Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror

On 11 September 2001, the South Tower of the World Trade Center was struck by an airliner watched by millions of stunned television viewers. 18 minutes earlier another plane had collided with the North Tower drawing observers and news crews. A third aircraft plunged into the Pentagon soon after and a fourth, probably destined for Capitol Hill or the White House, crashed aground in Pennsylvania.

Airspace over the US was shut down and international flights were diverted to Canada and Mexico. Orders were given to shoot down any plane which did not respond to instructions to land. President George W. Bush was evacuated from a school in Florida on Air Force One and, flanked by fighter jets, was flown to secure, secret locations before returning to Washington DC later that evening. 

20 years later, we live in a world shaped by the Global War on Terror (GWOT) launched to avenge 9/11. The effects of Afghanistan’s entanglement continue to reverberate through its society.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the world rallied to support the US. French newspaper, Le Monde’s headline ‘We are all Americans’ articulated the solidarity many felt with America that day. Iranians held candlelit vigils and Cuba offered medical assistance.

Other countries observed minutes of silence and gathered outside US embassies worldwide to leave flowers or offer condolences. Ireland held a National Day of Mourning and NATO evoked Article 5 of its charter for the first and, to date, only time.

President Bush came to power just under 9 months before the attack. On the campaign trail, Bush had promised a more ‘humble’ foreign policy than his predecessor, Bill Clinton. That would change utterly after 9/11.

On 12 September, Bush warned the nation that freedom and democracy were ‘under attack’ in a ‘monumental struggle of good versus evil’. On 20 September, Bush declared a ‘war on terror’ of global reach stating, ‘our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there…It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated’.

Bush advised that Americans ‘should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen’ and so it has been.

The president called on the Taliban to hand over the al Qaeda leadership or face repercussions. Osama bin Laden had supported the Taliban in its struggle for control of Afghanistan, but failed to foresee the US reaction. Documents found in his compound in Abbottabad after his death show that he believed the atrocity would incite Americans to rally against US foreign policy which, he argued in his fatwas, helped to repress Palestinians, propped up corrupt Muslim leaders and stationed ‘infidel armies’ on holy lands.

Instead, Americans rallied around their flag in mourning and rage.

The first offensive of the GWOT began with the invasion of Afghanistan that October to little opposition in the US or elsewhere. Initially, it proved a great success – Kabul fell within 5 weeks and the Taliban’s stronghold of Kandahar a month later.

By mid 2002, a transitional government was established under the stewardship of Hamid Karzai. The defeated Taliban sought to negotiate a surrender but assimilation of the group into the new political order faced resistance. President Bush’s own rhetoric precluded this.

President Bush, like bin Laden, miscalculated the ramifications his actions. The GWOT came just ten years after the Cold War ended – a decade where the US stood astride the globe as the sole superpower. The neoconservatives in power with Bush were hubristic and ideological. They believed the US should, if necessary, act unilaterally and pre-emptively, busting international norms.

The Bush Doctrine sought to shake off the constraints that the failure in Vietnam had put on US foreign policy. The administration soon side-lined Afghanistan to target the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq.

Unlike Afghanistan, however, the decision to invade Iraq provoked considerable controversy and sparked massive anti-war protests. In February 2003, 2 million took to the streets of London, 3 million marched in Rome, and many millions more in cities worldwide. Key NATO allies such as France and Germany opposed the invasion and questioned the evidence provided to justify it.

The Iraq War consumed a huge amount of US time and treasure. Like Afghanistan, the US military overran Iraq within weeks and toppled Hussein.

However, mistakes made by the transitional administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority, especially its policy of de-Baathification, lead to years of instability in Iraq, an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths and enabled the rise of Islamic State. 

The US squandered its credibility and energy in Iraq diverting resources and focus from Afghanistan. In 2004, the administration’s budget submission even forgot to request funds for the Afghan reconstruction project. Corruption and lack of adequate resources seeded instability in Afghanistan and by 2006 a violent insurgency raged. The fight against a resurgent Taliban racked up increasing ‘collateral’ (civilian) deaths breeding resentment.

President Barack Obama aimed to quell the insurgency by sending a ‘surge’ of troops – a decision his vice president, Joe Biden, vehemently opposed. Goals for the withdrawal of these troops were continually undermined by concerns about the Afghan military’s capacity to maintain security alone.

Obama had drawn down troops by the end of his term and re-tooled the prosecution of the GWOT away from ‘boots on the ground’ to drone warfare and targeted assassinations. However, by 2017, the Taliban were said to control one-third of Afghan territory, and an Islamic State affiliate was now active in the country.

President Trump’s deal with the Taliban promised safe withdrawal of US forces but asked little else of the organisation. It amounted to nothing less than an admission of surrender.

While the GWOT prevented any further major attacks on the American homeland it came with substantial costs especially for Afghanistan which suffered considerable loss of civilian lives, the creation and then destruction of its nascent democracy and dashed hopes for peace and security.