Introduction
Osama bin Laden declared a holy war against the US in 1996 and 1998 due to various motivations. The first reason that contributed to bin Laden’s attack on the US is due to the belief that US policy had led to oppression, killing and harm to the Muslims in Middle East. That had happened when the US reinforced Russia’s atrocities against the Islamic religion in Chechnya (Ritchie 25). Additionally, Osama bin Laden has been frustrated by the US supporting the Indian tribulations against Muslim society in Kashmir. What was seen as a major defense of Islamic religion turned out to be a source for political and diplomatic collision between Al-Qaida and the US.
Under the administration of George Bush, the US started to take the position that global terrorism, more so in the US, was due to the differences orchestrated by the need to have freedom and also religious extremism. Bush alleged that the terrorists hated the US for the freedom the country had on global matters. In documents released by Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden published a work named “Letter to America” that had focused on why he had to attack the US (Swenson 109). There was the issue of fatawa released in 1996 and 1998, which criticized the US government’s financial participation with the Saudi royal family and also the military intervention into the Arab world (Strachan 11). Therefore, due to these reasons, Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida started to launch attacks against the US as one way to express their ideological differences.
Why US Attacked Afghanistan
As depicted in the introduction, the US wanted to ensure that Afghanistan refrained from providing hiding havens for terrorism masterminds. The NATO allies decided to control Taliban’s acts of inhumanity were combatted by military intervention (Strachan 12). The move was seen to be a peacekeeping decision that the US had made, contributing to the eruption of other wars that would come as a result (Shams par.6). Under the administration of President George Bush, the US had committed itself to weaken terrorist groups that threatened the peace of the world. The security of US nationals was at risk after the Al-Qaida operatives hijacked four commercial aircraft, where they later crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City and Pentagon in the American capital, Washington DC.
The Initial Success
Initially, the US succeeded in invading Afghanistan when the military in support of the British began bombing against the Taliban. There were several airstrikes on Al-Qaida, which led to the Taliban planning on revenging later. The war’s early phase was a collaborative base between the US special forces, the Northern Alliance, and other Anti-Taliban forces (Shams par.4). By considering all these parties against one party, it was hard for Afghanistan to endure. The escape of Osama bin Laden enabled the US troops to navigate the country well since no strategist took the roles of bin Laden effectively. The Mujahadeen fighters in Tora Bora lost the centralized control of the battle after the US forces tracked them in what was considered to be a key point that weakened the militants (Ångström 38). The intelligence of the US in the war was highly advanced due to the fact that they had initiated what was seen as a random attack on Afghanistan.
How Matters Went South and the US Started Losing
The war between the US and Afghanistan had lasted for close to twenty years before the US withdrew. In April 2021, US President Joe Biden declared that all US and NATO groups would be withdrawn from the country by end of August the same year (Chotiner par.2). The US policies on Afghanistan were not effectively working because of the military solution seemed to advance the rivalry. The US failed to control the battle to the end because of the complex legacy of colonialism that the US had. The military control of wealth in the country would not work since Afghanistan had a graveyard of empires. The US was seen to be not only exercising military power but also moralizing an attempt to construct institutions under their image (Ritchie 23). The forceful trial to diplomatically change a foreign territory failed as Afghanistan got civilized day by day. The transition, hybrid identity, and Eurocratic expectation that the US wanted would not work in
The Politics Back in the US
Various reasons sparked a rivalry between the US and Afghanistan diplomatically. Afghanistan, led by Osama bin Laden, believed in what is known as religious extremism allowing a party to engage in war against another. However, the US could not emulate such an idea since human dignity surpasses any adverse ideology in the society. Through the effort of the leadership groups, there was the appropriation of orders in the world, majorly sticking to the humanitarian perspectives (Swenson 112). At this point, the US had to protect the interests it had in countries that Afghanistan mostly targeted. Other countries such as France, Australia, Germany, and Canada later started to support the US in what was known as ‘enduring operation freedom’ that had seen the US start war on terror.
