The Lingering Conflict: Evaluating The Pros And Cons Of Continuing The War In Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan was an armed conflict from 2001 to 2021. It was the direct response to the September 11 attacks. It began when an international military coalition led by the United States launched an invasion of Afghanistan, declaring Operation Enduring Freedom as part of the earlier-declared war on terror; toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate and establishing the Islamic Republic three years later. The Taliban and its allies were expelled from major population centers by the US-led forces, supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance; however Bin Laden relocated to neighboring Pakistan. The conflict officially ended with the 2021 Taliban offensive, which overthrew the Islamic Republic, and re-established the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in the military history of the United States, surpassing the length of the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by approximately six months.

The Taliban's rise to power and the 9/11 attacks

The Taliban, which translates to "students" in Pashto, is an ultraconservative political and religious faction that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the collapse of Afghanistan's communist regime, and the subsequent breakdown in civil order.

The Taliban's rise to power was facilitated by several factors, including the downfall of the Soviet-backed government in Kabul, Pashtun resentment towards the non-Pashtun-dominated regime that arose in 1992, large-scale external assistance (especially from Pakistan), and chronic divisions among the non-Pashtun groups.

The Taliban's initial project was to confront crime and corruption, and they quickly grew into a powerful movement. By late 1996, the Taliban had seized the capital, Kabul, and gained control over about two-thirds of the country. They imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, which included the near-total exclusion of women from public life, the destruction of non-Islamic artistic relics, and harsh criminal punishments.

The Taliban's rule was resisted by several groups, particularly non-Pashtun ethnic groups such as the Tajik, the Uzbek, and the Hazara. In 2001, the United States and its allies began bombarding Afghanistan due to the Taliban's refusal to extradite Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden had helped organise a network of foreign-born Muslim fighters and orchestrated several attacks against the United States.

The 9/11 attacks on September 11, 2001, were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. The attacks involved the hijacking of four planes, three of which were flown into significant U.S. sites: the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field in rural Pennsylvania. The fourth plane, United Airlines flight 93, crashed after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.

The 9/11 attacks were the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, with nearly 3,000 people killed. They had a profound and lasting impact on the country, leading to a "global war on terrorism" and lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Security measures within the United States were also tightened considerably, particularly at airports.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was triggered by the September 11 attacks and was aimed at dismantling al-Qaeda, which had executed the attacks under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, and to deny Islamist militants a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by toppling the Taliban government. The Taliban had seized around 85% of Afghanistan's territory as well as the capital city of Kabul, effectively confining the Northern Alliance to Badakhshan Province and smaller surrounding areas.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan started covertly on September 26, 2001, with a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) team known as Jawbreaker arriving in the country and, working with anti-Taliban allies, initiating a strategy for overthrowing the regime. U.S. officials hoped that by partnering with the Afghans they could avoid deploying a large force to Afghanistan. Pentagon officials were especially concerned that the United States not be drawn into a protracted occupation of Afghanistan, as had occurred with the Soviets more than two decades prior.

The public phase of the invasion, known as Operation Enduring Freedom, began on October 7, 2001, with U.S. and British war planes pounding Taliban targets. In late October, Northern Alliance forces began to overtake a series of towns formerly held by the Taliban. The forces worked with U.S. assistance, but they defied U.S. wishes when, on November 13, they marched into Kabul as the Taliban retreated without a fight.

Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the Taliban’s spiritual home, fell on December 6, marking the end of Taliban power. It had been besieged by a force led by Karzai that moved in from the north and one commanded by Gul Agha Sherzai that advanced from the south; both operated with heavy assistance from the United States.

The fall of the Taliban regime is generally tied to this date, when the Taliban surrender Kandahar and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar flees the city, leaving it under tribal law administered by Pashtun leaders. Despite the official fall of the Taliban, al-Qaeda leaders continue to hide out in the mountains.

The hunt for Osama Bin Laden

The hunt for Bin Laden began before 2001, with efforts to monitor his whereabouts and determine his plans. After evading capture at the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, Bin Laden's whereabouts became unclear, and various rumours about his health, continued role in al-Qaeda, and location were circulated. Bin Laden also released several video and audio recordings during this time.

In the decade following his disappearance, there were many attempts made by the United States government to locate Bin Laden. In December 2009, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal said that Bin Laden would need to be "captured or killed" in order for the U.S. to "finally defeat al-Qaeda."

American intelligence officials discovered Bin Laden's whereabouts by tracking one of his couriers. Information was collected from Guantánamo Bay detainees, who gave intelligence officers the courier's pseudonym as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. In 2009, U.S. officials discovered that al-Kuwaiti lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan. CIA paramilitary operatives located al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to the Abbottabad compound, which led them to speculate it was Bin Laden's location.

On May 1, 2011, United States Navy SEALs of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) carried out an assault on the compound on orders from U.S. President Barack Obama. During a 40-minute raid, Bin Laden was killed by a bullet above the left eye and another to the chest. The SEALs overpowered the compound's remaining residents, killing several, and extracted Bin Laden's body (which was subsequently buried at sea) as well as computer hard drives, documents, and other material.

