A Brief Note On Lengthy And Costly War

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 1979, the goal was to help Afghan communist forces set up a communist government. The Soviet Union felt Afghanistan had key resources and a foothold in the Middle East to spread communist ideas. The result would be a war that the Soviet Union wishes it never got involved in and likened to their “Vietnam War”, meaning winning a number of battles but not the war like what happened to the U.S. in Vietnam. The background of the war, outcome of the war, and impact on the United States are key to understanding the Soviet-Afghan War.

For over 2 centuries, Afghanistan has known virtually no time without war. Beginning around 326 B.C. with the conquests of Alexander the Great, to the Persians, British, Russians and most recently, America and our NATO allies, Afghanistan has been cultivated into the country that it is today through a trial by fire. Regardless of this relentless onslaught of foreign military power, the Afghan people have tirelessly defended their homeland with no outside power ever being able to subdue them completely. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country fell into civil war, torn even further apart by fiercely dedicated tribal warlords. This power vacuum led to the rise of a group called the Taliban. Led by a one eyed man

For the past 13 years the United States has been involved in the Afghanistan war, and the reasons for the continuation of the Afghanistan war are very blurry. Not only are the reasons for the United States to fight the war blurry, but it seems the the cost vs. benefit of fighting the war do not equal. Only

1. In President Obama’s speech at West Point, he announced that 30,000 additional troops would be sent to Afghanistan. He made this decision because he said it was vital to the United States’ national interest. The vital national interest at risk in President Obama’s address is the security and safety of the American people as well as the “security of our allies and the common security of the world.” By involving the military and increasing the troop strength, President Obama can achieve the objectives of his strategy. His objectives are to keep the Taliban from becoming powerful, prevent them from government rule, improve Afghanistan security forces and government so they can manage their own country and prevent Al Qaeda from

Financing the war in Afghanistan is a complex and multifaceted issue where the Canadian government must decide the most efficient and effective approach to disperse its resources; in terms of monetary funding and providing supplementary goods and services. The Canadian government must act, think and approach the issues faced in Afghanistan in an ‘economical manner’, meaning, the Canadian government must “deal with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management” {www.thefreedictionary.com}. This concept is the fundamental principle behind economics and demonstrates how Canada is financing the Afghanistan mission. This report will demonstrate the economical significance of various financing

The United States had to attempt to cooperate with the Afghan government in some way in order to do what they needed to do to win the war, but nothing can possibly be accomplished if the Afghan government is too corrupt to be of any help possible. To start, the watchdog agency found that “The Afghan attorney general[, whose name is not known,] refused to enforce or continue investigating an enormous corruption scandal at the country’s biggest bank” (Bearak 2). This is technically proof that the practices of the Afghan government are pretty much corrupt because not even the attorney general is not willing to further examine a case that is centered around corruption occurring in their own country. Moving on, more evidence of corruption can be seen in the Afghan police forces. According to frontline Coalition troops, “local police in Afghanistan have earned a justified reputation […] as unreliable, underpaid, corrupt, incompetent, lazy, sometimes treacherous, sometimes brave, dope-smoking pederasts” (Foreman 34). This is essentially why Afghanistan must use their military instead of their police forces. The police forces are too unreliable and corrupt to protect their own country. This is due to the corrupt government not paying them enough money, and a corrupt government is one that is a non-cooperative one. Finally, the 2012 SIGAR report shows even more evidence of corruption in the Afghan government. The report showed “that the Taliban remain resilient, that widespread corruption continues to weaken the central Afghan government and that Pakistan persists in providing critical support to the insurgency” (Bumiller 1). Basically, the Afghan government is so corrupt that nothing can be done, neither by themselves nor by the

Every year, since the Taliban regime ended, foreign troop numbers within the country have increased dramatically. The greatest increase of troops was about twenty thousand additional troops added to the grand total of sixty-six thousand. With increased troops, the Taliban activity has also intensified. Mullah Saifur Reheman, a Taliban, began to rebuild his militia forces to support the anti- United States fighters. His forces amounted to over one thousand by the beginning of Operation Anaconda in March of 2002. Rebels against the revolution had planned to use the region as headquarters for launching guerrilla attacks (Shapiro). The United States used Kandahar International Airport as an operational base for taking and dispersing personnel and supplies. The number of U.S. troops who operated in the country grew to more than ten thousand against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Eventually, the United States and its allies drove the Taliban from power and curtailed al Qaeda’s efforts to plan and execute terrorist attacks at a high cost. The United States special inspector for Afghanistan reconstruction has reported that, when the security for aid workers is counted, the total amount of nonmilitary funds that Washington has appropriated since 2002 “is about one-hundred billion dollars (Emadi).” That is more than the United States has ever spent trying to rebuild a country. There is no need to spend that much money to have an impact, that money just needs to be spent well. In

