There would be rarely any superpower which wouln't have thought about capturing Afghanistan
But none of them got succesful till now.
So the first question is, what is that which is leading to the failure of these Superpowers
What was that which made USA to send Osama bin laden to Afghanistan
who later became a headache for them
Afghanistan don't even have much resources. Barren lands, just mountains all over
Still USA and Russia spent lakhs of dollars to capture it
and why do they had to return empty handed all the time?
So what is the reason behind all of this
We will discuss all of this in detail
But before that we go to the past.
See all these things started in 1839,
at that time, both British and Russian empires, were increasing their influence on Afghanistan.
Because Afghanistan's location in South Asia, is very important and strategic.
The hassle of British and Russian empire for Afghanistan,
this was called the Great Game.
It got so high that Britishers, without thinking, just for show, sent an army of 16500 ,
but except a few British soldiers, Afghanistan killed them all.
Now in year 1933, Zahir Shah becomes the last king of Afghanistan.
And this was the time, when Afghanistan was a bit stable,
Zahir Shah brought modernisation in Afghanistan,
when the neighbouring countries started having Democracy,
so he too implemented the first constitution of Afghanistan in 1964.
In which, a parliament was built in Afghanistan,
and two houses were made.
And a cousin of Zahir Shah, Daoud Khan,
who he trusted very much, made him the prime minister.
Now implementing a constitution,
making parliament houses, Zahir Shah was doing all these,
but he kept all the power.
Only that happens which Zahir Shah has said.
Of which people used to silently protest.
Now, year 1973 comes,
and suddenly one day, Zahir Shah's health takes a turn,
and until then, there was not much development in Afghanistan,
so there was not a good hospital.
So he had to go to Italy for his treatment.
Just as Zahir Shah went to Italy,
his trustful cousin, Daoud Khan, he toppled over the government.
And took control of all the things.
In this betrayal, both the army and people supported Daoud.
Even the common people of Afghanistan wanted that kingship gets over and democracy starts.
So that people get power,
because even they were fed up of kingship
that's why they did not go against Daoud much.
Now Zahir Shah gets to know this in Italy,
that Afghanistan is toppled.
And if he goes back, he would be murdered.
That's why he takes exile in Italy, and stays there.
After that, Daoud Khan makes himself president of Afghanistan.
And implements democracy.
But even here, he makes a mistake.
He does implement democracy,
but puts a condition, that only his party can fight for elections.
And the common people of Afghanistan again feels cheated.
That this is the same thing.
And with that, after some time,
things become expensive and poverty increases in Afghanistan.
Due to which people get more fed up.
And not just that, along that,
Daoud was constructing only in big cities,
and completely ignored the smaller districts.
Now the population of smaller districts,
got angry towards this thing.
They thought even Zahir Shah was better than this.
Seeing all these things and getting fed up of Daoud Khan,
many groups of Afghanistan create a party,
People's democratic party of Afghanistan, PDPA.
This was a communist party, which was influenced by USSR.
And even USSR supported communist parties at that time, all over the world.
So PDPA also got support from Russia.
And when Afghanistan's economic condition went bad,
unemployment increased,
so PDPA became more popular.
Even Daoud Khan understood this,
and he tried to supress PDPA.
And a very big leader of PDPA,
Mir Akbar Khyber, was murdered by him.
PDPA party's people started to be sent to jails,
and after that, protests started everywhere.
Everything started to get out of Daoud Khan's control.
And PDPA party was also supported by Daoud government's big military officers.
Due to which PDPA grew powerful all over Afghanistan.
And after that, 27th of April 1978 comes,
on this date, Daoud Khan and his family was killed,
again toppling happens, and PDPA gains control in Afghanistan.
Nur Muhammad Taraki becomes Afghanistan's president.
Nur Muhammad was USSR's favourite
because he supported communists idelogy very much.
Just as commnist did not believe in a god,
so even Nur propogated that ideology.
Just as Nur Muhammad came, huge changes happened in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a muslim country,
and their, Nur started modernisation and secularism,
females were allowed education,
females could roam on road openly,
could do fashion, drive a car,
At that particular time, Nur made education compulsary in Afghanistan,
removed religious education from syllabus,
increased minimum age of marriage.
Banned forced marriage.
Talked about improving women workforce and politics.
Limited the influence of religious leader,
and even removed the public display of religion.
Nur doesn't stop there,
under the influence of USSR, he brings land reform.
