The U.S. War in Afghanistan (2001-2014)
Background of the U.S. Attack on Afghanistan
Whenthe Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan the relations between U.S and Afghan Nation became closer to each other due to their common enemy, Soviet Union and Communism, and thusthe U.S. was helping the Jihadi movements against in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. But, After Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan the U.S. left alone Afghanistan and paid her attentions to the Western Europe, where not only the Berlin Wall was demolished, butalso many other countriesgot independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.On the other hand, after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan civil war broke out in Afghanistan, and after three years of civilian war caused the Taliban movement rise to power from Kandahar. As the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban was established, some Arabs, including Osama Bin Laden and some of his other friends, resided in Afghanistan, who had gained shelter in Afghanistan in Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government, before the establishment of the Taliban.
In 1998 there were conflicts between the Taliban and the U.S. and then between the Taliban and the Saudi Arabia on the issue ofOsama Bin Laden, because of which the U.S. fired missiles on Afghanistan many times; but with the incidence of 9/11, the Afghan-U.S. conflict reached its peak because of Osama, and because of which the U.S. attacked Afghanistan.
As 9/11 happened in the U.S., the president of the U.S. George W. Bush has given the following suggestions to the Taliban on September 20th 2001:
- The Taliban should submit all the Al Qaida members to the U.S.
- The Taliban should release all the foreign prisoners that are imprisoned with them[1].
- The Taliban should close the training centers of the armed militias.
- They should submit all the terrorists and their supporters to the relevant authorities.
- They should allow the U.S. to reach the training centers of the “terrorists”, so the U.S. will investigate there[2].
Immediately, on September 21st, the Taliban rejected the suggestions, and they told the U.S. that there is no proof which shows Osama Bin Laden’s the involvement in the 9/11 incidence; therefore they cannot submit Osama to the U.S.
Later on, on October 4th, the Taliban had given a suggestion to the U.S. that they will submit Osama to Pakistan, so he will be tried by an international tribunal, but it was rejected by Musharraf[3].
Once again, on October 7th 2001, the Taliban offered to try bin Laden in an Afghan court, so long as the US provides ‘solid evidence’ of his guilt[4]… But on the same day Taliban’s offer was welcomed by the U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan… On October 14th once again the Taliban suggested that if the U.S. providesevidences against Osama, they are ready to handover Osama to any other third country[5]. But the U.S. rejected all these suggestions and said that if the Taliban did not handover Osama to the U.S., the time of the Taliban is going to be ended. As a result the negotiation between the Taliban and the U.S. stopped and the U.S. started attacks on Afghanistan.
The legal basis of US Attack on Afghanistan:
The UN Security Council’s reaction to the incidence of 9/11 appeared in the forms of 1368 and 1373 Resolutions. None of these two contracts allowed to attack Afghanistan, nor was there any aggressive language used in it; but, generally, those contracts criticized terrorism and terrorist attacks.
In the 1386 Resolution it was mentioned that the ISAF will be involved and it will stay in Kabul and nearby surrounding areas for keeping security and peace, but at the times the resolution was signed on December 20 of 2001, while American Attacks were already started a few weeks earlier[6].
According to the international laws it is an accepted principle that every person is responsible for his/her own actions, which is same as the Islamic Sharia. Based on the article 14 of international law, the conduct of an organ of an insurrectional movement that is established in the territory of a state, or in any other territory under its administration, shall not be considered an act of that state under international law.
As there was no Afghan involved in the incident of 9/11; nor the U.S. was able to provide evidences about the people who were involved in the incident, even up to date the evidences are not declared, which Collin Powel had promised that he would provide such ones; so how the U.S. attacked a country that was ready to not only trial Osama in their own country, but was also ready to handover him to a third country for a judicial trials?
In addition to that, in the article 33 of the UN law it is mentioned that the parties of the case should search for the solution of the case through negotiation, investigation, asking third party for mediation, in the court… and other ways for solving the case, and they should not solve it by force. But, on the other hand, the U.S. closed all the doors towards negotiations since September 11 up to October 15 2001, and it was talking only in the language of might.
The U.S. attacked Afghanistan based on the article 51 of the UN that gives the right of self-defense. As there was not an Afghan and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan involved in the incident of 9/11, but the Taliban were emphasizing for evidences against Osama, it does not meant that the U.S. was under thread of the Afghan Government at the times.
As the U.S. was not under the direct thread of the Taliban, and the Taliban did not attack the U.S. directly; still the U.S. violated the UN law and with the intentions of taking avenge, they shed the blood of many innocent Afghans.
