Taliban, Terrorism and War on ‎Terror: Assessing US ‎Involvement in ‎Afghanistan

Mr. Sidiqullah Sahel ‎

Volume 3 Issue 2 | Dec 2020

DOI: 10.31841/KJSSH.2021.39

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Abstract

It has been 19 years of September 11 tragedy, in response United States ‎waged a war against ‎perpetrators. The country with some NATO member ‎countries took the lead in war against ‎terror, and started Operation ‎enduring freedom on 7th October 2001, to topple the Taliban ‎regime, and ‎Eliminate terrorist organizations from its roots. For the purpose to be ‎achieved, ‎USA convened a conference in Bonn Germany, comprising All ‎Jihadist groups, except Taliban ‎and Hezbe Islami Hekmatyar, for formation ‎of new administration and sharing power. Hamid ‎Karzai was appointed as ‎head of new interim administration in the conference on 5th ‎December ‎‎2001, and gradually ISAF under NATO deployed around the country to ‎suppress ‎Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, ‎USA could defeat neither ‎international terrorism, nor Taliban militarily, but ‎instead it exacerbated the security ‎conditions of the country, and led to ‎creation of a greater number of terrorist organizations. USA ‎finally decided ‎to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan through an agreement signed ‎‎between USA and Taliban on 29th February 2020. now the Question arises ‎whether US has ‎achieved what they wanted to? whether the country ‎succeeded in state-building in ‎Afghanistan? The paper finds out, that ‎absence of unanimity and perfect policy regarding ‎Taliban amongst Afghan ‎statesmen and US is one of momentous reasons for prolonging ‎Afghan ‎war, and After crumbling the regime of Taliban, USA did not have any ‎specific policy ‎for state-building or rehabilitation in Afghanistan, instead ‎their intention at that time was that ‎of retaliation and counter-terrorism. ‎also, continuous civilian casualties or collateral damage, ‎reverberated ‎peoples’ optimistic attitude about USA, and absence of social justice ‎widened ‎the gap between government and citizens of the country, ‎especially in peripheries, where ‎Taliban recruited their guerrillas. ‎ ‎

Keywords: Taliban, Terrorism, War on terror, Al-Qaeda, Bonn Conference. ‎