History of the Taliban
The Taliban is made up of Muslims who were a political movement whose original purpose was to get the Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. They are one of the groups of mujahideen that had formed and rose to power during the war of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which lasted from 1979-1989. After the Soviet left, the Taliban became a major group, and controlled more than 90% of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s leader was Mullah Mohammad Omar. They spread throughout Afghanistan and formed a government that lasted from 1996 of September to December of 2001. The Taliban is mostly made up of Afghan tribesmen.
After rising to power after Soviet troops leaving in 1989, the Taliban slowly start to become more powerful and in control of more provinces, which are divisions of certain countries. From 1996 to 2001, the Pakistan military provided support for the Taliban, and have possibly also been provided by other terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Pakistan is also accused of continuing to support the Taliban, but they supposedly dropped all of the support they gave the Taliban after 9/11. The group only became in control of three states that were Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.Within these areas, The Taliban set up training camps for terrorists, where they received map training, explosive training, and other similar training. Along with their allies, the Taliban destroyed homes, committed massacres against their own Afghan citizens, and denied food supplies to their starving people. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 75% of civilian Afghan deaths according to 2010, and 80% in 2011 and 2012.
After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, our country created six demands the Taliban:
Deliver all leaders and members of Al Qaeda to the United states
Release all foreign nationals that have been put in jail unfairly
Protect journalist and aid workers from other countries
Close every terrorist training camp
Hand over every terrorist and their supporters
Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps for inspection
The United States continued to put pressure on the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden, and other terrorists involved with the 9/11 attacks, but when they officially refused to follow any of the demands in October, the United states began bombing Taliban military sites. In December of 2001, the Taliban started to become overthrown by the United States by all the attacks we made up until that point. When white house press, Jay Carney, was asked if the Taliban were still considered a terrorist group, he replied with, “We regard the Taliban as an enemy in a conflict that has been going on, in which the U.S. has been involved in for more than a decade.” After bombings and attacks made by the United States over the years, Taliban leaders went into hiding in possibly Pakistan. It is highly doubted that Taliban groups will ever rise to power again, now that they are on the run.
(Map of where the Taliban ruled [left] and their leader Omar on the right)
Thoughts on the the Taliban- I think that terrorist groups helped with Taliban groups even though some people deny it, because they refused to turn in the people responsible for 9/11 attacks. But I don’t think that they will ever have a chance to rise to power again, because there are already more powerful groups out there, and their important leaders are in hiding.
Work Cited:
http://www-pub.naz.edu/~aamghar6/History%20of%20the%20Taliban.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/12/07/taliban.explainer/
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/afghanistanunveiled/timeline.html
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/afghanistanunveiled/timeline.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-11-years-the-taliban-are-still-not-defeated/
Comments
Well done and well written Charlotte!