The Tangled Threads Of Iraq And Afghanistan: Unraveling The Complex Causes Of Two Modern Wars

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars were two of the longest wars in US history. The Afghanistan war was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases. The first phase was to topple the Taliban, the second phase was to defeat the Taliban militarily and rebuild core institutions of the Afghan state, and the third phase was to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks. The Iraq war was a protracted armed conflict that began with the invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition that overthrew the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government.

The September 11 attacks and the U.S.-British invasion

The September 11 attacks and the subsequent U.S.-British invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 were triggered by the presence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which was then ruled by the Taliban.

Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, in which four commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks killed close to 3,000 people.

In the aftermath of the attacks, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush coalesced around a strategy of first ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan and dismantling al-Qaeda, although there were also contemplations of actions in Iraq. Bush demanded that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar "deliver to [the] United States authorities all the leaders of al-Qaeda who hide in your land," and when Omar refused, U.S. officials began implementing a plan for war.

The campaign in Afghanistan started covertly on September 26, 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.

The U.S.-led coalition forces drove the Taliban from power and built military bases near major cities across the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate, and the establishment of the Islamic Republic three years later. The Taliban and its allies were expelled from major population centers by the U.S.-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 U.S. military history, surpassing the length of the Vietnam War by approximately six months.

The U.S. troop surge and end of U.S. combat mission

In 2009, US President Barack Obama approved the deployment of an additional 17,000 US troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of US troops in the country to around 68,000. This decision was made to focus on protecting the Afghan population from insurgents and to encourage reconciliation between the Karzai government and Taliban leaders.

In February 2009, Obama replaced General David McKiernan with General Stanley McChrystal, who was tasked with implementing a new strategy modelled after the surge strategy in Iraq. However, McChrystal soon concluded that he did not have enough troops to execute the new strategy and requested additional troops. After an intensive Afghan policy review, Obama announced a major escalation in the war effort, deploying 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan by mid-2010.

The surge in US forces was accompanied by an increase in drone strikes in Pakistan, which resulted in the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. However, the CIA also suffered losses when a suicide bomb detonated at a Bagram air base, killing seven agents.

The surge began in early 2010 with an assault on the insurgent-held town of Marja in Helmand province. US Marines achieved a quick victory, and planning began for a more ambitious offensive in Kandahar. Obama visited Afghanistan for the first time as president in March 2009, delivering a stern message to Karzai to address corruption in his government.

In June 2010, Obama replaced McChrystal with General David Petraeus after McChrystal made disparaging remarks about Obama and other top administration officials. Despite the change in command, Obama vowed that the US strategy in Afghanistan would remain the same, focusing on protecting the Afghan population and building government institutions.

In May 2011, Obama announced an accelerated timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, stating that the US had achieved its goals of disrupting al-Qaeda's operations and killing many of its leaders. The plan called for a reduction of 30,000 troops within a year, with a complete withdrawal of combat forces by the end of 2014.

In early 2012, a series of incidents heightened tensions between the US and the Afghan government, including the accidental burning of Qur'ans by US troops and the murder of 17 Afghan civilians by a US soldier. These events provoked public outrage and protests, and the Taliban suspended participation in talks with the US and Afghan government.

In 2014, the US and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan, retaining a reduced force of approximately 13,000 troops to support and train Afghan troops until a drawdown in 2020. A full withdrawal of US troops was initiated in 2020 and continued into 2021, bringing an end to the US deployment in Afghanistan.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden

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" for the U.S. to "finally defeat al-Qaeda."

American intelligence officials discovered the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden 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.

The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a terrorist organisation that emerged from the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It was established in April 2004 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who pledged his group's allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The group was initially known as al-Qaeda in Iraq and later the Islamic State of Iraq.

ISIL's stated goal is to solidify and expand its control of territory once ruled by early Muslim caliphs and to govern through the implementation of its strict interpretation of sharia law. The group's strength and expansionary agenda pose an increasing threat to US regional allies and US facilities and personnel in the Middle East as well as in the West.

ISIL has its origins in the Iraq War of 2003-11. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, its direct precursor, was one of the central actors in a larger Sunni insurgency against the Iraqi government and foreign occupying forces. Under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, AQI was responsible for some of the most brutal attacks of that conflict.

In June 2014, ISIL unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and called on all Muslims to pledge allegiance to the group. Since then, ISIL has announced the establishment of eight provinces outside of Iraq and Syria, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Algeria, the Caucasus, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, West Africa, and Yemen.

ISIL's vast territorial safe haven in Iraq and Syria, access to Western foreign fighters, and substantial financial resources pose a persistent and growing threat to the United States. Since September 2014, ISIL's leadership has issued multiple public calls for attacks against US and Western interests around the world.

ISIL is also known as DA’ESH or DA’ISH, an acronym for its name in Arabic. It is currently led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, also known as Abu Du’a. The group was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on 17 December 2004.

The U.S. withdrawal and the collapse of the Afghan government

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was a long-drawn process that began with the Trump administration's negotiations with the Taliban in 2020. The U.S. and the Taliban signed the United States-Taliban deal in Doha, Qatar, in February 2020, which stipulated fighting restrictions for both sides and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The deal also included the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government.

The Biden administration's final decision in April 2021 to pull out all U.S. troops by September 2021 without leaving a residual force, were the two critical events that triggered the start of the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces. Following the deal, the U.S. dramatically reduced the number of air attacks on the Taliban, which was detrimental to the ANSF fighting the Taliban insurgency.

The Taliban began a final offensive on May 1, 2021, and on August 15, 2021, they seized control of the capital city of Kabul as the Afghan government collapsed, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The U.S. embassy evacuated and retreated to Hamid Karzai International Airport, where fleeing Afghan forces had handed over control to NATO. The U.S. government later denied that its decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was because of advice from senior U.S. military leaders.

The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, marking the end of the 2001-2021 war. The withdrawal resulted in the Taliban regaining control of the country and created a refugee crisis as many Afghans fled. It also raised fears that terrorists might use Afghanistan as a safe haven.

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