In which, those who had more land had to give to those who had less.
And forgave the debt of people for agriculture, for equality.
All these things that Nur was doing,
because of that, those who were opposing Nur Muhammad's government,
they started to say that the government is directly challenging traditional Afghan values,
and were spoon kerneling USSR.
Now seeing all these things, the big land owners Afghanistan, traditional and religious people,
they start opposing government.
Government tried to supress them with all their power.
The fighting became bigger and people took up arms against the government in different areas.
The fight got too much, and in various parts of Afghanistan,
people came to violence against Afghanistan's government.
In Afghanistan, this fight started to be called that this fight is to protect Islam and
those small groups who were fighting against government in their area ,
they were called Mujahideen.
By defination , Mujahideen are those who fight to defend Islam.
Remember one thing by which you can relate later that Mujahideen
was not only just one group
but there were different groups in different areas who were fighting
against the government.
Some of them were lead by Islamic scholars, some by local leaders and some by students.
So, all these groups were collectively called Mujahideen.
Remember that because it will help you to understand later.
With these Mujahideens, some travel leaders and military people also joined.
Their common aim was to topple the PDPA communist government.
In PDPA communist government, Nur Muhammad Tariki was the PM and
Hafizula Amin was Foreign Minister/Deputy PM.
But USSR found Hafizula Amim to be unreliable.
USSR didn't trust Hafizula Amim as much as they trusted Nur Mohammad.
Infact, there were rumors at that time that Amin was an agent of U.S CIA.
Then on 20 march 1979, Nur Muhammad Tariki goes to Moscow where USSR makes him
understand that his foreign minister Amin, was with U.S CIA.
And you should remove him from your ministry and also USSR told him that
situation of Afghanistan is critical right now and you should reduce the social reforms.
Nur Muhammad assure them that he will remove Amin and CIA come to know about this
and CIA told Amin about that..
And when Nur came back from USSR, Amin killed Nur and his family on the airport and
became PM himself.
As soon as USSR comes to know about this, they realizes that Afghanistan will be out of his hands.
On the one hand, In Afghanistan Mujhahideens were against the communist government at many places, and
on the other hand, there was a wing that went along with him, he was also killed.
It was not just a murder but a direct challenge to USSR.
And on top of that US supported PM was now in command in Afghanistan.
So after seeing all these things, It was sure that now everything in Afghanistan will run according to US.
And because of all these things, On 24th December 1979 USSR entered Kabul
with an army of thousands and took political and military control over major parts of Afghanistan.
With this, Amin was killed and USSR again appointed a self-driven leader in Afghanistan whose name
was Babrak Kamal.
When world was criticizing USSR on this , then USSR said that they didn't attack the
Afghanistan but helped Afghanistan government to deal with extremists
Seeing this thing, the common people of Afghanistan were also enraged and more and more people
were becoming Mujahideens to take revenge from USSR.
Along with this, all the hard work of US had gone to waste, so US was not happy either.
US president Jimmy carter announced that whatever Afghanistan has done in US persian gulf region
i.e. Afghanistan is also a threat to US and
US will go to any extent to save it's interest even if the military has to be fired.
And then there is an entry of US from here.
So US had only two allies inside Asia, one was Pakistan and the other was Saudi Arabia.
And if Russia would have made its influence on Afghanistan, then it would never have been
able to make its influence in the whole of Asia.
That's why it was necessary for US to have the influence of USSR inside Afghanistan.
Now if US had entered directly into Afghanistan, then US and USSR would have ushered in a direct war.
And US didn't want that, that's why US chose other path.
US turned many Islamic countries against the USSR by saying that it is an attack on religion.
And US supported the Mujahideens who were fighting inside Afghanistan in every way.
After talking to Pakistan, US started training all the Mujahideens in Pakistan, for this Pakistan got a lot of money.
On the other hand, US sought help in that region from Saudi Arabia.
US's CIA along with Pakistan ISI made Maktab al Khidamat Organization and told the people in
that whole region that this is an open attack, everyone should come in it.
And there were many people fighting this battle, which included 3 very important men
one was a young milleniare of Saudi Arabia, Osama bin laden, second was Abdullah Azzam and third was Omar Khadr.
These three reached Peshawar , Pakistan and were not involved in fight directly but helped financially
and in making strategies on a very big level.
And they use to watcha all the recruitments of the Mujahideens
These three had every data of that area.
