Download Afghan War Global Issues in Context Online Collection, 2013. Late

Afghan War
Global Issues in Context Online Collection, 2013.
Late in the evening of 1 May 2011, U.S. president Barack Obama (1961–) made a televised statement
informing the world that Osama bin Laden (1957–2011), leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, had been
killed in a U.S. military operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan—just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital,
Islamabad. Obama fulfilled a promise made ten years earlier by his predecessor, George W. Bush (1946–),
who vowed to hunt down bin Laden and bring him to justice for orchestrating the 11 September 2001
terrorist attacks against the United States that left nearly three thousand people dead.
Arguably, one of the central reasons in launching the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, which began in October
2001, was to find Osama bin Laden, who at the time enjoyed the support of the government of Afghanistan.
After ten years of fighting that has left more than 1,500 U.S. service members and 10,000 Afghan civilians
dead, it was unclear what effect the death of bin Laden would have on ongoing operations in Afghanistan.
With a population of 32 million, Afghanistan is a landlocked Muslim nation in south-central Asia that is
bordered to the west by Iran, to the south and east by Pakistan, and to the north by several ex-Soviet
republics. During the Cold War (1945–1990), Afghanistan was important because it bordered the Soviet
Union. In the late 1970s, the Afghan government asked Soviet troops to enter the country to help fight
Islamist rebel groups known as the mujahideen. (Islamists are persons who seek to establish Islam as both
religion and political system in their countries.) The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 with tens of
thousands of troops. Six months before the Soviet invasion, the United States, under President Jimmy
Carter (1924–), had begun massive funding of the radical Islamist resistance, including hundreds of
millions of dollars of cash and tens of thousands of tons of weapons and supplies. The Islamists recruited
mujahideen from Muslim countries around the world. The Soviet invasion soon evolved into a brutal and
prolonged entanglement.
In 1989, after an expensive and bloody conflict, the Soviets withdrew in defeat and a variety of Islamists
and warlords took over Afghanistan. They were not a united group, however. Perceiving the ruling
mujahideen and local warlords as corrupt, a group of extreme purists known as the Taliban began a new
rebellion and took power in 1996. They ruled Afghanistan according to one of the strictest interpretations
of Muslim law ever known, violently enforcing public dress codes requiring total covering of women's
bodies and forbidding kite-flying, public applause at sporting events, and many other behaviors.
The Taliban soon allied itself with the international terrorist organization al-Qaeda, which moved its
headquarters to the country. On 11 September 2001, al-Qaeda carried out terrorist attacks on the United
States, killing almost three thousand people in less than two hours. The U.S. responded by demanding
access to al-Qaeda personnel in Afghanistan, particularly Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and
admitted planner of the September 11 attacks. The Taliban refused to turn al-Qaeda leaders over to the U.S.
On 7 October 2001, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada launched air strikes against
Afghanistan. They were supported by the Northern Alliance, a loose coalition of Afghan military groups
that opposed the Taliban, which led the offensive on the ground. Within days, most al-Qaeda training sites
had been crushed and the Taliban's air defenses had been destroyed. By November, the northern city of
Mazar-e-Sharif had fallen to the Northern Alliance, and four days later, the Taliban surrendered Kabul, the
capital. The Taliban surrendered Kandahar on December 7.
A moderate Islamist government—the official name of Afghanistan is the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan—was set up in December 2002 by the invading coalition, mujahideen leaders, and exiled
Afghan leaders. However, the Taliban and al-Qaeda were not destroyed and bin Laden was neither captured
nor killed. Instead, they withdrew into remote regions in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan and began
to recruit new members from the general populace. A typical guerrilla war commenced, with well-armed
occupation troops from the United States and other countries pitted against an elusive insurgency drawing
on religious fervor and nationalist resentment against foreign occupiers. The central government, despite a
steadily growing national army, remained weak. In 2003, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
took command of security operations in Afghanistan under a United Nations (UN) mandate. Then, in
March of that year, the United States launched an attack on the nation of Iraq. At first, the engagement did
not require the efforts of the military personnel stationed in Afghanistan. By 2005, though, many members
of the military leadership in Afghanistan were being dispatched to Iraq.
