital of 5 million people after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country's Western-backed government. There were no major reports of abuses or fighting, but many residents stayed home and remained fearful after the insurgents' advance saw prisons emptied and armories looted.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he stood “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan and acknowledged that the Afghan government’s collapse was quicker than anticipated.
He had announced in April that he would start pulling troops out of Afghanistan. The withdrawal that was supposed to wrap up at the end of August.