America’s 16 years in Afghanistan
Regime change
Sixteen years of US warfare in Afghanistan have left the insurgents as strong as ever and the nation’s future precarious. A look at the phases of the US involvement to date before Donald Trump became president: Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, a massive US air campaign targets Al Qaida fighters and Taliban troops, training camps and air defences. Anti-Taliban forces of the Northern Alliance enter Kabul as the Taliban flee. By December 2001, Afghan groups agree on a deal in Bonn, Germany, for an interim government. By the end of 2002, there are 9,700 US troops in the country. In November 2004, Hamid Karzai, who had served two years as interim leader, is the clear winner in Afghanistan’s first direct election for president. As the country opens up, western aid helps the economy grow. But the Taliban, enjoying sanctuary in Pakistan, show signs of re-emergence in eastern Afghanistan. Although Karzai is an ethnic Pashtun, which comprise the bulk of Taliban recruits, his government alienates what is Afghanistan’s main ethnic group. US troop numbers swell to 20,000, but Washington’s attention increasingly turns to Iraq .
More western troops, more violence
In 2006, Nato assumes responsibility for security across the whole of Afghanistan, pumping troops into Taliban heartlands in the south of the country. The US ups its forces in the country to 30,000. But the violence and lawlessness worsens. Production of opium, the raw material of heroin, soars to a record high, funding the insurgency and fuelling official corruption. Tensions grow between Afghanistan and Pakistan over cross-border Taliban attacks.
Surge
President Barack Obama, vowing to refocus US efforts in Afghanistan, enters office in 2009 endorsing shifts to a counterinsurgency strategy designed to protect Afghan civilians rather than hunt down Taliban. He quickly sends in 21,000 more forces. After a prolonged policy review, Obama orders an additional surge, brings troop levels to a high of 100,000 by August 2010. He says the US will begin withdrawing forces by 2011. Bin Laden is killed in a US special operations raid in Pakistan in March 2011. Obama then presses ahead with plans to hand over security responsibilities to Afghanistan by 2014. By the end of that year, Nato ends its combat mission in the country. US relations with Karzai, however, deteriorate. A contested election to replace Karzai introduces a more pro-US leader in Ashraf Gani, but his government is bitterly divided.
No withdrawal
With violence reaching post-2001 highs and Afghan security forces taking heavy casualties, Obama backtracks on plans to virtually withdraw all US forces by the end of 2016. He leaves office in 2017 with 8,400 troops still in the country.
Democracy and distraction