This article is written by Vivek Maurya from ICFAI Law University, Dehradun. This article describes how the longest war in the history of the USA has come to an end and what will be its impact on the other countries.

Background of the war 

In response to a terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the US led a war in Afghanistan against the Taliban who supported it, and nearly after 2 decades of war, the US has decided to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. The past US authorities have all been wanting to bring an end to this ongoing war but to exit from the war and leaving it in a total mess hardly brings any glory to the United States.

After a year of negotiation, on 29th February, the US and the Taliban signed a peace agreement, agreeing that the US will withdraw all the forces by May 2021 and the Taliban will prevent Al-Qaeda or any other groups to prevent Afghanistan as a base of operation. Since invading Afghanistan in 2001 till now, the US has spent around $2.26 trillion on war and the cost of the war project also estimates that 241,000 people have died as a result of the war. 

The 9/11 attack

September 11 attacks also known as the 9/11 attack. On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four-plane and carried out suicide attacks against the targets in the United State. The attack was well planned, most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and some of them had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight school while others had slipped into the country before the attack.

The hijackers boarded 4 domestic airlines in groups of 4-5 members on September 11, 2001, and took control of the planes after its takeoff. At 8:46 am, the terrorist took control of the first plane and flew into the north tower of the World Trade Centre in New York City and after 15 minutes, a second plane flew into the south tower of the World Trade Centre. Both the buildings were damaged and soon collapsed into ashes. At 9:40, a third plane hit the southwest side of the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. and within the next hour, a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after its passengers were aware of the events through their phone.

Almost 2726 people were killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania. All 19 terrorists were killed and this triggered all the U.S. policies for combatting terrorism, security measures within the states were tightened. Congress quickly passed the USA PATRIOT Act, 2001, the purpose of this act is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world and also to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools.

Taliban rule in Afghanistan 

The Tаlibаn is а рredоminаntly Раshtun, Islаmiс fundаmentаlist grоuр thаt controlled Afghanistan frоm 1996 until 2001, when а U.S. drove invаsiоn tоррled the system fоr рrоviding asylum tо аl-Qаedа аnd Оsаmа bin Lаden. The Tаlibаn regrоuрed асrоss the border in Pakistan аnd hаs drove аn insurgenсy аgаinst the U.S. backed government in Kаbul fоr mоre thаn nineteen yeаrs. 

By the end of 1996, the famous Taliban alliance between the racist rally in southern Afghanistan, as well as aid from Muslim minorities abroad, had given the party the strength to cling to the capital, Kabul, and face the country. Protection for the Taliban continued, however, especially at non-Pashtun racist rallies especially Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazar in the north, west, and parts of the country, which saw the pastunistic power of the Pastun Taliban as a continuation of the Western Pashtun. By 2001 the Taliban controlled everything except a little part of northern Afghanistan. 

World assessment, in any case, to a great extent opposed the Taliban’s social arrangements including the close to add up to seclusion of ladies from public life, the efficient annihilation of non-Islamic imaginative relics, and the execution of cruel criminal disciplines. The Taliban permitted Afghanistan to be a paradise for Islamic aggressors all around the world, including an ousted Saudi Arabian, Osama Bin Laden, who, as head of Al-Qaeda, stood blamed for getting sorted out various fear-monger assaults against American interests. The Taliban’s refusal to hand-over Osama Bin Laden to the United States following the assaults on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, incited a tactical conflict with the United States and partnered powers. The Taliban was consequently determined from power.

US military campaign in Afghanistan and its exit in 2021

US president Joe Biden announced that he will be removing all the military troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, and thus ending the war. The removal of final troops coincides with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack, which ignited the initial US invasion of Afghanistan. 

Here are the campaigns which are led by the US military in Afghanistan and how it is coming to an end:-

 

• September 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda agents hijacked four business airplanes and smashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the fourth aircraft crash-arrived in a field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 individuals were killed. Later, Osama bin Laden was identified as the man responsible for the attack.

• September 18, 2001: Taliban, the regional Islamic political and military power running Afghanistan, was securing Bin Laden and wouldn’t hand him over to the United States. Accordingly, then at that point, US President George Walker Bush sanctioned the law for Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF). According to this law, the nation could utilize power against the countries, associations, or people behind the 9/11 assault to be specific to Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Throughout the long term, the AUMF was utilized as the legitimate reasoning for the US’ choice to attack Afghanistan, and use power against Al-Qaeda and its partners, both on and off the front line. 