In Afghanistan, resentment of the NATO occupation grew, inflamed by the tendency of U.S. and U.K. air
forces to cause civilian casualties. For example, on 6 July 2008, a mistargeted U.S. air strike killed at least
forty-seven members of a wedding party, including the bride, without harming any resistance fighters. In
July 2007, a UN investigation found that pro-government and international (including U.S.) forces were
causing slightly more civilian casualties than the Taliban. A year later, civilian casualties were continuing
to rise, with suicide bombings by the Taliban accounting for an increasing share of the toll.
By 2006, the Taliban, working partly from inside Pakistan, had regrouped in the southern part of
Afghanistan. According to one widely reported analysis, by late 2007 the Taliban effectively controlled
slightly over half the country. In Taliban-controlled areas, production of the highly addictive drug heroin
from poppy plants has increased since the 2001 invasion. Growing opium poppies, though officially illegal,
has now become one of the main forms of agriculture. As of 2008, Afghanistan was producing over 90
percent of the world's heroin supply. A significant portion of the proceeds of the heroin production business
were funding the Taliban insurgency in its fight against NATO forces.
Internationally, the invasion of Afghanistan has enjoyed wider support in public opinion and more
persistent commitments of troops by non-U.S. governments than the invasion of Iraq in 2003, though large
majorities of Muslims throughout the world seek the immediate withdrawal of U.S. and other Western
forces from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Even in coalition countries, support for the continuation of the
Afghan war was beginning to erode by 2007. However, by the summer of 2008, as the Taliban gained a
stronger foothold in Afghanistan and forced NATO forces to retreat, public opinion was tending toward
supporting a stronger U.S. and NATO military presence in the country.
In early September 2008, U.S. forces entered Pakistan for the first time in order to attack Taliban forces.
Following the raid, press reports indicated that the administration of George W. Bush (1946–) had
authorized U.S. raids into Pakistan when necessary to pursue militant targets. U.S. attacks inside Pakistan
continued under President Barack Obama. Between the beginning of 2008 and mid-2009, the United States
carried out forty airstrikes in Afghanistan using unmanned drones. Pakistan objects to the strikes on the
grounds that they violate its sovereignty. The United States claims that Pakistan has been unwilling or
unable to root out Taliban fighters and foreign militants along its border with Afghanistan and that the
attacks are necessary to protect and support U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The Taliban seized control of the Swat Valley (just 130 kilometers northwest of Islamabad) in 2008 and
killed hundreds of their political opponents. In order to quell the violence, Pakistan's president, Asif Ali
Zardari (1955–), offered to instate Islamic law in the region. After the Taliban continued to press toward
Islamabad, getting as close as 100 kilometers from the capital in the city of Buner, Pakistan launched a fullscale military offensive against the Taliban. The move was welcomed by President Obama, who met in
May 2009 with President Zardari and Afghan president Hamid Karzai (1957–) to express his concern over
the seeming lack of progress in subduing the Taliban's resurgence and to stress the need for increased
cooperation between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States.
In May 2009, U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates (1943–) signaled a new strategic direction for military
operations in Afghanistan by firing Gen. David McKiernan, the senior military commander in Afghanistan,
and replacing him with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal (1954–), an expert in special operations. Gates
traveled to Belgium for a NATO meeting in June, where he stressed the need for increased international
support for the fight against the Taliban. Many Europeans oppose military involvement in Afghanistan,
especially given the strain that the worldwide economic crisis has placed on national budgets. However, the
Obama administration has repeatedly stated that it expects increased European participation in key military
and peacekeeping missions, and U.S. diplomats will continue to press the issue.
Meanwhile, the United States moved to bolster its presence in Afghanistan. Obama ordered 17,000
additional troops to the region in February 2009, upping the figure to 21,000 in March. By June, 10,000 of
those troops were deployed. The troop surge comes at a time of increased tension between the United
States and the Afghan government as a result of continued civilian casualties. The Afghan government
claims that 140 civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike in May. While the United States disputes the figure,
NATO officials have agreed that civilian casualties are too high. A U.S. military report released in June
2009 provided suggestions for measures to reduce civilian casualties, but the Afghan public's resentment of
the U.S. military continues to mount.