When you hear the name of Al Qaeda, it means the base.
They had a database of all the Mujahideens who were recruited at that time and Al Qaeda
was formed in name of this.
Western countries also supported US in this.
And along with this, in all the movies that used to come at that time, Mujahideens were shown as a hero so
that there would be influence in the young generation.
Just like the 1986 James Bond film ,The Living Daylights Mujahideen was shown as a courageous fighter,
also in movie Rambo, hero fight along with Mujahideen against soviet , which came in 1988.
USSR army was powerful but Afghanistan's region is very hilly,
and there are extereme weathers there, due to which USSR army faced a lot of problems
Mujahideens use to attack them from anywhere
It was a proper Gorilla war in that area.
Mujahideens were aware of that area completely but USSR army faced a lot of difficulties
USSR had the advantage of Air force here
But US gave Mujahideens a latest weapon, Stinger surface to air missile
which gave them the power to destroy USSR's air planes from the surface
USSR lost too much because of this
USSR fought for 10 years against Afghanistan
But in 1988, they started retreiving their forces
All the forces were retreived by 15th feb 1989
This was a very shameful defeat for USSR
USSR went back, but who will run Afghanistan now.
This was a problem.
sAs I told you that Mujahideen wasn't a single group
They were several groups and clans in the entire Afghanistan
So, these groups start fighting among themselves to rule in Afghanistan.
In 1992, leaders of several small groups conducted a meeting in Peshawar of Pakistan
and who will the power be shared in Afghanistan, who'll be responsible for what
signed an agreement on it as well.
Which is also called Peshawar Accord.
But still it faced lot of difficulties in Future.
Because those who got less power, denied sustaining this Accord.
Due to which a Civil war started in Afghanistan
and lot of conditions evolved like destruction, chaos, lawlessness
Among all the groups of Mujahideen, there was one group which belonged to Student Wing.
It consisted of Religious schools and Madras Scholars.
This was the strongest group of Mujahideen
which was prepared to fight against USSR.
Actually, In Pashto - Students are called Talib
and with this, the wing was named Taliban. This group consisted of very famous and smart person
Mullah Mohammad Omar - who caused most of the destruction of USSR while fighting with them.
In this fight, due to explosion of a bomb he lost one of the eyes.
Due to which he was seen with utter respect.
So, Mullah Omar becomes their Head. His power grows so much that
in 1996, in front of 1500 religious leaders which also consisted of Osama Bin Laden
wore the holy cloak of Prophet Mohammad
which in Hindi is also called Labada.
This cloak hasn't been work for 250 years
and after wearing this he becomes a very respected leader in Afghanistan.
And after that, in Afghanistan Mullah Omar implements Sharia Law
in which it was written that women would not come out of their house without a male
music, movie, T.V. would be banned
instead of western education, religious education will be provided.
The ones who perform theft will have their hands cut off.
Executing in streets.
There was a 1500 year old statue of Buddha in Bamiyan which was a UNESCO world heritage site
is being destroyed so that there isn't a statue belonging to other religion.
The current PM of PDPA was shot and executed on the street
This was that time which scares people just with the thought of it.
Due to these policies, Afghanistan was separated from the entire world and apart from Pakistan, UAE & Saudi Arabia
none of the other country recognized Afghanistan
it hampered people's development & at the same time Osama Bin Laden
also turns against USA.
There were many reasons for Osama to turn against USA
as the US military that was entering in Saudi Arabia
Osama was against it. USA stopped Osama's operation in Sudan as well.
There were many other reasons for Osama to be against USA
if you tell me, we'll discuss in some other blog.
Otherwise the topic will deviate.
Osama Bin Laden had good relations with Mullah Omar.
Because Osama had been thrown out of Sudan
Mullah Omar gave refuge to the people of Al-Qaeda and Osama.
and immediately started war on terrorists.
The planning for 9/11 was done by Osama from Afghanistan &
he was staying there, so US told Taliban that - Its enough. Hand over Osama to us.
And finish the entire network of Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan
And Mullah Omar denies it.
There were many reason behind denying it.
Firstly, Osama Bin Laden helped Mullah Omar a lot when he was fighting against USSR.
Secondly, it would send this message in the entire Afghanistan that Taliban
bowed its head in front of US.
So, his local support would also reduce.
And its also said in Pashto that you never hand over your guest to others.
Osama Bin Laden was the guest of Afghanistan so, he couldn't do this.
As stated by them.