• October 7, 2001: American and British powers mutually dispatch assaults on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. This was the initial salvo in the US’ proposed “battle on dread“. The mission, named ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, started with a progression of airstrikes which figured out how to take the edge off the Taliban guards. Following this, various US extraordinary powers, Northern Alliance, and ethnic Pashtun anti-Taliban powers offered help on the ground. 

• November 2001: Taliban powers started to disintegrate and withdraw from a few of their fortifications across the nation, including Kabul. Soon thereafter, the UNSC required the formation of a transitional administration and welcomed part states to send across peacekeeping forces for maintaining steadiness. A few Al-Qaeda warriors stayed secluded from everything in the Tora Bora district of Afghanistan, where they continually competed with anti-Taliban Afghan powers, which were backed by the US. 
• December 2001: The All-Qaeda started a détente, which many believe was only a coverup to help Bin Laden and a few other al-Qaeda pioneers escape into Pakistan. At the point when the Tora Bora cave complex, once in the past occupied by Al-Qaeda, was caught, there was no indication of Bin Laden. Toward the beginning of December, the UN welcomed various significant Afghan groups to a meeting in Germany, where the Bonn Agreement was agreed upon. The arrangement accommodated a global peacekeeping force to keep up security and harmony in Kabul. 

On December 9, the Taliban gave up Kandahar and Taliban pioneer Mullah Omar escaped the city. This is generally considered to have been the finish of the Taliban system in the country but a few Al-Qaeda pioneers were all the while covering up in the mountains. By December 21, an interim Afghan government was confirmed.

• March 2, 2002: US-drove alliance powers went head to head with around 800 Al-Qaeda and Taliban contenders in the Shar-I Kot Valley close to the Pakistan line and perhaps the most merciless showdowns throughout the entire history of the US-Afghanistan war. This was likewise around the time when the US started redirecting a portion of its military and insight assets from Afghanistan to Iraq, which the nation was seeing as a developing danger in its “battle on fear”. 

• April 2002: In a discourse conveyed at the Virginia Military Institute, President Bush reported a “Marshall Plan” for Afghanistan. Be that as it may, advancement endeavors in the nation didn’t get sufficient financing as the US had effectively turned its consideration towards the circumstance in Iraq. 

• May 1, 2003: The then-US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared an end to a “significant battle” in Afghanistan. Around the same time, President Bush made a comparative declaration about battle tasks in Iraq. At that point, there were around 8,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

• October 9, 2004: The country’s first democratic election since the fall of the Taliban was held and around 80% of Afghanistan’s democratic populace cast their voting for Hamid Karzai, who was filling in as interim chief before the polls. Parliamentary races were directed before long, in which a few ladies competitors were chosen for seats uniquely held for them to guarantee sexual orientation variety. 

• October 29, 2004: Osama Bin Laden delivered a recorded message days after the official political race, in which he ridiculed the Bush organization and asserted obligation regarding the 9/11 assaults. 

• 2005: The year 2005 was set apart by the slow comeback of the Taliban with brutality expanding the nation over. In any case, this time they changed their strategies while they had once occupied with an open battle with the US and NATO powers, they were presently depending on self-destruction bombings and utilizing Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), bringing about numerous losses. 

• 2006: Cracks started to show up inside NATO, as some part states fought on troop responsibilities to Afghanistan. At the Riga gathering that year, the partnership’s General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that NATO powers ought to have the option to step by step give up duty to Afghanistan’s security powers in 2008. He asked nations to submit more soldiers with fewer public limitations meanwhile.

• 2007: Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, one of the Taliban’s top chiefs, was caught in Pakistan. A few months later, the Taliban’s top military administrator Mullah Dadullah was killed by US powers. 

• 2009: Then-US President Barack Obama reported that he was expanding military presence in Afghanistan to 68,000 soldiers, following through on one of his key mission guarantees of moving military concentration from Iraq to Afghanistan. 

 

In November, Hamid Karzai was confirmed as President for another term following a political decision damaged by extortion claims. 

• 2010: The number of American war deaths had crossed 1,000 by mid-2010. It was around this time, General Stanley McChrystal, who was then the authority of NATO-US powers in Afghanistan, was eased of his post after the arrival of a questionable article in the Rolling Stone, wherein he and individuals from his staff censured a few top Obama organization authorities. He was supplanted by General David Petraeus, top of the tactical’s Central Command. 

