The United States of America's War in Afghanistan -- as it is recognized today -- began on October 7, 2001. It was on that particular date that American forces launched “Operation Enduring Freedom” with British Armed Forces, the Afghan United front and an assortment of other allies.
The main rallying point leading up to war was the alleged Afghani terrorist involvement in the September 11 attacks, which brought down the Twin Towers and destroyed a large portion of the Pentagon. The goal of entering the region was to ultimately rid Afghanistan of these Al-Qaeda terrorists and the governing Taliban regime.
The hope was to eventually create a democratic state.
The first part of Operation Enduring Freedom featured the ground forces of the Afghan United Front working in a joint effort with both British and American Special Forces, and U.S. air support, in an effort to oust the Taliban regime from power in Kabul. Later, in the next few weeks, this extended to removing Taliban forces from most of Afghanistan as well. As a result of the military action, most of the formerly occupying Taliban leadership fled into Pakistan.
From there, the democratic Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was born, and an interim government under Hamid Karzai was created. At the end of December 2001, in order to secure Kabul and surrounding areas, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) established the U.N. Security Council. In 2003, NATO took control of ISAF – a group which included troops from 42 countries.
Originally, the U.S. government was adamant about the war's main goal: Find Osama bin Laden and other high ranking Al-Qaeda officials, and bring them to justice for their role in 9/11. In addition, the U.S. wanted to ultimately topple the Taliban regime, which dominated Afghanistan and replace it with a more democracy-friendly group.
However, in 2003, Taliban forces -- featuring the Haqqani network and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Hezb-I Islami -- began an insurgency campaign against the democratic Islamic Republic. The change in political and cultural direction, coupled with the occupation and presence by ISAF troops in Afghanistan began to upset a large portion of the population – something that the forces were able to capitalize on.
Starting in 2006, Afghanistan began to experience a noticeable increase in Taliban-led insurgent activity. In 2009, Taliban forces were responsible for nearly 76 percent of civilian causalities in the country.
On December 1, 2009, American President Barack Obama announced that he would deploy an additional 30,000 soldiers over the next six months. He then went on to set a withdrawal date for the year 2014.
They have been at war. People obsessed with committing suicide will eventually be successful.
I for one would like to believe that we could help, but that's a fantasy. Time to pull the plug!