A total of 19 men hijacked four planes, using them to attack our military and economic centers and to murder almost 3,000 innocent people including men, women and children (Address on the War in Afghanistan. 1). The perpetrators were a part of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, an organization that we have been using force against, along with those who harbor them, since 2001, days after the 9/11 attacks (Address on the War in Afghanistan. 1). With the support of our allies, NATO and the United Nations, we sent troops into Afghanistan after the Taliban denied turning Osama bin Laden over, the leader of al-Qaeda, and in the matter of months, al-Qaeda’s members scattered and many were killed (Address on the War in Afghanistan. 1). What’s next? President Obama addressed this in his speech on the War in Afghanistan, saying 30,000 additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan for the next 18 months, and after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. (Address on the War in Afghanistan. 2) Obama’s strategy is: “We must deny al Qaeda a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan's future.” (Address on the War in Afghanistan. 3.) Once the United States military has aided security forces in becoming more powerfully built, many other things would fall into place.

Carry Don, a veteran living in Texas, raises a American flag every Memorial Day. That action minorly shows the holiday's personal significance. It took her years to get a hold on the day, the month of May, even the month of June.

The Afghanistan War became the longest war in United States history. The length of the war was a concept that is believed to originate from the United States. The United States knew that the war would be long fought and long delayed. Even though the United States was after the leader of the terrorist organization, we simply could not just “Cut the head of the snake.” The reason for this is because there is a long list of Islamic extremist to step up and take the place of a dead leader. The strategy of a long war for the United States was hoping that over time the terrorist organizations would subside or possibly disappear. Although this is a very costly strategy, we were doing what we believed had to be done.

“We lost the war in southern Afghanistan and it broke my heart.” This statement used by Graeme Smith in the introduction to his book, The Dogs are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, sets the tone for the rest of the book. Although foreign forces had, arguably, the best of intentions going into the war, the Taliban always regrouped and reappeared, often larger and harder to defeat than before, no matter how tremendous their losses were in previous battles. International forces did what they thought was essential for rebuilding of Afghanistan, including the elimination of the Taliban through air strikes and poppy eradication, even though they did not truly understand the needs and priorities of Afghan citizens and were constantly perceived negatively by the Afghan civilians. In an accessible method, Smith provides general knowledge about how the intervention on the behalf of the international community impacted the country and its people. This book also leaves me with reflections on the dynamic between insurgents and villagers and how the international forces could have helped to prevent a power vacuum from occurring during the years where most foreign forces pulled out of Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan War has brought many other historic events, including the defeat of the Taliban, and the killing of Osama bin Laden. The Afghanistan War has altered the lives of millions, including those in Afghanistan. The war brought a new government and rid the country of the corrupted government. However great these victories were, there were various drawbacks as a result of the war. The U.S. lost millions of lives and millions of dollars. The U.S. has been driven into debt but these aren’t the only consequences faced by the U.S. The United States has immensely been affected both socially and economically. The United States has suffered from the political consequences the Afghanistan War has brought.

RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN’S LITTLE AMERICA: THE WAR WITHIN THE WAR FOR AFGHANISTAN is about NATO’s counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan since 2009. Published in 2012.

September 11, 2001 was a devastating day for the United States (US) and countries that had passengers on the airliners that were involved in the terrorist attack. This triggered the US military to be deployed to Afghanistan to fight the Global War on Terror in an effort to eradicate terrorist organizations, such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda (AQ), and the Haqqani Network (HQN). Since 2001, there has been success of driving the Taliban from power and the death of Osama Bin Laden; however, the US military has lost over two thousand US Soldiers (Buchanan, 2014). Despite the success the US helped provide, the result is that it started to become a concern on how the elite Afghan Soldiers are heavily reliant on the American presence within the country (Mazzetti, 2015). US forces have the collection and airlift capabilities to suppress terrorist organizations within Afghanistan, whereas the Afghan military lacks sufficient training and equipment to possess these capabilities.

The point of this article is to examine the case that an untimely withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan may not be to the greatest advantage of the United States. The American military vicinity in Afghanistan is a standout amongst the most essential issues of contemporary global relations. Amid the previous decade the subject of the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan has ascended on the political motivation. The American vicinity in Afghanistan is essential, not just for South and Central Asia, and the Middle East, yet for a whole universal group. This article will reach a conclusion in respect to whether American troops ought to finish what has been started and keep its strengths in Afghanistan or ought to the US quit from this nation. In the first piece of this exposition I will display a foundation to the worldwide intrusion of Afghanistan taking after the 9/11 terrorist assaults. In the second part I will analyze contentions why staying in Afghanistan is to American best advantage. These are: Taliban come back to power, destabilization of the district and al - Qaida come back to its bases in Afghanistan. Also I will scrutinize these most noticeably awful - case situations. At last I will look at the contentions of backers for complete or if nothing else a halfway deserting of Afghanistan