AFGHAN WAR

War in Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan

Introduction

It all started from 15 October 1999 when the United Nations Security Council Resolution declared that Al-Qaeda and Taliban are the two groups as terrorist entities and imposes sanctions on their funding, travel, and arms shipments. The UN move follows a period of ascendancy for al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who guided the terror group from Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan, in the late 1980s, to Sudan in 1991, and back to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. The Taliban, which rose from the ashes of Afghanistan's post-Soviet civil war, provides al-Qaeda sanctuary for operations. Al-Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial airliners on 11 September 2001, crashing them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Pennsylvania. Close to three thousand people die in the attacks. Although Afghanistan is the base for al-Qaeda, none of the nineteen hijackers are Afghans.

The U.S. military, with British support, begins a bombing campaign against Taliban forces, officially launching Operation Enduring Freedom. Canada, Australia, Germany, and France pledge future support. The war's early phase mainly involves U.S. air strikes on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces that are assisted by a partnership of about one thousand U.S. Special Forces and other alliances from foreign countries.

Causes

The terrorist group Al-Qaeda attacked five major places in United States causing massive destruction and it took 2,792 lives of Americans. The U.S. government demanded Taliban, the country's Government to hand over Osama Bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda, but they refused to do so. As a result U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. U.S forces attacked Afghanistan on Oct 7th 2001. As on October 7th, 2011 the war completed 120 months and it is still going. U.S is waging the war in Afghanistan with an all volunteer military, whereas in Vietnam U.S had a draft. Having a volunteer military insulates most of the Americans have a personal connection to the war.

Since the invasion of U.S in Afghanistan in 2001, there have been 2,688 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of ongoing coalition operations. During the first five years of the war, the vast majority of coalition deaths were American, but between 2006 and 2010, a significant proportion were amongst other nations, particularly Canada and United Kingdom.

Afghanistan war has been greatly costing the Economy of U.S. Not only does this war include direct costs, which are difficult to estimate, but also opportunity costs. The resources needed for the on-going war has been costing too much.

The loss of billions of U.S. dollars that could have been put to use on U.S. domestic issues (education, infrastructure, etc...). Devaluation of the U.S. dollar because of the need caused for war materials not in enough abundance in the U.S. War with Afghanistan has been negatively affecting the political relations of U.S with other countries, such as Pakistan. Sharing the border line with Afghanistan, U.S asked Pakistan to send in its army to the ...