On December 24, 1979, Soviet tanks rumbled into Afghanistan, and the rebellion fighters known as “Mujahideen” drew upon Islam as uniting source. These momentums gained backing from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the United States of America and were joined by other foreign forces later all efforts were coordinated under a network known as Al-Qaeda. The guerrilla war against the Soviet ultimately led to their departure in 1989. While Mujahideen was politically fragmented Taliban emerged and seized Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and instituted strict and severe interpretations of Islamic Law like prohibiting women's education and hand severing for petty crime. The same year Afghanistan welcomed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and established headquarters there. The Taliban aided by Al-Qaeda, seized above 90% of Afghan territory by 2001. The assassination of Mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Masoud On September 9, the hijacking and crashing of four U.S. jets on September 11, 2001, In the aftermath of the attacks, the administration of U.S. Pres. George W. Bush made a strategy first to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan and then dismantling al-Qaeda, though others contemplated actions in Iraq, including long-standing plans for toppling Iran president Saddam Hussein. Bush demanded that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar “deliver to [the] United States authorities all the leaders of al-Qaeda who hide in your land,” and when Omar refused, U.S. officials began to debate war plans and announced the “Operation Enduring Freedom” action plan and then within a couple of months the Taliban were forced out of power and Afghanistan got a new interim government. Three years later it got a new constitution
The United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history. On 14 April, US President Joe Biden announced that remaining US troops in Afghanistan would be withdrawn by 11 September; Subsequently Taliban military overran the provinces and reached the capital, Kabul, on 15 August, causing the government to collapse and President Ghani to flee the country. In early September, the Taliban announced an interim government
The US alone spent almost a Trillion dollars on the war and reconstruction projects alone and even after all that Afghanistan is deeply unstable and the Taliban are still a force to reckon with. Even before the last of US troops could exit the country the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, After the Invasion the group was believed to be weakened but the rapid toppling shows the group was never weakened only laying dormant waiting for the US to exit. 85000 full-time fighters and training camps across the country, they controlled major Highways. Taliban set up a parallel state, consisting own courts where a strict interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) was implemented. Own a tax collection system and receive funds from abroad, mining, trading minerals, and real estate. The increased Poverty and gains turned people towards “Opium poppy” cultivation with a farm gate price of approximately $125 per kilogram for dry opium 17 times more profit than wheat. As of 2021, the Afghanistan harvest produces 90% of illicit heroin globally.
However there is a difference in the language Taliban speak now from 1996, they voice in a cultured manner, aware of political etiquettes but before there was only militia culture and zealotry. The Taliban and other armed groups were responsible for numerous targeted killings throughout the year, including of human rights defenders, women activists, humanitarian and health workers, journalists, former government officials, and security force members. Religious and ethnic minorities were at particular risk. There is a ray of hope if their actions are true to their claims. The Taliban moved strategically, their support base consist of numerous ethnolinguistic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbeks, The last-minute announcement of Mohammed Hassan Akhund as the acting prime minister of Afghanistan, who is a scholar instead of a warrior, to get the extremists and moderates together. However, among the cabinet members, there is neither non-Taliban nor women. The majority is Pashtun. Many cabinet members around 17 out of 33 are on the UN terror blacklist.
“Afghanistan is on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” The UN said on 25th October this exceeds the misery in Syria and Yemen 23 million out of the country’s 38 million people will not get through the winter unless Foreign aid is rapidly enabled. Almost all Americans did not regret invading Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed. America upholds democracy everywhere and behaved undemocratically in Afghanistan. Civilian deaths were considered collateral damages. Even though the leaders speak of a bright future the subordinates should also share same the enthusiasm. Attacks and threats to those who worked under the former Afghan government are forced to migrate. Strict rules are also made for women, children, and minority refugees. For Afghans they have never been a modern state, the Statehood proposes a sense of common obligation and centralization of authority. Afghan soil rich in various elements lacks these. Building a modern state in Afghanistan where the fractiousness, inaccessibility, absence of central authority, Geographical location, and unethical religious interpretation of the country made it an attractive base for the terrorist network in the first place. But could nation-building in a war-torn country absorb substantial military forces? The Taliban could be contained but not eliminated the introduction of unfamiliar terms of government weakened political commitments and has already enhanced the corruption. The Jihadists were elevated by the fall of Kabul.
The immediate reason for the economic crisis in Afghanistan is the loss of foreign aid, which the economy of the country depended Before the Taliban took over the reign of Afghanistan. Afghanistan received $ 8.5 billion, which was two-fifth of its GDP. Thus three-quarters of the government budget was paid for by foreign donors, including all sectors of health and education. The central bank also relied on regular cash injections from abroad. August 15th when the previous government fled the country aid payments were suspended and foreign correspondent banks that provided currency exchanges and help with money transfers cut their links with Afghan banks. Much of the economy is informal sector, and it is hard to know precisely how bad things are, informal money exchange and black market may be taking the strain. Women hold no cabinet positions in the de facto administration, which has also abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs-effectively eliminating women’s right to political participation. The Taliban has also banned girls from attending school past the sixth grade and barred women from working most jobs outside the home. If honourable ‘intentions’ such as empowering women and saving them from their own families and society are meant to be a mitigating factor in military invasions, they can rightly claim they have risen up, educated, and empowered a small section of urban Afghan women before dropping them into the boiling pot. Neither democracy nor feminism can be bombed into countries. Afghan women have fought and are fighting for their rights, freedom in their own way. Now there is no choice but to work with Taliban. That need not mean being chummy or supportive just being realistic that Taliban’s takeover is already terrible for Afghans as for the west to punish them by leaving them to starve after taking a part would make them no different from Taliban whom they declared “War on Terror” it would be as cruel as anything the zealots with guns are likely to do. The United Nations Organisation should come forward with leading creative diplomatic ways to constrain the terrorism in Afghanistan while showing its humane part.