Fortune
Vivienne Walt
09/01/2021
When the last U.S. military aircraft lifted off from Kabul Airport a minute before midnight in Afghanistan on Monday—7,267 days after dropping the first bombs there in October 2001—America seemingly shut the door on the 20-year war, and moved on. “We will lead with our diplomacy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech in Washington, to mark the moment. “The military mission is over.”
“Over,” perhaps—though not wrapped up. Left behind is the war’s mammoth expense, the bulk of it financed with borrowed money and whose financial impact could be felt for decades.
