By Kriti Rajbar, Trinity College Student
(Scroll down for ways to help)
People struggling to escape Kabul, via www.geo.tv
Afghanistan has long been a land inflicted with hardships. There has been conflict there for the past forty years, starting with the Soviet-Afghan war. This battle was triggered by the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan (December 1979) in attempt to get ahead in the United States in the ongoing Cold War. Almost 11.5% of the Afghani population was killed in the fighting. After this, they were plagued with civil wars. Most Afghani’s do not remember a peaceful time.
Afghanistan then and now, via Ilya Varlamov
But what is happening right now is a result of a different world event; the September 11, 2001 attack. An Islamist militant group, al-Qaeda under its leader Osama Bin Laden staged the hijacking of 4 airplanes filled with civilians and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. The attacks resulted in 2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term health consequences, in addition to at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. The CIA found out that Bin Laden had fled to Afghanistan, and was under the protection of the Islamist, the Taliban who had been in power (with an oppressing regime) since 1996.
However, a lot has happened between 9/11 and the Fall of Kabul just last week. Here is an extremely brief timeline.
2001: The Sept.11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon marked the beginning of the War on Terror. The US invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power when they refused to hand Bin Laden over.
9/11, via www.vox.com
2003: In May, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that “major combat” operations had ended in the country, and that efforts would be shifted to reconstruction.
2004-2006: Several years of fighting ensued between a US-led military coalition and the Taliban. In this time, the Afghanistan government (with US support) established a new constitution, and elected Hamid Karzai as president. By mid-2006, Taliban forces had regrouped, and deadly attacks have continued ever since.
2009-2010: Obama made a renewed commitment to Afghanistan. This included sending a surge of 17,000 troops to the country in Feb. 2009 and shifting strategy to focus on fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan as well.
2011: US Navy SEALS carried out a successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden.
2013: NATO forces (led by the US) left the Afghan army to protect a fragile and week government themselves. The US military stayed on mostly in a training capacity and for specific counterterrorism efforts.
2014: President Obama announced a timeline for the withdrawal of US troops, but the Taliban were once again active in various parts of the country, and the Americans stayed longer.
2015-2016: Taliban power continued to grow. There were unsuccessful peace talks between the US, Taliban, and Afghan governments.
2017: In August, President Trump introduced a new policy towards Afghanistan, ramping up the US presence on the ground for as long as it took to win instead of focusing on timetables for withdrawal.
2019: The Taliban and US government entered a round of peace talks that one US special envoy described as “more productive than they have been in the past.” The two sides reached a tentative peace agreement that involves US withdrawal of troops and a commitment that the Taliban will not harbour other jihadist groups. By September, Trump had cancelled the deal.
2020: In February, US and Taliban leaders signed a peace deal, but it didn’t hold. U.S. troop levels reduced from about 13,000 to 2,500 in line with the deal, even though the Taliban continued to attack Afghan government forces and welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership. In November, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw troops as Trump’s presidency ended.
Now, it starts to get bad (as if it wasn’t messy bad enough before).
Jan. 15 2021: “Today, U.S. force levels in Afghanistan have reached 2,500,” Miller, the acting defense secretary, said in a statement. “[T]his drawdown brings U.S. forces in the country to their lowest levels since 2001.”
March 25: Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “it is clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence. While…they have not attacked U.S. forces, it is clear that they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence…since the peace accords were signed.”
April 14: Saying it is “time to end the forever war,” Biden announced that all troops will be removed from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.
Biden assured Americans that the U.S. has “trained and equipped a standing force of over 300,000 Afghan personnel” and that “they’ll continue to fight valiantly, on behalf of the Afghans, at great cost.”
April 15: Taliban releases a statement that says failure to complete the withdrawal by May 1 “opens the way for [the Taliban] to take every necessary countermeasure, hence the American side will be held responsible for all future consequences.”
June 8: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Foreign Policy that after foreign forces leave Afghanistan the group’s goal is to create an “Islamic government,” and “we will be compelled to continue our war to achieve our goal.”
July 8: Biden assured Americans that a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan “is not inevitable,” and denies that U.S. intelligence assessed that the Afghan government would likely collapse.
Biden also said that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Aug. 6: The Taliban takes control of its first province despite the agreement it signed with the U.S.
Aug. 15: Taliban fighters enter the Afghanistan capital Kabul; the Afghan president flees the country; U.S. evacuates diplomats from its embassy by helicopter. The Taliban take over Kabul and change the name of the country from the Republic of Afghanistan to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. U.S. staff evacuate the embassy in a scene that reminded historians of the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Via ABC Action News
Ways to help
With all that is going on, the people of Afghanistan need our help.
Click here to see 12 charities and NGOs accepting donations. They have been vetted by CNN.
Make a difference.
Compiled from: https://qz.com/2047556/a-timeline-of-us-involvement-in-afghanistan/
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/afghanistan-a-timeline-of-events