Understanding Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden

Afghanistan

• Afghanistan is one of the most impoverished nations of the world.
• It is one of the most war-torn, most ravaged, and most beleaguered of nations.
• Within its current borders there are at least a dozen major ethnic groups
• Baluch, Chahar Aimak, Turkmen, Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Nuristani, Arab, Kirghiz, Pashai and Persian.
• The vast majority of its people are Muslims – and in fact many ethnic groups consider Islam to be one of the defining aspects of their ethnic identity
• The history of Afghanistan is riddled with invasion - the most recent being the United States.

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The Soviet Union & the Afghanistan War

• Soviet involvement with Afghanistan goes back to the 1920s
• Soviet leadership decided to invade the country in December 1979.
• The invasion resulted in worldwide condemnation of the Soviet Union.
• Four years after the invasion of Afghanistan, over 100,000 Soviet troops are waging a systematic scorched earth war that had driven one- fourth of Afghanistan's population into exile.

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• Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan lasted from 1979 to 1988 and ended with a Soviet defeat at the hands of international militias of Muslim fighters called Mujahideen.
• The United States, among others, helped aid the Mujahideen to stop the Soviet Union.

Freedom Fighters

• One of the CIA's longest and most expensive covert operations was the supplying of billions of dollars in arms to the Afghan mujahideen militants.
• Osama bin Laden was among the recipients of U.S. arms. Between $3–$20 billion in U.S. funds were funneled into the country to train and equip troops with weapons
• Under Reagan, U.S. support for the mujahideen evolved into an official U.S. foreign policy, known as the Reagan Doctrine.

• Ronald Reagan praised mujahideen as "freedom fighters“ - Including the Taliban.
• Most of these “freedom fighters” would later be called “terrorists” after 9/11.

Osama Bin Laden

• Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1957
• Son of a billionaire Saudi businessman
• Became involved in the fight against the Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan
• The founding leader of the Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian targets.
• Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives due to several 1998 US embassy bombings.
• Killed by US forces in Pakistan, May 2, 2011

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The (First) Gulf War

• The Persian Gulf War (August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991), commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from thirty-four nations led by the United States and United Kingdom, against Iraq.
• This war has also been referred to (by the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein) as The Mother of all Battles, and is commonly known as Operation Desert Storm for the operational name of the military response, or the First Gulf War, or the Iraq War.

The Gulf War

• The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces to Saudi Arabia almost 6 months afterwards, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene.
• The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial bombardment on 16 January 1991. This was followed by a ground assault on 23 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased their advance, and declared a cease-fire 100 hours after the ground campaign started

Al Qaeda�(graphic from BBC)

• Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden to bring together the international network he established during the Afghan war. Its goals were the advancement of Islamic revolutions throughout the Muslim world and repelling foreign intervention in the Middle East. 
• Following the first Gulf War, Al Qaeda shifted its focus to fighting the growing U.S. presence in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s most sacred shrines. Al Qaeda opposed the stationing of U.S. troops on what it considered the holiest of Islamic lands and waged an extended campaign of terrorism against the Saudi rulers, whom Bin Laden deemed to be false Muslims.

The Taliban

• Although they managed to hold 90% of the country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of women and support of terrorists—distanced them from the world community. The Taliban was ousted from power in December 2001 by the U.S. military and Afghan opposition forces in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S.
• Most shocking to the West was the Taliban's treatment of women. When the Taliban took Kabul, they immediately forbade girls to go to school. Moreover, women were barred from working outside the home, precipitating a crisis in healthcare and education. Women were also prohibited from leaving their home without a male relative—those that did so risked being beaten, even shot, by officers of the "ministry for the protection of virtue and prevention of vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her fingertips chopped off. All this, according to the Taliban, was to safeguard women and their honor.

The Taliban ("Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement") ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war by aid of the United States and other non-Soviet supporters.

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

• October 7, 2001–Present
• The first phase of the war was the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, when the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom, to remove the safe haven to Al-Qaeda and its use of the Afghan territory as a base of operations for terrorist activities. The Taliban was somewhat quickly overthrown.
• The stated aim of the invasion was to find Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking Al-Qaeda members to be put on trial, to destroy the organization of Al-Qaeda, and to remove the Taliban regime which supported and gave safe harbor to it. The Bush administration stated that, as policy, it would not distinguish between terrorist organizations and nations or governments that harbored them. The United Nations did not authorize the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan

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War in Afghanistan

• The initial attack removed the Taliban from power, but Taliban forces have since regained strength. Since 2006, Afghanistan has seen threats to its stability from increased Taliban-led insurgent activity, record-high levels of illegal drug production, and a fragile government with limited control outside of Kabul. The Taliban can sustain itself indefinitely, according to a December 2009 briefing by the top U.S. intelligence officer in Afghanistan
• On December 1, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he would escalate U.S. military involvement by deploying an additional 30,000 soldiers over a period of six months.
• 2,200 American service members have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations, as of today, April 16^th, 2013
• President Obama has announced his intention to withdraw almost all U.S. troops at the end of 2014