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Taliban disappointed US did not lay out red carpet on road to presidential palace

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Taliban disappointed US did not lay out red carpet on road to presidential palace image

Taliban officials expressed their disappointment Friday at the chaotic manner in which the US withdrew from Afghanistan, choosing to pack up and leave quickly from the country instead of organizing a classy handover ceremony with a red carpet covered in flowers and the ashes of civilians who died in 20 years of joint training exercises.

In a statement, the Taliban said it had expected a proper farewell similar to its boisterous handing over of the country to the Americans in 2001.

“But they left their garbage and military checkpoints,” the statement said. “We will never forgive this slight even if they had left double the weaponry that they abandoned on the way out.”

The statement expressed the group’s bafflement at its poor treatment and welcome by US forces.

“We were with each other for 20 years, and many years before that during the Afghan civil war and the Soviet occupation,” it said. “We got used to each other, agreed and often disagreed and got angry with each other. We had good and bad times, lived through friendship, rivalry, rapprochement, love and revenge. And after all of this, they cannot even be bothered with a red carpet?”

“But there is still room for a return to the way things were,” it added. “Perhaps one day Biden will also welcome us to the White House like Ronald Reagan before him, and we can walk on the lush carpets there.”