While July 2009 was the bloodiest month yet for the eight-year war in Afghanistan, violence continued to
escalate in August, mostly in the Helmand province. Four U.S. service members were killed by a roadside
bomb on 6 August 2009. Two other roadside bombs killed five civilians and five police officers. Military
analysts say that a spike in violence was expected ahead of the 20 August 2009 presidential and provincial
elections. The Taliban's official Web site urged Afghans to boycott the election, declaring that voting was a
show of support for the Americans. A week after the election, it appeared that Karzai had a significant lead
over his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah (1960–), with about 20 percent of the votes counted. However,
Abdullah alleged that the election was plagued by fraud. By the end of August, more than 700 fraud
charges were being investigated by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). Election officials had
hoped to announce results by mid-September, but the large number of complaints put that goal in jeopardy,
with some observers worrying that arguments about vote count could last months. Karzai was officially
declared the winner in November 2009.
After pushing for troops increases upon taking office, Obama appeared to rethink his position on the
Afghan war in September 2009. Lower than expected turnout and widespread alleged fraud during the
presidential election seemed to indicate that the Afghan public was not confident in its government.
Meanwhile, a report from General McChrystal to Obama, leaked to the press in September 2009, warned
that the situation in Afghanistan was much worse than he had anticipated; the Taliban had gained
significant momentum since June 2009, and without a dramatic increase in troop levels, the U.S. mission in
Afghanistan would fail. When pressed to give details on Obama's plans given McChrystal's assessment, a
White House spokesperson said that the administration's entire Afghanistan policy was under review and
no decision had yet been reached.
In the first week of December 2009, Obama ended months of speculation by revealing his military plan for
Afghanistan. At a speech delivered at the West Point Academy, Obama announced that he had ordered
thirty thousand more U.S. troops to be deployed in Afghanistan within the next few months. The troop
increase is meant to hasten the stabilization of the country so that U.S. troops can hand over responsibility
for security to the Afghan government and begin withdrawing troops in 2011.
On 30 December 2009, a suicide bomber struck a military base and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
command center in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven CIA agents and one Jordanian intelligence officer.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack and declared that it was in retaliation for U.S. drone strikes
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The identity of the suicide bomber was initially unknown, but it was soon
revealed that he was Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was believed to be a
double agent. The Khost bombing was the deadliest attack on the CIA since 1983, when the U.S. embassy
in Beirut, Lebanon, was bombed.
In January 2010, a one-day summit on Afghanistan involving high-ranking diplomats was held in London.
The participants released a statement at the end of their meeting indicating that Afghanistan may be ready
to take control of security in some of its provinces by the end of 2010 and in all of its provinces within five
years. The statement also touted a "refreshed" counterinsurgency effort and noted pledges from world
leaders of $140 million devoted to counterinsurgency efforts. Adding to the upbeat tone, McChrystal,
speaking at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Turkey in early February 2010, said that security in
Afghanistan, while still a concern, was improving rather than deteriorating.
On 10 February 2010, former U.S. Democratic congressman Charlie Wilson (1933–2010) died in Lufkin,
Texas. Wilson represented his east Texas district for 12 consecutive terms during the 1970s and 1980s.
During his time in office, he used his position as a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Defense to funnel tens of millions of dollars to equip and support the Afghan mujahideen in their fight
against the Soviets. A staunch anti-Communist, Wilson reportedly was unconcerned that the groups he
helped fund in the 1980s were fighting the U.S. and its allies in the first decade of the 21st century.
Also in February 2010, allied troops in Afghanistan launched a major offensive against Taliban strongholds
in the Helmand province. After a rocky start in which a dozen civilians were killed by an off-target rocket,
the two top Taliban leaders were captured, primarily because of increased cooperation between the United
States and Pakistan. One of those captured, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (c. 1968–), was the second
highest-ranking Taliban commander in Afghanistan. The other, Mullah Abdul Salam, was the so-called
"shadow governor" of the Kunduz region of Afghanistan. Mullah Salam was captured in the northeast
Pakistan city of Faisalabad.
