Memo

Memo

To: The Asst J-12

From: XYZ

Date: 29th September, 2012

Subject: Logical options to include ultimate exploitation of the situation.

Logical options to include ultimate exploitation of the situation could be understood by observing the facts related to Afghanistan. Afghanistan, subject to war and instability since the late 1970s, became the first arena of the “war on terror” after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (Brian, 2009). Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was launched to dislodge the Taliban from power and capture al Qaeda leaders. The Taliban regime was replaced by an Interim Administration led by Hamid Karzai, who continued as president beyond 2010. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was deployed to Kabul as a peacekeeping mission in December 2001, and then expanded around the country in the following years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) assumed its command and control. Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) were the vehicles through which NATO wanted to carry out its peacekeeping operations. However, the resurgence of the Taliban, who originally seemed like a spent force, compelled NATO to pursue a counterinsurgency strategy. A troop surge by the Barack Obama administration in 2009 increased the number of Western troops in Afghanistan to about 150,000, but whether they would be able to subdue the Taliban and restore peace and stability remained in question as of 2011.

The terrorist network known as al Qaeda was found responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The George W. Bush administration then decided to destroy al Qaeda's safe havens in Afghanistan; capture its leader, Osama bin Laden, “dead or alive;” and punish the Taliban regime for hosting the organization within its borders. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), initially termed Operation Infinite Justice, was launched October 7, 2001, with aerial bombardments and cruise missile attacks on Taliban positions. The U.S. forces on the ground consisted of about 350 Army Special Forces and about 100 CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) officers. These forces had begun entering Afghanistan soon after the Bush administration's “War Cabinet” had decided to attack. Their main tasks were to support the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and to pinpoint the Taliban positions for bombardment. The Northern Alliance, or the “United Front,” as they called themselves, was an umbrella organization formed after the Taliban captured Kabul in September 1996. Its main component was the former government, which had relocated to the north and was still the internationally ...