In November, NATO individuals marked an announcement expressing that they would give up their obligation regarding keeping up harmony and security in Afghanistan to Afghan’s security powers before the end of 2014.

• 2011: On May 1, 2011, Bin Laden was killed by US powers in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he was hiding away with his relatives. He was covered in the Northern Arabian Sea that very day. 

By June, Obama reported his arrangements to pull out 30,000 soldiers by 2012. At that point, Obama was confronting overpowering pressure from the American public, who were generally against the conflict in Afghanistan, according to surveys. 

In September, previous Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, a focal figure in compromise dealings, was killed in a suicide bombing incident.

• 2012: Tensions started to ascend between the US and Afghan government after a video showing Marines peeing on dead Afghans surfaced via web-based media. In no time, fights broke out after reports recommended that US warriors had consumed duplicates of the Quran at an army installation. 

In March, a US officer supposedly broke into a few homes close to Panjwai, shooting dead 17 Afghan residents, a greater part of whom were kids and ladies. Days after the fact, the Taliban suspended discussions with the US and the Afghan government.

• 2013: NATO gave over control of safety to Afghan forces. All things considered, the alliance focussed on military preparation and counter-terrorism in the region. In the interim, the Taliban and US authorities continued discussions in Doha, Qatar. 
• 2014: President Obama divulged his arrangement for pulling out US troops from Afghanistan before the finish of 2016. 

In September, Ashraf Ghani was chosen president after an extensive defer following the official political decision. He consented to the Bilateral Security Arrangement, which Karzai had refused to sign towards the finish of his administration, which allowed around 13,000 unfamiliar soldiers to stay in the country. 

On December 28, the US and NATO officially finished their battle mission in Afghanistan. 

• 2017: The US dropped a gigantic GBU-43 bomb, named the “mother of all bombs“, in eastern Afghanistan, focusing on a progression of caves involved by Islamic State aggressors. 

This was the first run through the nation that utilized a bomb of this size in the struggle. The bomb hit a “burrow complex” in the Achin region of the Nangarhar area, near Afghanistan’s boundary with Pakistan. 

In August, previous President Donald Trump illustrated another methodology for settling the contention in Afghanistan in a broadcast discourse to troops at Fort Myer army installation in Virginia. “My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts,” Trump said. “However, for my entire life, I’ve heard that choices are vastly different when you sit behind the work area in the Oval Office.” 

He welcomed India to assume a larger part in reestablishing harmony in Afghanistan while denouncing Pakistan for holding onto Taliban powers. 

• 2019: The US slopes up harmonious exchanges with the Taliban in Doha. Taliban authorities pledged to impede International terrorist groups from Afghanistan in return for the US pulling out its soldiers. 

In September, Trump suddenly canceled harmony talks only seven days after the US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad declared he had expedited an understanding on a fundamental level with Taliban pioneers. Trump guaranteed his choice was started by the new killing of a US officer by Taliban contenders. 

• 2020: The US and Taliban consented to an arrangement, making ready for unfamiliar soldiers to be essentially removed from Afghanistan. In any case, without a truce, Taliban contenders dispatched a progression of assaults on Afghan security powers in the days that followed. Accordingly, the US dispatched an airstrike against the Taliban powers positioned in the Helmand region. 

In November, US Defense Secretary Christopher C Miller declared plans to divide troops to 2,500 by January. Following the US-Taliban arrangement, a large number of troops had effectively been removed. 

• 2021: President Joe Biden reported that the US won’t fulfill the May 1 time constraint for pulling out troops set down in the US-Taliban arrangement. All things considered, troops will be withdrawn totally by September 11, 2021, he said.

Governance problems of Afghanistan

Despite being effectively the world’s most remarkable country since the finish of the Second World War, much magnificence actually can’t be attributed to the US statecraft. After the policies and strategies and worthless intervention in Iraq from 2003-2011, finally, it is coming to an end but to exit from a violence-afflicted and weakened nation and leaving it in a total mess will hardly bring any good to the nation.

The battling and Taliban danger, in any case, are just 50% of Afghanistan’s issues. The subsequent half comprises gigantic disappointment in administration, in monetary and social turn of events, in adapting to its quickly developing population, and in managing the way that it’s anything but a “narco-economy” to a huge degree. The problems are as follows:-

Doubtful afghan popular perceptions of the war 

The surveying measurements in this part, and those that follow present critical issues. Afghan discernments are hard to survey. Direct meetings mean real dangers, and they try to check by telephone but the problem is that most Afghans do not have telephones, and those they do are likely to be much better off and have a bigger city.