Meanwhile, coalition forces were delivered a blow when the Dutch government collapsed over the
country's participation in the war in Afghanistan. About 2000 Dutch troops were to be withdrawn from
Afghanistan because the country's government failed to gain support for a continued military presence.
Dutch parliamentary elections also were to be held in June 2010, a year earlier than originally planned. The
collapse of the Dutch government and the continued unpopularity of the war in Afghanistan throughout
Europe may worry politicians in other European countries and weaken their resolve to continue to support
Obama in American efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Obama also made a late-March 2010 surprise trip to Afghanistan to visit with troops before a planned
offensive against Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. He came to press Karzai in person to root out corruption
in his administration as well. With most Afghans skeptical of the power and legitimacy of the Karzai
administration, the United States saw bolstering the Afghan government as a key factor in its efforts to
stabilize the country. The visit came amid rising tension between Karzai and the Obama administration.
The White House had cancelled a planned visit by Karzai to Washington in February 2010, reportedly
because of insufficient progress against government corruption. Karzai promptly invited Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956–), known for his fiery anti-American rhetoric, for a state visit.
Karzai finally paid his long-planned visit to Washington in May 2010, amid rampant media speculation
about simmering tensions on both the U.S. and Afghan sides. Karzai reportedly pushed for the United
States to support his efforts to accommodate the Taliban in the Afghan government while the Obama
administration pushed for more Afghan cooperation with its military efforts in Afghanistan. No
breakthroughs were achieved, however.
On 2 June, Karzai opened a three-day peace conference in Kabul with the hope of offering Taliban
militants an incentive to renounce radicalism. The conference was marred by rocket attacks, but none of the
conference attendees was injured.
Obama relieved McChrystal of his command in Afghanistan on the afternoon of 23 June 2010. McChrystal
had been summoned to the White House to explain a Rolling Stone magazine article that reported
disparaging and disrespectful remarks made by him and his aides about high-ranking civilian leaders in
Afghanistan and in the U.S. and even about Obama himself. McChrystal will be replaced by General David
Petraeus (1952–), a counterinsurgency expert and head of the U.S. military's Central Command.
McChrystal had held his position for only one year. President Karzai publicly defended McChrystal ahead
of the general's meeting with Obama, stressing that he had been a good partner.
Petraeus was confirmed in his new position by the Senate on 30 June 2010. The general had warned, during
his Senate hearings, that violence in Afghanistan would intensify in the short term. His warning was borne
out on the day of his confirmation when the Taliban launched a commando-sytle attack on a NATO base
near Jalalabad. One Afghan soldier and one NATO soldier were wounded and several Taliban attackers
were killed. The perimeter of the base was not breached.
In late July, the public's growing concern that the war in Afghanistan has been and continues to be
mismanaged received support when more than ninety thousand classified military intelligence documents
pertaining to the war were published by a Web site called WikiLeaks. The documents themselves contain a
wide range of information, some of it alarming and some of little interest. Most serious were details on
cases of civilian casualties in the war and implications that Pakistan's intelligence agency was collaborating
with the Taliban. More shocking than the contents of the documents themselves, however, was the fact that
so much sensitive information could find its way onto the Internet. United States Defense Department
investigators have said that a 22-year-old U.S. soldier named Bradley Manning who worked in a military
intelligence office in Baghdad, Iraq, was the likely source of the leak. Manning was charged earlier in July
with illegally giving WikiLeaks classified video footage of an army helicopter firing on a group of people
on the ground in Baghdad.
Petraeus issued orders on 4 August 2010 stressing the importance of limiting civilian casualties in the
Afghan War, saying that "every Afghan civilian death diminishes our cause." Some military leaders had
faulted McChrystal for stressing civilian protection at the expense of the safety of NATO soldiers.
Petraeus's orders clearly stress that troops have a right to defend themselves, but lay out details for limiting
casualties due to cultural misunderstanding. For example, all NATO patrols and operations must include
the involvement of Afghan military units.
