The Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan

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

So far, terrorism has been a key obstacle to many foreign nations, as they are struggling to prevent terrorist attacks. From the year of 1997 up to the year of 2003, international terrorist attacks have gone from less than 500 to almost 3000. Overall, global terrorism has grown by almost 1200% from 1997 to 2003. (Johnston 1). This massive increase in terrorism reflects on other nations' lack of control of the safety of their nation. These statistics also show that something needs to be done to protect the

This power vacuum left by the Soviets is what led to the formation and intensification of the Taliban. Once the Taliban emerged

The situation in Afghanistan actually began in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded their country. The United States funded money to the "mujahedin," or holy warriors, in the name of stopping communism. From this support, Afghanistan was able to defeat the Soviet Union in 1989. Yet the country became very unstable after the war. Political power was fluctuating often and leaders came in and out of power rapidly. Farmers resorted to growing many drugs such as poppies and marijuana and sold them around the globe. Cities were annihilated. Over five million Afghanis fled to other countries in search of a better life. When the Afghanis turned to the United States for help in rebuilding our country, we refused. This caused great anger amongst the Afghani people directed toward the United States. This also lead to Mullah Mohammod Omar, the current leader of Afghanistan, to form a ground of men to "rebuild" his country. They are now known as the Taliban. Omar's personal description is, "A simple band of dedicated youths determined to establish the laws of God on

Lastly, Afghanistan has been seen as the incubator for terrorism that has reached across the world bringing death and destruction, but lets not forget the financial impacts that each terrorist attack takes on the free market.

The Taliban, also known as The Afghan Taliban, is a terrorist organization that occupies large areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban rose to power after the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989. By 1996, an extremist group by the name The Taliban had established themselves, enforcing a rather strict and brutal for of Sharia law. This was the beginning of what would seem to be a lifetime of horror for much of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the United States and the United Nations.

In The documentary Opium Brides shows the inequality in the system and the weakness of the sovereign in the Afghanistan. Because the authorities are corrupt and the poverty is extremely. The poor people become slaves of the Taliban who decide who the poor people have to live. The documentary also shows the intervention the CIA who works in order to prevent the exportation the opium to U.S from the Pakistan. Thus documentary shows how the inequality in the race is important in the society. It is possible to see how the Taliban control people’s lives in Afghanistan; especially the poor people who deal with a weak economy for survive. The Taliban gives these poor people to choose cultivate drugs and life or death because the government does

The United States has been fighting the war in Afghanistan for the past fourteen years, yet the Taliban insurgents are not defeated and the insurgency is rising. This paper examines the major reasons why the United States has not been able to defeat the Taliban insurgent group in Afghanistan since 9/11.The main players in war against the Taliban are the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. The Afghan Taliban insurgent group, installed and backed up by Pakistan’s government officially ruled over Afghanistan from 1996-2001. In the meantime, the Taliban endorsed and allowed Osama Bin Laden, the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda global terrorist organization to set up terrorist training camps in eastern and southern

“Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed, long before mines were planted like seeds of death and children buried in rock-piled graves,” Afghanistan was in its Golden Age (Hosseini 136). A time before it was an “ungovernable collection of tribes” and mini-states, a time where warlords and fundamentalists were not overpowering the government, Afghanistan stood as a country of ethnic harmony and the city of Kabul was known as “the Paris of Central Asia” (Bumiller). Women were going to school and tourists were able to adventure Afghanistan’s snow-capped mountains without worry. Sadly, in December 1979, Afghanistan awoke with sounds of gunfire and an invasion had begun by the Soviet Union. The families who had the money to flee the danger zone, quickly packed their belongings and left their homes behind, hoping to return someday. After the Soviet-Afghan war was at an end, the year 1996 brought about an Islamic student militia called the Taliban. During this time period of war and destruction, children were lost in a whole new world and stolen of their purity. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, he tells a powerful and cruel story through the eyes of Amir’s life (the main character) starting from when children’s lives consisted of flying kites and exploring the city’s streets freely, to an era where children were in run down orphanages or begging for money on the streets to help support their

