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THE RISE OF THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

The United States-Afghan Relations during the Rise of the Taliban and the Twenty-First Century Brian Charletta Kyle Keenan Brian Ralph Smithtown High School West Mrs. Antoniazzi AP US History

Abstract Throughout the past three decades the United States has been extensively involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Though the United States is now in great conflict with the Taliban, it had once supported this now devastating terrorist group. When the Taliban first began, its goal was to rid Afghanistan of the USSR military, which imposed Communist views on the Afghan people. The United States decided to help the Afghans in hope that after they had kicked out the Soviet invaders, the new Afghan government would allow the United States to construct oil pipelines throughout Afghanistan. The United States held possession over some of the oil-rich lands just north of Afghanistan, and choosing to build its oil pipelines southward through Afghanistan would help the United States avoid the USSR to the north and west, and Iran to the southwest. After the United States had cleared out the Soviet invaders and had established its oil pipelines, it reverted to a policy of neglect in Afghanistan. As long as oil was flowing through its pipelines in Afghanistan the United States was content. Unfortunately, the political vacuum left by the United States after kicking out the Soviets was being filled by the ever growing Taliban. By 1994, the Taliban had taken control over all of Afghanistan and had become an arbitrary power led by the dictator Mullah Muhammad Omar. This is when the United States finally decided to take a stand and stop the horrific acts committed by the Taliban. It had taken the United States seven years and the lives of thousands of United States troops, but by 2001 the U.S. thought that it had stopped the Taliban. Only a few months ago the United States discovered that it was sadly mistaken; the Taliban experienced a resurgence Afghanistan with none other than Muhammad Omar in the seat of power. Because of its initial support of the Taliban and its period of neglect, which allowed the Taliban to become so powerful, not even the United States can bring about the peace in Afghanistan that both Afghans and Americans had once hoped for. Since the late 1970s the United States and Afghanistan have had a very complex relationship that has only recently been explored by politicians and social activists. From 1979 until around 1990, the United States was actively involved in helping the Afghan people to reclaim Afghanistan from Russian Soviet invaders who had begun to take over the region. The United States did so in hopes of gaining rights to the oil rich lands in northern Afghanistan, as well as rights to build oil pipelines southward from that region, through Afghanistan. This would help the United States avoid contact with the USSR to the north and west, and Iran to the southwest. After ridding Afghanistan of Soviet troops and establishing its own oil pipelines through Afghanistan, however, the United States began to cut off its involvement with the Middle East. From 1990 to around 2000, the policy of neglect that the United States had toward the Middle East dominated its foreign affairs and relations with Afghanistan. The absence of the Soviets in Afghanistan during this time allowed for the rise and spread of a terrorist group while the United States had its back turned. In 1994, this terrorist group became known as the Taliban. One event became the turning point for United States involvement in Afghanistan; that event was the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 1l, 2001. After this attack the United States realized that it had to go back to Afghanistan and put down the organization that it unknowingly helped form. Only a few months after the United States had begun fighting its war in the Middle East, it appeared as if Afghanistan was secure. To its dismay, the United States discovered a few months ago that Afghanistan is experiencing insurgency lead by the man who has been leading the Taliban from the start, Mullah Muhammad Omar. The United States once had positive relations with Afghanistan; however, its period of neglect and failure to acknowledge the political vacuum that existed in Afghanistan during the 1990s, have caused the United States’ strained relations with Afghanistan, as well as the rise and intolerable spread of the Taliban. The Taliban is a radical Sunni Islamic movement that had ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. There is now a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan; however, it does not have the power and control that it once had. The Taliban dominates the heroine and opium trade, and is now leading a guerilla war against the United States, the Afghan Government, and Pakistan. The United States desires to destroy the Taliban, which in fact was a product of the United States’ very own mistakes. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan; the United States saw this act as a threat to the security of Americans because it had occurred during the Cold War Era in the latter half of the 20th Century. Because this era was so threatening, the United States believed that they would need to do everything possible to eliminate the Soviets from Afghanistan, and to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a Communist stronghold. The Marxist Afghan Government was supported by the USSR; however, a group of resistance fighters, the Mujahedeen, were supported by the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and Egypt (Brisard, & Dasquie, 2002). The Mujahedin lead a guerilla war to remove the puppet institution that was the Afghan Government. The other anti-Communist nations saw this as a chance to indirectly fight Communism through the Mujahedin’s cause. The Carter Administration of 1979 saw only the short term effects of becoming involved with the Soviet-Afghan conflict. For example, they saw that a prosperous oil industry would emerge in Afghanistan, and that removing the Soviets would eliminate the communist threat. What the Carter Administration failed to realize was that the Mujahedin would come to abuse their new found power that was given to them by the United States. The Taliban was a sub-group of the Mujahedin that rose to power due to the constant fighting and corruption among the Mujahedin war lords. The Taliban was accepted among the people of Afghanistan