War in Afghanistan

Introduction

Afghanistan has a complicated history being a strategic point of fighting between Indo-European civilizations. Throughout its history it has been occupied and influenced by other nations, numerous Aryan tribes, Persian Empire, Mongols and recently by Britain and Soviet Union. In my opinion, being under the rule of powerful nations for most of the times made Afghanistan incapable of surviving on its own, managing their government, economy and led towards the civil war and therefore towards the today's war.

Al Qaeda and the Taliban

In 1992 talibaan took over Kandabal in 1994, one of the most important cities, and Kabul in 1996 and expanded the control throughout the whole country occupying 95% of it by the year 2000. By this time, Afghanistan had the highest infant, child and maternal mortality rates in Asia. Taliban was recognized as a legitimate ruler of Afghanistan in 1997 by Pakistan. Taliban was supported mostly by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. (Arnold 67)

In 1993 Osama bin Laden started to set up military training camps in Sudan and to search for nuclear weapons and material. On September 11 Osama Bin Laden and his followers attacked America by hijacking four commercial airliners. Two smashed into each of the two World Trade Centers in New York, One rammed into the Pentagon, and the last one was brought down by revolting passengers sacrificing their lives for others who might have died if the attack was successful. The battle lines were drawn that day. In 1996 he lost his support of Sudan and moved his base to Afghanistan. In 1996 Osama declared jihad war (effort to expand the territories ruled by Muslims at the expense of territories ruled by non-Muslims (Amnesty International Report 112-118)) on foreign countries involved in Islamic lands. He publicly declared war on the USA and its allies saying: "You will see the results of this in a very short time. (Amin 373-99) and started focusing on attacking the USA. As a result, terrorist attacks were made on U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia and embassies in Africa and later 9/11 attacks.

The 9/11 attacks are the short-term and crucial factor for the war in Afghanistan. They were coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States of America carried out by members of terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Nineteen Islamic terrorist hijacked 4 commercial jet planes. Two of them crashed into the Twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City, NY. One of them hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the last one ended up in fields near Shankville, PA after the attempt of passengers and the crew to retake the control of the plane following the change of the arrival destination to Washington D.C. 2,974 people dead, 24 missing presumed to be dead, thousands hurt, number of 420, 000 people estimated to be suffering from post-traumatic stress, minimum of $100 billion recovery costs not including the stock market drop, effect on GDP and economic in the USA and around the world. (Ahmed 152-68)

US Response

The USA ...