The Aims and Results of the Afghanistan War:
It seems that the case of Osama was the goal of the U.S. attacking Afghanistan, and also destruction of the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban, and even the destruction of the Taliban[7], building the Afghan National Army[8], and replacement of the Taliban regime by a new democratic system in the country, to bring peace and security to the country.
If the sole demand of the U.S. from the Taliban was handover of Osama; so then it was necessarywhen with the assassination of Osama in Pakistan the U.S. had withdrawn from the region; but it was not that simple, the U.S. had many more obvious and interests here, but with a single difference that the U.S. was not able to fully save and achieve its obvious interests.
One of the obvious interests of the U.S. was destruction of the Taliban and Al Qaida, but on one hand, the Taliban are getting day by day stronger and stronger, and the U.S. is already busy in negotiation with them since 2010; on the other hand, the Al Qaida network is still busy with their activities same as compared to their earlier years, and their offshoot group “ISIS” has started even a worst bloody war in Iraq and Syria.
According to some analysts, other goals of the U.S. were encirclement of China, Iran and Russia, in which they are not fully succeeded, and they were brought here too by the rich resources of the Central Asia; but because of its arrogant policy the U.S. did not reach their goals.
As currently 13 years of the U.S. war had passed, based on the statistics of the foreign ministry of the U.S. there are 2386 U.S. soldiers killed and tens of thousands of them had been injured in this war, and the U.S. had already spent approximately one trillion dollars in this war[9], but neither, according to them “Terrorism”, nor the Taliban are eliminated! Neither had they brought peace to Afghanistan, nor they had built the foundation for a stable government; instead, the Afghan system is counted as the most corrupted system in the world[10], it supplies the 90% of the demands of the global narcotics[11], and day by day security and stability is replaced by insecurity and instability[12].
Tens of thousands of Afghans had been martyred in this war. Though the loss of civilians in the airstrikes and operations of the foreign forces seem to be difficult; but, in addition to that, why is it difficult to provide statistics of the casualties of those civilians? It is also clear from the famous sentence of an American General who said “Do you know that we do not count death bodies[13]”. If they do not count death bodies, it means they do not care about the casualties of civilians too.
It is difficult to find correct statistics of the civilian casualties caused by the U.S. attacks and operations. Many organizations and institutions like UNAMA, Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, Some universities and international news agencies, and … have done research about the statistics on civilian casualties. But all those researches are totally bias and mentioning those statistics in a research seems to be unfair.
The End
[1] It is pointed to the ten U.S. citizens that were imprisoned by the Taliban that time.
[2]“Transcript of President Bush’s address – CNN”. CNN. 21 September 2001. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
[3]This suggestion was firstly proposed by Jamat e Islami’s leader QaziHussain Ahmad, which was accepted by Mullah Mohammad Omar; but later was rejected by Musharaf, Read it in the below link;
Patrick Bishop, Pakistan blocks bin Laden trial, guardian 04thoct 2001, see online: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1358464/Pakistan-blocks-bin-Laden-trial.html>
[4] Taliban ‘will try Bin Laden if US provides evidence’, guardian, 5 october 2001, see online: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/05/afghanistan.terrorism>
[5] ‘Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over, guardian, 14thoct 2001, see online: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5>
[6]The first attack of the U.S. on Afghanistan was done on October 7th 2001.
[7] Regarding the issue, the former president Mr. Hamid Karzai said that after the fall of the Taliban he attempted to negotiate with the Taliban, but because of the counter of the U.S. he was not able to do so.
[8]Based on the 1386 contract of the UN Security Council, the ISAF was given the duty of security in Kabul, in addition, it was also given the duty to train the Afghan National Army.
[9]Geoff Dyer and Chloe Sorvino, $1tn Cost of longest US war hastens retreat from military intervention, financial times, 15 dec 2014, see online: <http://www.cnbc.com/id/102267930>
[10]Read the annual report 2014 of the Associated Press in the below link which shows that Afghanistan is ranked as the number four corrupted country around the globe;
http://www.transparency.org/country#AFG
[11]May Jeong, Afghan opium crop set for record high, theguardian 12 Nov 2014, see it online: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/12/afghan-opium-crop-record-high-united-nations
[12] Based on a UN newly published research, the condition of civilians in Afghanistan is very frightening, and accordingly the 2014 was the bloodiest year for Afghans and the casualties of the civilians in this year was approximately ten thousands. Read Wisa Newspaper volume 2357 issued on December 21st 2014.
[13]The speech of the U.S. General Tommy Francs is quoted in the article that is mentioned below:
‘Success in Afghan War Hard to Gage’, The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 March 2002