Bin Laden's whereabouts in the mid-2000s were revealed after his death and the arrest of his wives. On the day of the 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden was at the Khaldan terrorist training camp near Khost, which he left during the night with several Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives after sending his wives and children away across the Durand Line into Pakistan to hide out. Bin Laden arrived the following morning in Khandahar and lived in a Taliban-controlled safe house from September 12 to October 6, 2001. Shortly after the US-led war in Afghanistan began, Bin Laden traveled from Kandahar to Kabul where he lived in another Taliban safe house until November 12 when he was believed to have traveled to Jalalabad where he spent at least five days in another safe house. From Jalalabad, he traveled to the Tora Bora region in the White Mountains where he hid out from November 17 to December 12. He is believed to have crossed the border into Pakistan sometime in January 2002 and spent time in various Al Qaeda safehouses in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan between January and April 2002.

According to one of his wives, Bin Laden was reunited with his family for the first time after the 9/11 attacks in the second half of 2002 in Peshawar, the capital city of the Tribal Areas, where they lived for five months in another safe house. After this, in September 2002, Bin Laden took his family into the rural mountain areas of northwest Pakistan (and very notably, not in the tribal belt where main US attention was focused). First they stayed in the Shangla district in the Swat valley, where they stayed in two safe houses for eight to nine months. In May 2003, Bin Laden and his family moved to Haripur, a small town close to Islamabad, where they stayed in a rented house for two years. In June 2005, Bin Laden and his family moved to Abbottabad.

The Taliban's resurgence and the US troop surge

The War in Afghanistan was an armed conflict that lasted from 2001 to 2021. It began when an international military coalition led by the United States invaded Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks. The US-led forces toppled the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate and established the Islamic Republic. However, the Taliban and its allies remained a formidable force and were able to regroup and carry out attacks.

In the early years of the war, the United States and its allies made significant gains against the Taliban. The Taliban and its Haqqani network allies were expelled from major population centers, and their leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011. Despite these setbacks, the Taliban remained a resilient and determined force. They continued to carry out bombings and other attacks, targeting both Afghan and US-led coalition forces.

In the years that followed, the United States and its allies made efforts to train and equip the Afghan army and police to take over security responsibilities. However, these efforts were hampered by a surge in Taliban attacks, including insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police turning their weapons on NATO troops. These attacks forced NATO to implement more rigorous screening procedures and suspend the training of certain units.

As the security situation deteriorated, the United States and its allies debated the best course of action. Some called for a surge of additional US troops to bolster the Afghan forces and counter the Taliban's growing strength. This troop surge began in 2009 and continued until 2014, when the US and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan. However, a reduced force of approximately 13,000 troops remained to support and train Afghan troops.

Despite the efforts of the US-led coalition, the Taliban continued to gain strength and territory in the years that followed. The full withdrawal of US troops, initiated in 2020 and continued into 2021, further emboldened the Taliban. Their resurgence during the withdrawal left the country in a similar state to when US forces had arrived two decades earlier. The conflict officially ended in 2021 with the Taliban offensive that overthrew the Islamic Republic and re-established the Islamic Emirate.

The US-Taliban deal and the withdrawal of US troops

The US-Taliban deal was signed on February 29, 2020, in Doha, Qatar, and laid out the terms for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The agreement was signed by US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives. It was the result of more than a year of talks and nine rounds of discussions.

The deal was a significant step towards ending the US's longest war, which had, at that point, lasted for more than eighteen years and cost the lives of more than 157,000 people. It was also estimated to have cost the US $2 trillion.

The agreement addressed four issues:

• Reducing violence: Both sides agreed to a temporary reduction in violence, with a lasting ceasefire to be negotiated between US, Taliban, and Afghan forces.
• Withdrawal of foreign forces: The US agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days. If the Taliban upheld its commitments, all US and foreign troops would leave Afghanistan within fourteen months.
• Intra-Afghan negotiations: The Taliban agreed to start talks with the Afghan government.
• Counterterrorism assurances: The Taliban guaranteed that Afghanistan would not become a safe haven for terrorist groups to threaten the security of the US and its allies.

The US-Taliban deal was only the first step towards achieving peace, with the bigger challenge being a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Continued Taliban violence, a weak Afghan government, and objections from outside countries threatened to disrupt negotiations.

The withdrawal of US troops was conditional on the Taliban upholding the terms of the agreement. However, verifying the Taliban's compliance was difficult. While the group pledged to prevent terrorist activity in Afghanistan, it was hard to confirm whether they were taking action against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The US began its withdrawal in March 2020, and by June 2020, it had reduced its troops in Afghanistan to 8,600, ahead of schedule. The intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government began in September 2020 but progressed slowly.

In April 2021, US President Joe Biden announced that the US would withdraw all its troops by September 11, 2021, later moving the deadline to August 31, 2021. The Taliban began a final offensive on May 1, 2021, and rapidly gained control of large parts of the country.

The withdrawal of US troops was completed on August 30, 2021, with the last US military planes leaving Kabul airport. This marked the end of America's longest war, which had lasted for nearly twenty years.

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