Taliban even asked for proof against Osama Bin Laden, which USA denied.
When they didn't give the proof, then Afghanistan didn't accept USA's will as well.
On 11th September, US is attacked and US agency becomes active immediately.
US right away talks to Taliban and when they couldn't agree
then from the next month, 7th October, 2001
United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and along with other native allies
US attacked Afghanistan
In the beginning, US only did Air strike in the major parts of Al-Qaeda and Taliban
they hadn't released their soldiers on ground.
And stopped their supplies. This operation was named
Operation Enduring freedom
After few days, Air Strike is stopped & US along with its allies
send their Special force in Afghanistan
which consisted of US Army's Delta Force, Navy Seals & British's SAS
On 7th October, the attck starts and on 9th of November
they capture a major city of Taliban, MAZAR-I-SHARIF
4 days after that on 13th of November, US removes Taliban government from Afghanistan
and in the next month, the majority area of Afghanistan like Kandahar
US takes control over them.
And Mullah Omar, remaining leaders of Taliban - Osama Bin Laden
they hide in Afghanistan itself.
And in a way of unsent communication Taliban is thought to be defeated.
But the main thing for which US arrived, that is finding Osama Bin Laden,
capturing him, couldn't be accomplished.
US had only one goal to come to Afghanistan & that was finishing of Al-Qaeda &
capturing Osama Bin Laden.
But Osama was far from their reach.
US was looking for Osama Bin Laden but along with that
in December 2001, US formed a government in Afghanistan which ran according to them.
Proper elections took place and Hamid Karzai got 55.4% votes
and he became the president of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
this whole process was carried out by US and the president also followed according to US traditions.
But in this entire election, people of Taliban were kept aside.
Although, the entire world said that US shouldn't have done that
they're also its citizens
but US didn't agree
and this thing causes damage to US in the future.
In the same year, 2003, US invaded Iraq and from here its focus shifted into two places.
And Osama who performed 9/11
couldn't be found until now.
As soon as US focuses towards IRAQ
Taliban starts uniting again.
There's a western Northern region of Pakistan which is called
Federally Administered Tribal Areas - FATA
Taliban meets here again and starts preparing against US.
Mullah Omar, who been hiding for quite a while
his statement starts coming to light as well
and with Haqqani Network, Islamic, Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)
and Al-Qaeda they formed an alliance
started preparing quickly against US.
On the other hand, the government that US made in Afghanistan
its said that everyone was corrupted.
In the name of development, each of the government officer was targeting that
how would they take large amount of money from US.
None of the works were being done
Taliban spread this word in local people and propagated it very nicely.
due to which local people developed anger as well.
After that, Taliban slowly started taking the area of Afghanistan back again.
Now you'll say that, when Taliban is taking this area, what was US doing?
It could've stopped them.
The focus of US ARMY was on Iraq and the army that was in Afghanistan
wasn't sufficient enough.
Because, Army was looking after the securities of main city only.
So, Taliban started capturing the regions which didn't consist of US army.
And the government of Afghanistan that was working there
they started running a parallel government.
And the biggest problem was that Afghanistan & Pakistan Borders
wasn't sealed.
So, even if US attacked, the Taliban would flee to Pakistan &
Us couldn't attack the Pakistan grounds.
But slowly, US started understanding that they would've to hang on Afghanistan for a long time
that's why it took the help of its allies - UK, Australia, Canada,
Netherlands. They also sent their armies.
Canada's army was sent to Kandahar.
UK's army was sent to the Helmand province of Afghanistan.
US and native countries took control of Afghanistan but they committed lot of mistakes
due to which Afghanistan's citizens started getting against them day by day.
On May 2006, there was an accident involving a truck of US Army
which caused the death of an Afghanistan citizen.
When People started advancing with stones, the US armyy killed 20 more citizens there.
Similarly, on March 2007, US army attcked on Taliban at Shinwar.
even there US army shot the bullets on civilians and 12 civilians were shot dead.
On September 2009, in Kunduz Taliban hijacked two wild tankers in answer to which
NATO started air strike.
In which 179 people died and more than 100 of them were civilians.
And when later civilians were identified,
then at last Germany had to pay compensation of $500,000 to the families of the victim.
In 2008, in the month of Haska, US did an air strike in which by mistake bombed a wedding
in which 47 civilians including, the bride were killed.