Northwestern Pakistan experienced devastating flooding in August 2010. Four million people were forced
from their homes and at least 1,600 were killed. The UN dispatched a special envoy to Pakistan on 5
August to coordinate international relief efforts. Food, clean water, and medical assistance were the most
pressing requirements of the hundreds of thousands of refugees crowding into camps. Complicating relief
efforts is the fact that Pakistan was already home to the world's largest refugee population—1.7 million
people, mostly Afghans—even before the flooding started. These refugees have been forced out of their
camps, which were mostly located in the northwestern part of Pakistan. The U.S. special envoy to the
region, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters on 19 August that the United States has diverted personnel and
helicopters from the Afghan war effort to speed relief to Pakistan, and has pledged nearly $100 million in
aid to the stricken country.
In August 2010, 30,000 U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan, bringing the number of American troops in the
country to about 100,000. American military leaders have suggested that troop levels will remain high for
at least one more year. A major public opinion survey released in September 2010 by the Chicago Council
on Global Affairs revealed that U.S. citizens largely support their nation's mission in Afghanistan. A
majority of the 2,500 adults surveyed said that eliminating the threat to the U.S. from terrorists based in
Afghanistan was a goal worth committing troops to, and fully three quarters of those surveyed believed that
the U.S. should maintain its military presence for at least two years, or even longer, to "build a stable and
secure state." Americans also support pursuing and killing terrorists in Pakistan, with or without permission
from the Pakistani government, according to the survey.
A book written by investigative journalist Bob Woodward, released in September 2010, reports that not
only have U.S. forces pursued militants into Pakistani territory, but that there is a 3,000-person CIA "army"
devoted to targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives throughout the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
This paramilitary group, writes Woodward, conducts covert missions inside Pakistan. Woodward's book,
Obama's Wars, also reports that Obama described Pakistan as a "cancer" and that the United States
operation in Afghanistan was designed to keep the threat posed by Pakistan from spreading.
In late September 2010, tense relations between Pakistan and the United States were strained even further
after a NATO airstrike in Pakistan reportedly killed three Pakistani soldiers. NATO confirmed that it has
crossed into Pakistani territory and fired on what it believed to be armed militants. After the airstrike,
Pakistan blocked supply trucks from bringing supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The United States
apologized, but as of 7 October the border with Afghanistan remained closed to NATO traffic. Taliban
militants destroyed about a hundred NATO supply trucks.
A year after Karzai's controversial election victory, Afghanistan's ability to hold fair, legitimate elections
was again called into question. Afghanistan's September 2010 parliamentary elections were marred by
accusations of fraud. In October, Afghan election authorities voided 1.3 million of 5.6 million votes and
announced the investigation of more than 220 candidates who were suspected of possible fraud. Election
authorities announced final results in December. Karzai's party, largely Pashtun, sustained some electoral
losses, while ethnic Hazara candidates won eleven seats.
The first ever comprehensive audit of U.S. spending on the war in Afghanistan revealed that the
government has spent $55 billion in Afghanistan, but it is unable to show exactly how the money was
spent. In October 2010, a report released by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction showed that U.S. government agencies involved in Afghanistan were not properly tracking,
or even recording, spending.
NATO members gathered in Portugal on 18 November 2010 for a summit meeting. A key concern for
gathered leaders was the ongoing war in Afghanistan and plans for ending combat operations and handing
control of the country back to the Afghans. Karzai has stated he wants NATO forces out by 2014, a goal
the United States tentatively supports. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen voiced optimism
about operations in Afghanistan, and said the coalition was "on the right track." The U.S. successfully
negotiated an agreement between NATO members to commit to the target of withdrawing from
Afghanistan by 2014 and the summit was, by most accounts, productive.
Immediatley following the summit, however, NATO officials in Afghanistan were embarrassed to reveal
that a man who said he was a top Taliban leader and who had been paid handsomely to come to Kabul to
negotiate with Karzai and NATO leaders on behalf of the Taliban was, in fact, an impostor. The man
claimed to be Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, and had met with officials three times before his
deception was detected. Afghan officials said the man was a spy planted by Pakistani intelligence, a charge
the Pakistani government dismissed as "preposterous."