because, initially, it was free of corruption and was not involved in the fighting of the other Mujahedin groups. The Soviet Troops were successfully removed from Afghanistan in 1989; however, the Afghan government was under siege by a new group, the group that would come to be known as the Taliban (Gutman, 2008). In late October of 1992, the Mujahedin forces removed the present Afghan Government and different factions of the Mujahedin began fighting for dominance in the region. Afghanistan was by this time in a state of total anarchy and civil unrest; nevertheless, the Taliban quickly emerged as one of the strongest Mujahedin factions. By 1996, the Taliban had taken control of Kabul and had instituted their own government, which including a strict interpretation of Islamic law and the Quran (Brisard, & Dasquie, 2002). Women were treated harshly and were given few to no rights. The Taliban had immediately exiled the presiding Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who the Mujahedin had instituted after the removal of the Soviets and the execution of the president of the former Soviet regime, Mohammad Najibullah. The American aid of the Taliban and other Mujahedin groups was an initial success in defeating the Soviets; however the long term effects of this support sparked civil war among the Mujahedin groups and ultimately led to the formation of the severe and ruthless Taliban (McGeary, 2001). The Taliban formed during the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 through 1989. In 1992, a few years after the Soviet Union had withdrawn from Afghanistan, the Mujahedin took over the Afghan government. After the city of Kabul was captured by the Mujahedin in 1996, they began to set up a new government. Because of the clashing factions of the Mujahedin, however, Afghanistan was split into different territories. The Taliban did not rise united until 1994. In late 1994, the Taliban was hired by Pakistan to protect a convoy trying to open a new trade route from Pakistan to rest of Asia, in which the Taliban showed its strength by successfully fighting off rival Mujahedin groups. After realizing its strength, the Taliban continued to express its power by taking control of the city of Kandahar, which led to the capture of Kabul in 1996. Once in power, the Taliban reigned over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 (Hayes, Brunner, & Rowen, 2007). Mullah Muhammad Omar became the designated leader of the Taliban in 1994. The Taliban's objective was to bring peace to Afghanistan and enforce the Sharia, or Islamic Law. The Taliban gained popularity and support because many of the Afghan people were tired of the constant fighting; therefore, peace became Afghanistan's primary goal. The Taliban also wanted to recommence trade within Afghanistan. To do so, the Taliban began cracking down on banditry and stamping out corruption. The expansion of the Taliban began in southwest Afghanistan. In 1995, the Taliban captured the Herat Province, adjacent to Iran. Afterwards, the Taliban captured Kabul and overthrew President Burhanuddin Rabbani. By 1998, ninety percent of Afghanistan was under Taliban control (McGeary, 2001). Soon after the Taliban had strong control over Afghanistan, it began to enforce strict laws. Loss of hands and even execution were introduced as punishments for crimes. Public entertainment, such as music, movies, and television, was banned due to the fact that it was thought to have the power to corrupt. The Taliban even controlled what males and females were to wear and even what they were required to look like. All men were required to grow beards, while women were required to wear Burqas at all times. These laws were enforced by the religious police. In addition, women were severely discriminated against and were seen as the weaker gender by the Taliban. Women were restricted from both education and voting under the Taliban's critical rule (Dugdale-Pointon, 2007). The Taliban’s severe rules and its harsh rule over Afghanistan continued until the United States finally decided to take action against the terrible organization. The United States involvement in Afghanistan as we know it today took a long time to get started. The decision to change the United States’ approach to solving the problems occurring in Afghanistan from a diplomatic negotiation to a war on terrorism was very gradual. President Bill Clinton, the residing president of the United States at that time, was adamant about keeping the United States out of Afghan affairs. Though acts of terror were being committed in Afghanistan, Clinton chose other priorities that he would focus on during his presidency. As for the ever growing threat and presence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Clinton focused solely on Osama bin Laden’s relation to the Taliban. There were two reasons that Clinton had finally decided to start advocating against the Taliban in Afghanistan; the Taliban’s ubiquitous support of bin Laden, whom they had linked themselves to, and the bombing of two United States embassies in Tanzania and in Kenya that were linked to bin Laden and the Taliban (Gutman, 2008). These events occurred in mid to late 1998, and it was not until February of 1999 that Clinton had decided to take more affirmative actions against the Taliban. His actions, however, were not as forceful as was needed at the time, and they only focused on expelling bin Laden from the Taliban (Gutman, 2008). Clinton began his affirmative actions against the Taliban by placing economic sanctions on Afghanistan, since the Taliban controlled the Afghan government, and by “freezing Taliban financial assets and blocking [Afghan] travel to the United States” (Gutman, 2008). There was only one issue standing in the way that showed how little action the Clinton administration was taking toward the Taliban in Afghanistan. That issue was the fact that Afghanistan was one of the poorest nations in the world already and the Taliban would most likely not be hampered at all by the new sanctions placed on the country. Cutting off positive United States relations with Afghanistan with economic sanctions was doomed from the start and had no effect on the Taliban. The only true gain on the part of the United States in placing these sanctions was making known to the world that the United States was opposed to the actions taken by the Taliban by supporting bin Laden. In addition, efforts from foreign nations to stop the Taliban’s involvement with bin Laden, like the economic sanctions, would, in the end, only strengthen the relationship between bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban (Gutman, 2008). Even the first efforts to stop the Taliban’s control in Afghanistan were lethargic and oblivious to the true problems facing the Afghan people, and they had maintained the general disregard for Afghan issues, which had been demonstrated throughout the entire decade. Futile efforts were made by the Clinton administration until the end of its second term when it was about to step down from office. In its stead was the Bush administration, with George W. Bush as the new president of the United States. This shift in power initiated the next boost in anti-terrorism movements. The Bush administration began their stay in office by taking a more severe approach to terrorism, though it was nowhere near the severity level that the U.S. needed at the time to stop the Taliban. Meetings were held between the major figure heads of the Bush administration to decide on how to deal with the Taliban and the looming threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. Several months later, at a meeting on September 10, 2001, the members of the Bush administration had finalized a plan to try to halt the threats in Afghanistan. This plan entailed one last chance for the Taliban to hand over bin Laden, and if they failed to do so, covert United States military aid would be provided to anti-Taliban groups in Afghanistan. If both of these methods failed, then the United States would take a forceful, aggressive approach to end the Taliban regime (Borger, 2004). The plan to deal with the Taliban was finalized later that day, September 10, 2001. However we all know what befell the United States on the day that had followed, September 11, 2001, the day we know as 9/11. On October 12, 2001, President Bush formally declared a war on terror ("2001: us declares," 2001). With an increase in military activity in Afghanistan from both international and national anti-terrorist groups, the Taliban was finally being broken down. On December 7, 2001, United States Special Forces and Afghan anti-Taliban soldiers defeated the remaining Taliban forces at Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban. This victory represented what appeared to be the decimation of the Taliban, the end of one of the most threatening terrorist groups in the Middle East; the oppressive group was no longer in control of the Afghan government. The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Muhammad Omar, had fled the city realizing that his Taliban soldiers were not going to make it in battle for much longer (Aiken, Ensor, Hyder, & Robertson, 2001). It has been noted that Omar was seen fleeing Kandahar in a motorbike convoy (Shane, 2001). It had taken a national threat to get the United States to react and to fight back against the Taliban. After more than four years of dealing with threats of terrorism the United States stepped in to stop the madness created by the Taliban. Once the United States had taken the actions necessary to assure the defeat of the Taliban, it only took the United States three months to put an end to the terrorist organization. Unfortunately, after the veneer defeat of the Taliban on December 7, 2001, the United States ended its occupation in Afghanistan and left the weak nation to stabilize itself. Though the United States did have other major terrorist groups to worry about, such as al Qaeda, it should have learned from its prior mistakes and realized that it was leaving a political vacuum in Afghanistan, just as it had done about twelve years earlier. In the late spring of this year, Mullah Omar began leading a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Though he has been thought to be out of the picture, this Taliban warlord is beginning to make a stand once again, and he is rallying support of other pro Taliban Muslims to again take control of the Afghan government (Shane, 2001). The issues regarding the Taliban and its recent insurgency have become the most pressing issues of the Obama administration. With all of the experience that the United States has had in the past with the Taliban in Afghanistan, there may be hope that this time things will go according to plan, and that when the United States finally rids Afghanistan of the Taliban (again), it will not let the Afghan government fall prey to any other hostile terrorist organizations. The rise of the Taliban and the bitter tensions between the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan were the result of a period of United States neglect of Afghanistan during the 1990s, after it had originally helped the Afghan government to expel Soviet invaders during the 1980s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s Soviets from Russia began to invade Afghanistan. The United States, wanting to keep its access to oil rich lands in northern Afghanistan, decided to help the Afghan people defend their nation and take back their government. After doing so, however, the United States left Afghanistan feeling that its job was done, and it began a policy of neglect towards Afghanistan until the very late 1990s. During this period of time, the Taliban, terrorist group intent upon taking control of the Afghan government, was forming, and with the absence of the United States, the group was unchallenged and was able to successfully take over. The Taliban became a fully fledged terrorist organization in 1994, with militant Mullah Muhammad Omar as its leader. It was not until 1998 that the United States began to recognize how out of control the acts of terror in Afghanistan really were. Even then not much was done to stop the Taliban, and the only event that spurred on complete support for stopping the Taliban was the bombing of The World Trade Center on American soil. In December of 2001, it appeared as if the United States had defeated the Taliban; however, when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan it left another political vacuum to be filled by any group who could fill it. Just a few months ago it was announced that a Taliban insurgency was taking place in Afghanistan, and the United States prepared itself for another war with an organization that it thought had been long dead. Though many times throughout the history of the United States -Afghan relations, the United States has left Afghanistan before stabilizing it politically, there is hope that the United States has learned from its dire mistake, and that it will follow through with creating a stable democratic government rather than leaving a deadly political vacuum once again.