All this was going on, but then comes July 2010
in which Wiki-list leaked more than 90,000 documents of US government related to Afghan war
through lot of these documents, its known that how NATO killed the civilians
and later they told lies to cover those incidents.
Due to this, the entire world criticized the involvement of US involvement in Afghanistan.
Due to all these incidents, the local people of Afghanistan
started feeling that US army don't have respect for the Afghani people and culture
and when all these things were increasing day by day then
people of Afghanistan government
some that were in military as well, started turning against US.
In fact, US army started facing the difficulty that even the local people would start attacking them.
Because there was lot of hatred among people.
The entire world was thinking what US and its ally countries are doing in Afghanistan.
They went to capture Osama and are fighting against Taliban &
Taliban wasn't their war.
US even had a reason to fight in Afghanistan
But people were questioning why did they attack in Iraq.
This strategy was running and Osama was out the radar of US.
But then the date, 2nd May 2011 arrives.
US army killed Osama Bin Laden in the raid of Abbottabad compound of Pakistan.
This was a huge win for US.
As said, the purpose of US was over as they had come for Osama and now they killed him.
But even after that, for several years their fight against Taliban went on.
But slowly, US and its ally countries understood that Taliban
is out of their control, that's why they started a new thing.
instead of sending their soldiers, the Afghan security forces of Afghanistan government
were trained and it started sending them.
And slowly, NATO allies started taking their forces back.
Firstly, in July 2011, Canada withdrew from Afghanistan
after that rest of the NATO countries started reducing their troops &
in October 2014, US and Britain stopped their comrade operation in Afghanistan.
It meant that whatever operation that'll take place in Afghanistan wouldn't be lead by US & UK
they'll only provide support to Afghan security force in US operation
All these things were going on, then comes 2020
and US president Donald trump offered to talk with Taliban
and on 29th February, 2020 an agreement is signed on Doha between Taliban & US.
But in this agreement, the government of Afghanistan is kept aside.
This agreement was only between US and Taliban
the major point of this agreement that NATO will completely withdraw from Afghanistan
it'll take back its forces.
Taliban won't support Al-Qaeda.
It'll not allow them to use its land (Al-Qaeda)
This agreement is also called Doha agreement
but some things were kept secret in this agreement
which weren't made public.
And those things were only kept between US and Taliban.
It wasn't even shared with the Afghanistan government.
In the future, Afghanistan government said that US and Taliban together must've planned something against us
that'll harm us.
After signing this agreement, US army started withdrawing from Afghanistan
and in August 2021, they leave Afghanistan entirely and go back.
When these things were going on, Afghanistan's president -Ashraf Ghani
fled from the country but local people remembered the time during Taliban
they were scared that now Taliban wouldn't leave them
specially those Afghani people, those who were on US's side or were working together with US
when US was fighting with Taliban.
You might've seen the visuals as well, at that time how people were falling from air in the Airport.
On 7th September, 2021 Taliban removes Afghanistan government for Afghanistan
and announces its new government
in which Mullah Mohammad Hasan announces himself as PM & Abdul Ghani Baradar as Deputy PM
after these things, Taliban said multiple times that they don't need to be afraid.
They'll give all of the rights to women and won't kill anyone &
won't keep a strict law.
But now you might be watching that, as the time goes on
they're diverging from their words. On September 2021, Taliban said that
they'll continue to give education to females
but after one month, Taliban bans the girls from attending the secondary schools
after that in December, 2022 - Taliban bans higher education of females.
There's another problem in Afghanistan
in US banks, $7 billion of the funds of Afghan government were frozen.
Us had done that and didn't want to give it back.
After which, Afghanistan has been facing serious economic crisis
due to which Amore than 2 crore people aren't able to get proper food.
And about 70 lakh people are at the brink of death due to hunger.
Taliban hasn't been recognized in any country until now since 2021 and
most of the countries of the world said that they'll recognize the Taliban government
when they'll form an inclusive government
and assure the rights of women and minority
If we talk about the current sitaution, then things have been very difficult in Afghanistan
the humanitarian crisis is increasing and its being said that
almost 28 million people of Afghanistan would need assistance in 2023
otherwise they won't be able to survive.
And situation is worse in Afghanistan & if other countries didn't help
then the situation might lead to Taliban reuniting with Al-Qaeda
Even that doesn't have an assurity but
if the situation of Afghanistan isn't handled well then it can bring a crisis for the entire world.
Thank you!ðð
(NASIR AZMI)
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