The Obama administration completed another review of U.S. strategy in late 2010, unveiling its assessment
in December. Speaking at a 16 December press conference, Obama stressed that al-Qaeda remains a threat
to the United States and that his administration will continue to fight the terrorist organization. Obama
noted "fragile and reversible" progress against the Taliban, but stressed that more cooperation from
Pakistan was necessary to prevent Taliban fighters from finding safe haven in Pakistan. Transfer of
responsibility for internal security to Afghan forces will begin in 2011, Obama said, and will be completed
by 2014. Meanwhile, polls showed American support for the war at an all-time low. Sixty percent of those
polled by the Washington Post and ABC News in December said the war was not worth fighting.
One tactic employed by the United States to shift the burden of policing Afghanistan to the Afghans has
been the development of U.S.-funded militias. The U.S. funds and equips civilian militias so that they can
police their own areas and resist attack and intimidation by Taliban forces. Critics charge, however, that the
militias lack proper oversight and that they could be infiltrated by the Taliban. In February 2011, the
governor of the troubled Helmand province announced that the militia program in his area had been so
successful it was being expanded.
On 10 March, word that the cousin of Karzai had been killed in a botched NATO raid stoked Afghan anger
that was already at a fever pitch after nine Afghan boys were accidentally killed by NATO forces on 2
March. Karzai, bluntly refusing to accept the apology of Petraeus for the boys' deaths, said, "Civilian
casualties are the main cause of a worsening relationship between Afghanistan and the U.S." Though the
perception that NATO forces are responsible for a high number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan has
indeed strained relations between the United States and Afghanistan, a UN study indicates that about 80
percent of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by the Taliban and other anti-government forces.
Though civilian casualties caused by the Taliban are high, attacks in February and March showed that
police and army facilities and personnel are frequent targets. Taliban attacks targeting police officers killed
nineteen people in Kandahar and thirty-eight people in Jalalabad in February. On 15 March in Kunduz,
thirty-six people were killed and dozens more injured in a Taliban suicide bombing of an army recruitment
center. Four of those killed were children, according to Karzai. The attacks came just days after the area's
police chief was killed by a suicide bomber.
On 23 March 2011, 22-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock was sentenced to twenty-four years
in prison after being found guilty of three counts of murder and other crimes. Morlock and other U.S.
soldiers were accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport in January and May of 2010. Morlock received a
reduced sentence as part of a plea agreement under which he will testify against fellow soldiers. The leader
of the so-called "kill team," Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, was convicted on three counts of murder in a military court
on 10 November 2011. He faces life in prison. The kill team soldiers reportedly mutilated the corpses of
their Afghan victims, even keeping body parts as souvenirs.
Civilian casualties caused by NATO continued to complicate U.S./Afghan relations in May. Following a 28
May 2011 airstrike in Helmand province that left two women and twelve children dead, Karzai issued a
sharply worded warning to international forces in Afghanistan, saying "From this moment, airstrikes on the
houses of people are not allowed." Gen. David Petraeus responded to Karzai's statement by reiterating the
coalition's commitment to minimizing civilian casualties.
A two-year study commissioned by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was
released on 8 June 2011, warned of a financial crisis in Afghanistan after the scheduled 2014 withdrawal of
U.S. troops. The study urged more focus on long-term projects, and warned that the influx of $19 billion in
U.S. aid between 2002 and 2011 may have led to increased corruption and may have actually been
counterproductive. The World Bank estimated that 97 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product
comes from foreign aid.
That possible financial crisis may come sooner rather than later. On 21 June, President Obama announced
that ten thousand troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, and the thirty-three
thousand "surge" troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2012. The faster drawdown drew mixed
reactions among policymakers and Congressional representatives: some criticized the withdrawal as not
rapid enough, while others questioned the wisdom of pulling troops out ahead of schedule and possibly
jeopardizing recent gains.
Just a week after Obama's announcement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on the
Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed twelve people. The Intercontinental is frequented mostly by
foreigners and members of the Afghan government. NATO forces retaliated two days later, launching
airstrikes that reportedly killed a Taliban leader linked to the hotel attack.
