Afghanistan War Research Paper

Due to past events, the Afghan government is now struggling to keep up with their citizens’ problems with living there. Bombing, wars, harassment, feminism, and abuse have been some of the main topics of bad events in the last few years in Afghanistan. Dystopia is a society that can be characterized with extreme hunger, poverty, misery, and the imbalance among the people; the Taliban taking over was the cause of how Afghanistan is still dystopian today. When one analyzes Ashraf Ghani’s choice to allow the Taliban to form, and the impacts the Taliban are still having on the people, one can realize how important genres of literature can be to educate the world about this dystopian

The Afghanistan War was the longest war in history fought by the United States. The war took place over 13 years and 59 countries participated in the war. The US led the war in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, after the Taliban refused to give America Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda. As a result of this on the 7th October 2001 the US and the UK launched Operation Enduring Freedom. They were then joined by other forces including the Northern Alliance, which had been fighting the taliban since 1996 when they came into power. The main goal for the Afghanistan war was to destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

After unraveling of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, fears of war breaking out between the major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union were greatly reduced. Numerous commentaries, reports, and studies arose out of the question of what to do with the excess U.S. forces, and how to reshape them for a new era (Snider & Carlton-Carew, 1996). Since the birth of the United States, the military has been an important part of the United States. The US military has been a fundamental part of foreign policy, including fostering democracy, establishing rule of law, and assisting with economic development in territories allied with the U.S. (Ludema, 2007).

The reconstruction in America after the Civil War was very similar to the reconstruction in Afghanistan after the Operation Enduring Freedom. Both countries had huge amounts of destruction and obstacles to overcome after each of their wars. There are many similarities between the reconstructions in America and Afghanistan. They had problems with the government, economy, security, and the destruction.

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

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, is a Washington Post reporter and editor. He has spent three years in Afghanistan and reported extensively about the operations conducted by the ISAF and NATO forces in the post troop’s surge period. He is also the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: inside Iraq’s Green Zone, one of the New York Times’s 10 best books of year 2007. Interestingly the author was a guest speaker at the USAWC and presented his thoughts to the students of class of AY 14. His talk at the USAWC and relevance of situation in Afghanistan to Pakistan prompted me to select his book “Little America” for writing the critical book report.

Afghanastan is known for being mountainous but the geography and climate are different depending on the part of the country. The country has three separate areas in terms of geography including the Central Highlands which has steep valleys and mountains that are dry and soil that is desert-steppe and meadow-steppe in other parts. The Southern Plateau has high plateaus and desert land. The climate is milder and the soil is not fertile except next to the river. The Northern Plains are very fertile with a major river and a lot of mineral deposits in the soil.

The war between Afghanistan and the United States has been one that has lasted longer than any war; the civil war combined with both World War I and World War II do not match the duration the United States currently faces with Afghanistan. With both countries engaging little to no military conflict, the U.S. continues to be on Afghanistan’s territory, securing the country from the rise of militias potentially threatening our counterpart’s sovereignty. Many people have been arguing whether the US should withdraw from Afghanistan and when. Currently, as the U.S. plans to withdraw from the Afghan nation, the issue is not one that pertains to the U.S. and Afghanistan, for they are not the only two involved. American forces had planned to leave the opponent’s nation but fear the security along with the sovereignty of Afghanistan continues to be one that is porous. The initiation of the war was the 9/11 attack and has been lasting for 13 years. However, many people complain about the extreme high cost of the war The United States should withdraw completely from Afghanistan because of the high cost of the war, popular opinion’s support, and very few al-Qaeda members are left.

Presidents have sent troops to different places all over the world for various reasons. They’ve been doing it for years. Some missions have been called back and others have stayed to fight. It all has depended on what congress has decided. On October 7th, 2001, The War on Terrorism in Afghanistan began.

Every day someone’s child, spouse, sibling or parent makes the courageous decision to join the United States Army. This is something less than one percent of Americans ever do, this takes a special person to become a defender of the Constitution. Of those defenders, how many of them have deployed to a combat zone, most specifically Afghanistan? The United States military has spent over 10 years in Afghanistan. Soldiers and families are beaten and tired after this decade of combat and losses no one can even understand. These losses and brokenness is why it is time to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and bring them home in a steady and slow pattern or increments. Closing out a combat and war zone takes a lot of planning, preparation, training and cooperation from all Allied forces and host nations; Afghanistan is no different. A decade of war needs to come to an end and Afghanis need to take charge of their country and people and stand on their own two feet.

Soldiers are often considered robots, meaning they have no real concern about the battle they are fighting. This is not true, especially in the case of the war on terrorism. If one were to ask a soldier what he thought of the war in Afghanistan, he would immediately tell you that it is a necessary war to keep the United States safe from the terrorists. Unfortunately, Americans do not think the same way soldiers or the families of soldiers do. Most Americans believe the war is a waste of time, money, and American resources. This thought process is not only wrong, but completely unfair to the troops serving. The Afghan war cannot be won by fighting or blood loss, but the war can and will be won by American occupation in Afghanistan.

NATO relies on stable political and economic conditions for members to meet their obligations. Several NATO countries are limited by economic development and national debt. In 2014, NATO Allies pledged to increase defense spending and meet the NATO 2% guidelines. (EUCOM Posture Statement, 16) Recent Russian manipulation of political and economic programs exploits this vulnerability and creates instability and weakens the NATO Alliance. (USEUCOM Theater Strategy, 3)

Outside influence has always be an issue for Afghanistan as demonstrated by the numerous military campaigns that surround its history most notably by Alexander the Great, British, Soviet Russians, and today by Western powers. During 1880-1901 Abdur Rahman Khan came into power. It was at this time Abdur Rahman expressed that the British were “really anxious to see Afghanistan a strong independent Government-a true ally and barrier, “ whereas the Russians wished “to see Afghanistan divided into pieces and very weak, if not entirely cleared out of the way to India.” (Ewans, pg 99). Although considered a strong ruler who re-established the Afghan Government his power came from the reliability of the British for his protection throughout his reign.

The Soviets had been helping Afghanistan since the 1920s to be a buffer state and to stop the influence of Iran and Pakistan, which were backed by the United States, later when Iran got a new leader it resulted in a challenge for the Soviets and Communism, this made the Soviets and Afghans hate each other. In 1979 Afghans rebels and the soviets started a war with each other. Soviet leaders wanted to kill the afghan leader and replace him with a new one that supports communism. The Soviets having over 75,00 people were still not able to take down the Afghan rebels. Although Soviets tried to stop this from happening, the Islamic groups in Pakistan which were backed by the United States helped the Afghans get weapons. With the war going on for many more years in 1984 The United States president released a ground to air missiles called Afghan freedom fighters. These missiles were one of the causes for the war to end in 1989, with 20,000 soviet deaths and 1,000,000 afghan deaths, The

Issue: According to SIGAR the production of opium in 2013 was 209,000 hectares and with the deteriorating security in many parts of rural Afghanistan, it is expected to increase by 7% in 2014. According to Tahir Qadiry of BBC News, Kabul 1 million men, woman, and children in Afghanistan are addicted to Opium. The opium trade undermines the Afghanistan state, financial sectors, breeds corruption, sustains criminal networks and provides significant financial support to the Taliban. The Taliban uses these funds to finance their terrorist activities including the purchase of weapons. The DOD and other US agency have tried to build reliable Afghan counter-narcotic partnership, but these efforts have failed, due to lack of local government support, despite the $7.6 billion the