Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule

Overnight, Afghanistan dramatically transformed. One chapter – a twenty-year epoch heralded by the attacks of September 11, the U.S. invasion, and propping up an ailing government – shuttered on August 15, 2021. Another entirely new chapter flipped open under the stringent ruling of the Taliban. Officially termed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it’s a government that triggers immense fear among the population, having reigned with an iron fist pre-9/11 and waged a brutal insurgency from the mountaintops that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghans and foreigners. 

 “Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule” is a chilling, bloody, yet beautiful visual expedition through one of the most magical yet wounded parcels of the planet. It is a place where poppies grow wild and men in the mountains cradle guns like children. It’s a place where kites fly high, and everyone has a war story, even though most never chose to go to war.

Welcome to Afghanistan after the cataclysmic fall. The band-aid over the bullet wound has been ripped off, and “Afghanistan” will guide you into the maze of dust, debris, and delicacy the way no journalistic endeavor has done before.