America initially took interest in Afghanistan to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining too much influence, and possibly taking over Afghanistan to use a base. The American’s sought to undermine the Soviet’s support by ensuring that “Afghanistan’s resistance continues. This means more money as well as arms shipments to the rebels” (267). Unfortunately, this completely backfired, as the Americans ended up pouring millions of dollars to training rebel soldiers who were extremely anti-western, such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who “dreamed of turning Afghanistan into a pure Islamic state, and liked to lead his followers in lusty chants of ‘Death to America!’” (267). By funding such violence and instability, the “lawless border region straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan gave birth to violent forces that would reshape the world” (269). Careless, the American government did not monitor where their copious amounts of money went, and Pakistan took advantage of this by sending the money to Afghan function who were all :in varying degrees fundamentalist and anti-Western, and also worked systematically to undermine and destroy others that were leftist, secular, or nationalist”, or in other words, they were “financing [their] own assassins” (269). After Pakistan emerged with newly gained power after the defeat of the Soviets, American leaders lost interest in Afghanistan, which was ultimately the last straw, as it became a “training ground and munitions dump for foreign terrorists” (271). With Afghanistan in such turmoil, the Taliban, with the indirect support of the US, rose to power, and supported Osama Bin Laden, who “seethed with hatred of the West. Soon they were running Afghanistan together and turning it into the world’s most active breeding grounds for terrorism” (273). This led to the heinous acts on September 11, 2001, when Al

Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world. The land that occupies Afghanistan has a long history of domination by foreign conquerors and strife among internally warring factions. At the gateway between Asia and Europe, this land was conquered by Darius I of Babylonia circa 500 B.C., and Alexander the Great of Macedonia in 329 B.C., among others. In recent years, war and lawlessness had destroyed much of the country; millions of people went into exile and brought its economy to a standstill. This paper looks to explore the recent history of Afghanistan, how the Taliban came to power, and the impact their Islamic laws had on the Afghanistan society including their treatment of

The Middle East is considered the center of terrorism and violence today. Afghanistan borders the Middle East and is home to many terrorist groups, including the Taliban. Since the government is not developed, many citizens follow the Taliban or join other terrorist

The Taliban—a Muslim fundamentalist group--first took control on the Afghanistan government in 1996, and even after the US-led invasion in 2001, they have maintained a strong influence in rural regions. When they first became present, many Afghans believed they would bring light to the years of corruption introduced by the Russians, and for a while that was true. The Taliban brought stability to Afghanistan, reduced infighting between warlords, and cracked down on the corruption that had been present in the government for many years. However, as years past the presence of the fundamentalist group changed Afghanistan and its people for the worse, displacing many people, and many Hazara, women, and children were murdered. Before Taliban arrive

Taliban - the world's most extreme and radical Islamic organization that inspires fascination, controversy, and especially fear in both the Muslim world and the West - has been brought into sharp focus in Ahmed Rashid's book "Taliban". This enormously insightful book gives an account of Taliban's rise to power, its impact on Afghanistan and the Central Asian region. The book also analyzes the wider regional and geopolitical implications of the Taliban's advent to power and the role that Taliban has to play in oil and gas companies decisions. The author also discusses about the changing attitudes of various countries like America and Saudi Arabia towards Taliban and its effects on Afghanistan.

There are so many, of reasons the Soviet Union lost their war in Afghanistan. The Taliban did not wholey defeat the Soviet Union and their retreat and subsequent withdrawal was caused by multiple factors. First and foremost was that the domestic issues in Soviet Union had demanded it. The war began while Brezhnev was still in power, continued under Adropov and Chernenko, but ended under Gorbachev. In fact, Gorbachev attempted to end the war in 1985 when he was first elected, but was unable to do so. After the disaster in Priyapyat , the Soviet Union "opened up". This new transparency brought increased criticism to the efforts in Afghanistan. Additionally, this "war by proxy" between the Soviets and Americans was seen as an anachronism in the age of Glasnost and Perestroika. The Soviets merely admitted that they were in no position to win a war in that country ,as the British had done twice and the Americans will do in the near future and if they perservered it would be at the expense of their more pressing domestic issues as well as new international