Popular impressions of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) are generally acceptable, notwithstanding, albeit most Afghans remember they are still vigorously subject to outside help. The equivalent isn’t valid for the view of the Afghan government – which is shown later in this report. Fulfillment with the public authority has dropped consistently since 2007, as believed in the public authority.

Incompetent, divided, and corrupt governance 

The reporting and metrics in this section show the weaknesses and level of corruption in the Afghan government, and that the World Bank ranks Afghanistan as one of the worst governed countries in the world. They show that nearly two decades of reform efforts have only had a marginal impact in developing the kind of central government that Afghanistan needs, as much because of its ethnic, sectarian, and tribal divisions – and its fractured and divisive politics – as because of the weaknesses in the structure of Afghan governance.

Work by the World Bank shows that the Central government is making progress in raising its revenues, but no source indicates that there is clear evidence that it is using its funds more effectively or with less corruption. The World Bank and SIGAR also show that the Government remains critically dependent on massive outside aid to fund its overall security and civil budgets, and no source indicates that this dependence will drop sharply in the near and mid-term.

The Afghan Police and the Rule of Law

Dependable information is missing on the degree to which Afghanistan gives a working law and order. It is clear, notwithstanding, that numerous courts and parts of the overall set of laws are not completely useful. Defilement and force expediting have a significant effect at each degree of law implementation and court procedures, and that courts don’t work adequately in various regions and regions – including those constrained by the Taliban, albeit no solid guides or point by point investigations appear to exist of how genuine these issues are. 

What is clear is that LIG and SIGAR revealing demonstrate that the Afghan National Police and Afghan Local Police at present experience the ill effects of major issues with debasement and political impact, and a progression of change endeavors have not set them up to be appropriately viable in ether paramilitary tasks or law requirement. These issues will introduce new difficulties if the ANP is entrusted with assisting with implementing the harmony and if the Afghan government is to make a genuinely utilitarian legitimate and law implementation framework.

Financial aspects, civil order, and poverty 

The reveal in this segment shows that Afghanistan is probably the most unfortunate country on the planet, and one of the most uncreated. It additionally cautions that numerous previous evaluations of future advancement – including numerous authority gauges given by the U.S. government have ended up being over-hopeful or wrong. This makes some central questions hard to address. A generous measure of the covering progress in clinical benefits, future, ladies’ privileges, and training is questionable, best-case scenario, and presumably pointedly overstated for political reasons. 

The revealing is undeniably more solid in showing that a significant part of the populace lives in desperate destitution and deals with major issues as far as wellbeing. The information likewise cautions that public financial development in PPP terms is regularly overestimated and that some investigating Afghan turn of events, wellbeing, and training has been intensely politicized to misrepresent what has been genuine advancement since the fall of the Taliban.

Narcotics exports keep growing and are the critical foreign currency earner in the Afghan domestic economy 

Afghanistan assumes a basic part in the worldwide inventory of sedatives. Huge U.S. endeavors to cause significant slices in Afghan creation to have just had irregular achievement and have gotten less fruitful with time as Afghanistan has gotten more reliant upon sedative fares as a critical type of revenue and hard money. It is additionally obvious from UNDOC and SIGAR revealing that climate, plant illnesses, and requests have been undeniably more significant in deciding the size of the opium crop than endeavors at destruction and convincing ranchers to discover substitute harvests. 

The measurements in this part feature both the development of opium creation and the issues encompassing its job in moulding Afghan macroeconomics. The work by SIGAR regarding this matter is especially significant because it shows that opium is a significant wellspring of Afghan financial development, and is Afghanistan’s most significant fare. It’s anything but a high relationship between opium creation and Taliban control and impact and shows that opium assumes a vital part in financing the conflict just as in regions where force expedites still work with some level of autonomy from the local government.

The interest of other countries in the region

Russia 

Generally, the Afghan region has consistently been in the circle of Russian interests. The moment is because of numerous components: Geographical vicinity, history, international conflict, economy, and shipping lanes from South to North. Numerous components made up the relations between the two states: Cooperation, exchange, rapprochement, selling out, doubt and antagonism. Nonetheless, the disastrous and incorrect section of Soviet soldiers into Afghanistan and the ensuing conflict was the most “clear” in the arrangement of occasions that the two nations experienced. 

