Have you ever wondered how exactly we got caught up fighting not only Iraq, but Afghanistan as well? Afghanistan has experienced several coups in recent history. This war is more than just the result of the 9/11 attacks.Each coup was a reflection of the many struggles within Afghanistan among factions and groups who all have different ideas about how Afghanistan should be governed. These groups vow to impose their views and rule upon all others who oppose them. Some prefer to be a Communist nation, and show various levels of compassion towards the Soviet Union.Around this time, 1979 to be somewhat exact, the Soviet Union and the United States were competing in the Cold War. This was a global competition for the fealty of other nations. The United States was very interested in whether the Soviet Union would accomplish its goal of establishing a communist government loyal to Moscow in Afghanistan. In order to this, the United States began funding insurgent forces to oppose the Soviets.The U.S aided Afghanistan insurgents were called mujahideen, which, in Arabic, means "strugglers". The mujahideen were organized into different political parties, and were supported by different countries. Some of these countries were Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and the United States. Before long, they gained an extraordinary amount of power and wealth during the course of the Afghan-Soviet war. This was both a plus and a minus for the war effort. Good for ridding themselves of the Soviets, yet bad for everyone else in the coming years.The ferocity of the mujahideen fighters was destructive and fearsome for their enemies. One of the worst moments for Afghanistan was when an ambitious Saudi named Osama bin Laden entered the picture. This man was the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization. Many believe that the roots of the 911 attacks come from Bin Laden’s influential role among the Afghans during the war. During the war he enlisted many Arab recruits to fight with the Afghan mujahideen. After the war, many were grateful to Laden and continued to follow him. These men were the foundation of Al Qaeda in later years.Around 1989, the Soviets had finally been eradicated from Afghanistan. However, terrible and ruinous infighting in and among the mujahideen groups waged on. Much of this was cause by the rule of the mujahid leader Burhanuddin Rabbani. Their war against each other devastated Kabul. It is reported that “tens of thousands of civilians lost their lives, and infrastructure was destroyed by rocket fire.”The ensuing chaos was the perfect moment for the Taliban to strike. The mujahids and other Afghan groups were exhausted by more than a decades worth of seemingly endless infighting. Originating in Pakistan, the Taliban first struck in Kandahar. They quickly gained control of Kabul in 1996 and had nearly the entire country in an iron grip by 1998. The Taliban enforced its rule on all under its long fingered grasp. They perverted and distorted the Ouran, and promoted a complete lack of human rights. The new rule quickly became an anathema to the rest of the world.On October 7, 2001, military strikes against Afghanistan began. The devastating wrath of the United States had been unleashed, along with the coalition aid of were Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and France. The attack was the military retaliation for the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al Qaeda. This retaliation was deemed Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan. The attack followed several weeks after a diplomatic attempt to have the Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, handed over by the Taliban government. These attempts were unsuccessful.At 1pm on the afternoon of the 7th, President Bush addressed the United States, and the world:“Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime. . . .”The Taliban were seemingly destroyed shortly afterwards, and a government headed by Hamid Karzai was set into place. However, the insurgent Taliban emerged in 2006 in full force and begun using suicide tactics copied from jihadist groups elsewhere in the region. And here we are today, trying to locate those coward terrorists in the mountains and under rocks.There you have it, a brief history of the War on Terror that has affected so many lives throughout the world. Let us hope that our enemies are captured and tried by the world, and an end can but put to an extreme way of life.
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