On 12 July 2011, Ahmad Wali Karzai—half brother of President Karzai and a powerful political figure in
southern Afghanistan—was killed in Kandahar by his bodyguard. The Taliban claimed responsibility for
the assassination. Ahmad Karzai had a reputation for ruthlessness and corruption but was considered a
stabilizing influence in the region. His funeral on 14 July was attacked by a suicide bomber. Four people
were killed and several others wounded.
On 6 August, 30 U.S. service members aboard a military helicopter were killed in a strike by the Taliban. It
was the deadliest single incident to U.S. forces in the ten-year history of the war. U.S. officials said those
responsible were tracked down and killed within two days.
August was remarkable for the U.S. military for two reasons: it was the first month since the 2003 invasion
of Iraq in which no military personnel were killed. In Afghanistan, however, American military personnel
experienced the single deadliest month since the 2001 invasion, with sixty-six killed.
The violence continued in September when militants launched a coordinated, concerted attack on the highly
fortified U.S. embassy in Kabul. A twenty-hour fight, which involved three suicide bombings, began on 13
September when militants disguised in burqas burst into the embassy in a truck. Five police officers and
eleven civilians were killed. The attacks called into question both the ability of the Afghans to police the
embassy and the wisdom of the planned U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. On 22 September, Adm. Mike
Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the U.S. Senate that Pakistan's intelligence
agency aided the insurgents, likely members of the insurgent group called the Haqqani network, in the
embassy attack.
Further darkening prospects for peace in Afghanistan was the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a
former Afghan president and a leading negotiator with the Taliban, on 20 September. Rabbani was killed
by a suicide bomber who had concealed explosives in his turban.
Afghan intelligence officials announced on 5 October that President Karzai had been the subject of an
elaborate assassination plot, which had been foiled. Officials said the Haqqani network had infiltrated the
president's corps of bodyguards.
The release on 11 January 2012 of a video apparently showing four U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of
three dead Taliban militants sparked outrage both in the United States and Afghanistan. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta both strongly condemned the actions of the troops
involved and vowed full investigations. Karzai also decried the Marines' actions, calling on the U.S.
government to mete out "the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime."
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced on 2 February 2012 that the U.S. government planned to
withdraw a substantial number of troops from Afghanistan during 2013—a year before the previously
announced withdrawal date. About 99,000 U.S. troops were in Afghanistan in early 2012, a number that the
government planned to reduce to 68,000 by the end of that year. Panetta stressed that troops remaining past
2013 would be in Afghanistan in a "training" role rather that a combat role.
In mid-February 2012, several copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, were accidentally burned with
garbage at a U.S. military base, provoking violent protests among Afghans that left two uniformed U.S.
service members and dozens of civilians dead. U.S. government officials have offered multiple apologies
for the incident, which they characterized as thoughtless, but not intentionally disrespectful. Further
inflaming anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan was a horrific shooting spree committed by a U.S. Army
staff sergeant on 11 March. The sergeant attacked three Afghan families in their sleep, killing sixteen
individuals, including nine children. He then returned to base and surrendered to authorities. No official
explanation for the killings was given but it was revealed that the sergeant had suffered a brain injury in
Iraq in 2010. He was flown to a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 16 March.
Despite the March incident and a variety of high-profile bombings, including an attack on Kabul on 19
April, the United States remained committed to its previously announced schedule for pulling out of
Afghanistan. Over the weekend of 14 and 15 April, several deadly attacks had also been mounted on Kabul
and other areas; the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility. On 26 April, a U.S. soldier was shot dead by a
man who appeared to be an Afghan soldier. More than a dozen similar instances of Afghan soldiers firing
on or killing NATO troops occurred during 2011 and early 2012.
On 9 January 2013, Afghan lawmakers asserted that a total withdrawal of U.S. troops would cause a civil
war. The lawmakers responded to a report from the White House, revealed the previous day, that it was
considering the "zero option," or complete pullout of U.S. troops and advisers from Afghanistan.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Gale, Cengage Learning
Source Citation
"Afghan War." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Global Issues In Context.
Web. 12 July 2013.
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