The United States and the United Nations (UN) Security Council had demanded the arrest of Osama bin Laden for prosecution. Osama was a threat to the world due to his policies that were seen to support inhumanity, especially to the growing nations with no power to protect themselves fully (Strachan 14). The US and the UN Council had announced that there was need for global peace. Instead of war, it was essential for people to focus on equality and equity in terms of economy, production of industrial goods, and advancement of technology and machinery. Before the September 11 attack, there were political issues that Osama bin Laden and George Bush had concerning the superiority complex (Strachan 13). Osama held a naïve belief that the US had become weaker even though they were against the policies made by Afghanistan on their country. Some allies like Abu Walid al-Misri increased the tension by supporting the idea that the US was no longer a world power as many claimed (Swenson 129). The diplomatic tension led to the sanctioning of many parts of the Afghan and Middle East countries, which intensified rivalry between the US and Afghanistan.
Why US Stayed and did not Leave
The reason why the US stayed and did not just leave was to offer support to the Afghan soldiers on the way they would deal with the Taliban on their own. The US staying in Afghanistan meant offering military training to the host country to guarantee independence of the state of affairs in Afghanistan (Crocker par.5). The main reason was to make sure Afghan stabilized and refrained from offering hiding zones for Al-Qaida fighters. That part was one of the key reasons why the US, through the administration of Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, felt it was necessary to secure the world from terrorism matters.
After the withdrawal from the War, a number of US soldiers remained due to their long-time residence and family roots. Other military personnel stayed due to dual-citizenship and also maintaining the mission of keeping Afghan safe from breeding terrorism activities through militant operations (Crocker par.3). America being a world power, would not leave the War after successfully weakening the Taliban forces. The main plan was to hold a peaceful invasion until the time when it would be safe for the US to leave Afghan. Therefore, the above elements were the reasons why the US troops did not just leave.
Leaving Afghanistan in 2021
US President Joe Biden announced that the country would be leaving Afghanistan after two decades. According to Biden, the country had completed the significant airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated safely. Biden said that “The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban” (The White House, par.7). Biden meant that the US had contributed what can be termed as enough in regards to the security matters of Afghanistan and other countries. Although the decision to withdraw was made in April 2021, the US troops were required to leave from the end of August the same year.
After nearly two decades of fighting, the US had lost a notable number of military personnel and also caused loss of lives for many Afghanistan nationals hence, the War came to an end. The decision was made to ensure that the lives of Americans were not at risk from the War (The White House, par.11). Additionally, the US sacrifice to train the Afghan soldiers was considered a notable act of goodwill, which meant the warfare was brought to calm. 90% of the US soldiers in Afghanistan left at their own decision while others remained due to personal decisions allowed on the specific grounds. The end of the War marked an epitome of a long journey towards modern civilization and liberty to leave other nations to conduct their affairs.
Conclusion: Lessons Learned
There are various lessons that the entire world can learn from the war. Firstly, without a strategy, impacting a foreign policy would be impossible. The US involvement in the war resulted in the deaths of many people did not change the ideologies of the Taliban since the Afghan government collapsed as the Taliban took Kabul. If the US had launched a series of diplomatic peaceful missions without the perception of superpower, the war would not have escalated. Secondly, engaging in war requires justification and support from key powers in the world. Despite the killing of Al-Qaida mastermind Osama Bin Laden in 2011, the group did not divide. Rather, the members became more unified to fight the US. It is important to end a disagreement by acting calm rather than proving that it is possible to force issues within a foreign perspective.
Works Cited
Ångström, Jan. “Contribution Warfare: Sweden’s Lessons from The War in Afghanistan.” The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters, vol 50, no. 4, 2020, pp. 34-39.
Chotiner, Isaac. “How America Failed in Afghanistan”. The New Yorker, 2021, Web.
Crocker, Ryan. “Afghanistan 2001-2021: US Policy Lessons Learned”. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2021, Web.
Ritchie, Marnie. “War Misguidance: Visualizing Quagmire in the US War in Afghanistan”. Media, War & Conflict, vol 6, no. 3, 2021, pp. 17-27.
Shams, Shamil. “How the US Invasion Changed Afghanistan | DW |”. DW.COM, Web.
Strachan, Hew. “Learning Lessons from Afghanistan: Two Imperatives”. The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters, vol 49, no. 3, 2019, pp. 12-15.
Swenson, Geoffrey. “Why US Efforts to Promote the Rule of Law in Afghanistan Failed”. International Security, vol 42, no. 1, 2017, pp. 114-151.
The White House. “Remarks by President Biden on the End of the War in Afghanistan “. The White House, 2021, Web.