Edited by: Myint Myat Theingi, Blogged by Sahithi Lingampalli
The Afghanistan war has been occurring for 20 years, and the conflict has only intensified since then. The Afghanistan war began when America started bombing Afghanistan, after 9/11, until they handed over Osama Bin Laden. This war was initially targeted at Al Qaeda and the Taliban but even when Osama Bin Laden was found and assassinated in 2011, the war has still been going on 10 years after that, and counting. As of right now, the conflict is not only between America and Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but between the terrorist organizations and the Afghanistan government.
The Biden Administration recently announced that they are planning on withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan on September 11, 2021. This marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. There are around 3,500 troops in Afghanistan. A deal made with the Taliban and the Trump administration plans for all troops to be fully gone by May 1st. “We have … long known that there is no military solution to the problems plaguing Afghanistan, and we will focus our efforts on supporting the ongoing peace process,” a Biden Official said. Although withdrawing troops from the conflict sounds like an amicable idea in theory, in actuality, the situation is far more complex and will ultimately cause Afghanistan to enter into a “brutal period.” Withdrawing troops may stop the war in America’s viewpoint, but the war would still be going on in Afghanistan.
After the Taliban threatened to “defend its religion and homeland and continue its Jihad and armed struggle against foreign forces to liberate its country”, the Biden administration has made it a plan to get the troops out by September if all American troops were not out by May 1st. Biden has said that it is of no American interest to be at war with the Taliban. Biden is also working with other NATO-North Atlantic Treaty Organization- countries to withdraw the troops during the same period.
In just the first half of June, there have been 327 security forces and 82 civilians that have been killed. There are 11 districts of Afghanistan that are under Taliban rule. Everyday, the amount of death tolls just continued to accelerate. . According to the post, the Taliban vows to continue the war until Afghanistan is fully under Islamic rule.
References
Susannah G, E. 2021. As the US pulls out, the Afghan war enters a brutal phase.Independent.Retrieved from: Link
BBC. (n.d.). E. 2012. The history of the Afghanistan war - CBBC Newsround. BBC News. Retrieved from: Link
Ryan P and Christopher W, E. 2021. Biden plans to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Business Insider. Retrieved from: Link
Fatima F and Najim R, E. 2021. Afghan War Casualty Report: June 2021. New York Times. Retrieved from: Link
Lyne O D, E. 2021. Taliban Map Out Future Vision for Afghanistan. Foreign Policy.Retrieved from:Link