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Afghanistan’s arc from 9/11 to today: once hopeful, now sad

FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021 photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, aircrew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assist qualified evacuees boarding a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan. (Senior Airman Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via AP, File) FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021 photo provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, provide assistance during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP, File) FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2021 file photo, U.S. soldiers stand guard along the perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani, File) FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2021 file photo, a U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Helicopters are landing at the embassy as diplomatic vehicles are leaving the compound amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File) FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2021 file photo, Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi, File) FILE - In this May 11, 2009 file photo, soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province. Spc. Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, left, was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members, at right, Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, La., and Jordan Custer of Spokan, Wash., center. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File) FILE - In this May 13, 2013 file photo, a boy flies his kite on a hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan. Kite flying was banned during the Taliban regime. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File) FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2010 file photo, U.S. Air Force pararescue members ride in the back of their medevac helicopter with the American flag draped over bodies of U.S. soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File) FILE - In this Sept, 8, 2012 file photo, Afghans carry a wreath of flowers during a ceremony commemorating the 11th anniversary of the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud in Kabul, Afghanistan. The charismatic Northern Alliance commander was killed in an al-Qaida suicide bombing two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Urdu writing on wreath reads, "From the Gulam Haidar Khan High School." (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid, File) FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2013 file photo, Afghan Army soldiers participate in morning exercises at a training facility in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File) FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2010 file photo, First Sgt. Yomen English, of Brookland, Ark., with India company, 3rd Battalion 5th Marines, First Marine Division, talks to a boy during a patrol, in Sangin, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic, File) FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2006 file photo, a Canadian soldier, and a soldier from the Afghan National Army, behind wall, walk along a destroyed grape drying silo at the Canadian base near the town of Zhari in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. The holes in the wall are for mounting sticks for drying grapes. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File) FILE - In this July 30, 2010 file photo, a U.S. medevac helicopter arrives for Spc. Jeremy Kuehl, 24, of Altoona, Iowa, from the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, who was seriously wounded when he stepped on an improvised mine near Command Outpost Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley of Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2009 file photo, a child watches military vehicles of 5th Striker Brigades drive past his village on the outskirts of Spin Boldak, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) southeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File) FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2010 file photo, children play on a market cart in the old part of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2011 file photo, a balloon seller riding a bicycle looks towards a woman holding hands with two young girls at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File) FILE - In this June 24, 2010 file photo, farmers harvest wheat outside Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic, File) FILE - In this Dec. 27, 2010 file photo, a woman carries water in a plastic container as she ascends a slope on the way towards her home in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File) FILE - In this March 21, 2006 file photo, men play the traditional game Buzkashi in Kabul, Afghanistan, in a special match held as part of celebrations for the New Year. According the solar calendar used in Afghanistan, the year is 1385. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File) FILE - In this July 12, 2010 file photo, people walk through a market in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan.. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2013 file photo, police officers smoke a water pipe as they enjoy a quiet moment at their checkpoint overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File) FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2001 file photo, an Afghan anti-Taliban fighter pops up from his tank to spot a U.S. warplane bombing al-Qaida fighters in the White Mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. Anti-Taliban forces and U.S. warplanes continued to hit the Tora Bora mountains and the al-Qaida fighters occupying the area. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File) FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2001 file photo, a column of Taliban fighters go through the front line in the village of Amirabad, northern Afghanistan, as hundreds of Taliban defected to the northern alliance, paving the way for the fall of Kunduz where several thousand foreign fighters are thought to remain. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic, File) FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2001 file photo, Northern Alliance soldiers watch as U.S. air strikes pound Taliban positions in Kunduz province near the town of Khanabad, Afghanistan. It has been 20 years since Taliban-led Afghanistan fell to a U.S.-led coalition in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. For Afghans, that means 20 years of change. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)