For a significant long time, the Kremlin didn’t have any technique the Afghan way. Be that as it may, presently there is a certain longing to make it. Russia enjoys certain serious benefits: It knows the country, the district, individuals, and the way of life. Right up till today, the Russian unique administrations have Afghan data sets, maps, and geographical guides.

Over the long run, from around 2014-2016, Moscow started to show greater movement. Russia has never denied its contact with the Taliban. At the current stage, Moscow is keen on a steady, unsurprising, and unbiased Afghanistan. The region of this nation imparts a long boundary to amicable Central Asian nations. They, thus, have a sans visa system with Russia and are limited by joint arrangements inside the structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Commonwealth of the Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

China

Afghanistan has consistently been precarious about the security worries of the state. For China to use its monetary advantages and to make the China Pakistan Economic Corridor a plausible and significant shipping lane for associating the Central Asian and European business sectors with China; the province of Afghanistan should keep up harmony and strength for shared financial interests. By utilizing its topography, regular assets, associations, and global consideration; the province of Afghanistan has a ton to bring to the table to the Chinese, with China being thought that Afghanistan holds vital significance with regards to profit out of the Belt and Road Initiative for both the economies.

For Beijing, advancing harmony in the district won’t just assist Afghanistan with escaping the constant danger of psychological oppression yet additionally assist China with boosting its monetary exercises. There is far to go for Beijing to comprehend and expand its respective relations with the province of Afghanistan because the security concerns will consistently be there until the Afghan Government and the tactical grabs hold of the circumstance totally and deliberately.

Pakistan

For quite a long time, Pakistan has upheld militant groups in Afghanistan as opposed to chosen governments. This arrangement decision has made a picture issue for Pakistan in Afghanistan and somewhere else, making Pakistan a contributor to the issue as opposed to an answer. U.S. powers’ withdrawal from Afghanistan offers Pakistan a chance to reorient its global picture by assuming a vital part in urging territorial participation to guarantee strength in Afghanistan. The improvement offers Pakistan an opening to exhibit to the worldwide local area that the nation has made a total separation from its past example of supporting assailant bunches in Afghanistan. 

Pakistan should assemble trust with every single Afghan identity and political powers, as opposed to simply being viewed as ‘Taliban allies’ or by numerous Afghans as ‘Taliban supporters’.

India’s role and concerns after US exit 

The withdrawal of the US and the NATO troops from Afghanistan will leave India with colossal worry about the resurgence of the Taliban and its domain being utilized as a place of refuge for terrorism. 

Local nations, particularly India, will have enormous worries about the US pullout from Afghanistan and the probability of a Taliban resurgence in the country.

Implication on India after the US exit:-

Return of Taliban: 

1. India and other adjoining nations should live with the outcomes that incorporate the victorious return of the Taliban to control in Afghanistan and a lift to fierce strict fanaticism across the area. 
2. The possibility of trans-line joins between the Taliban and other radical powers in the district is additionally a test. 
3. Withdrawal of US troops could bring about the rearing of rich ground for different enemies of India psychological militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed. 

Subverting India’s Role in Afghanistan: 

1. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan presents significant difficulties to the Indian Subcontinent. 
2. American military presence would have kept an eye on radical powers and made helpful conditions for an Indian part in Afghanistan. 
3. As Afghanistan is the doorway to Central Asia, the American exit may dampen India’s advantage in Central Asia. 

Normalizing India: 

1. Turkey Relations: India has figured out how to extend its ties with most territorial entertainers in the center east. In any case, Turkey has become antagonistic to India under Erdogan. 
2. Ideally, the new local agitation will urge Turkey to investigate its relations with India.

Conclusion

The longest war in the history of the U.S. has come to an end, some have appreciated the idea that it is a positive move and will bring peace. Some have criticized the act of withdrawing military troops and leaving the country in an unstable state and may result in a new civil war. Now, it is the beginning of the new era for Afghanistan and the major impact will be on the governance whether they choose to offer their soil as a base of terrorist activity or accept the peace treaty for their benefit.

References

• https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-war-afghanistan

• https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-a-timeline-of-the-us-war-in-afghanistan-7276159/
• https://www.csis.org/analysis/civil-challenges-peace-afghanistan

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