Country in South Asia
History
of Afghanistan
The written history of Afghanistan (Pashto: د
افغانستان تاريخ , Da Afġānistān Tārīkh), can be traced back
to around 500 BCE when the area was under the Achaemenid
Empire, Since then, many
empires have established capitals inside Afghanistan, including the Greco-Bactrians,
Mauryas, Kushans, Hindu Shahi, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Timurids, Mughals, Hotakis and Durranis.
Afghanistan (meaning "land of the
Afghans") has been a strategically important
location throughout history. The land served as "a gateway
to India, impinging on the ancient Silk Road, which carried trade from the Mediterranean to China".
Sitting on many trade and migration routes, Afghanistan may be called the 'Central Asian roundabout' since
routes converge from the Middle East, from the Indus Valley through the passes
over the Hindu Kush, from the Far East via
the Tarim Basin,
and from the adjacent Eurasian Steppe.
Mirwais Hotak followed
by Ahmad Shah
Durrani unified
Afghan tribes and founded the last Afghan Empire in
the early 18th century CE. Afghanistan's sovereignty has been held
during the Anglo-Afghan
Wars,
the 1980s Soviet
war,
and the 2001-present
war by
the country's many and diverse people: the Pashtuns,Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Aimak, Baloch
and others. but scholars believe that
they are a confederation of various
peoples from the past who united under Pashtunwali.
I-Qaeda, Arabic al-Qāʿidah (“the Base”),
broad-based militant Islamist
organization founded by Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s.
The Mujahideen
Al-Qaeda has its
origins in the uprising against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Thousands of volunteers from around the
Middle East came to Afghanistan as mujahideen, warriors fighting to defend fellow Muslims.
In the mid-1980s, Osama bin Laden became the prime financier for an
organization that recruited Muslims from mosques around the world. These
"Afghan Arab"mujahideen, which numbered in the thousands, were
crucial in defeating Soviet forces.
When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the organization dispersed
but continued to oppose what its leaders considered corrupt Islamic regimes and
foreign (i.e., U.S.) presence in Islamic lands. Based in Sudan for a period in
the early 1990s, the group eventually reestablished its headquarters in Afghanistan (c. 1996) under the patronage of the Taliban militia.
Al-Qaeda merged with a number of other militant Islamist
organizations, including Egypt’s Islamic
Jihad occasions its leaders declared holy war against the United States.
The organization established camps for Muslim militants from throughout the
world, training tens of thousands in paramilitary skills, and its agents
engaged in numerous terrorist attacks, including the destruction of the U.S.
embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1998), and a suicide
bomb attack against the U.S. warship Cole in Aden, Yemen (2000; see USS Cole attack). In 2001, 19 militants associated with al-Qaeda staged the September 11 attacks
against the United States. Within weeks the U.S.
government responded by attacking Taliban and
al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
Thousands of militants were killed or captured, among them several key members
(including the militant who allegedly planned and organized the September 11
attacks), and the remainder and their leaders were driven into hiding.
The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 challenged
that country’s viability as an al-Qaeda sanctuary and training ground and
compromised communication, operational, and financial linkages between al-Qaeda
leadership and its militants. Rather than significantly weakening al-Qaeda,
however, these realities prompted a structural evolution and the growth of
“franchising.” Increasingly, attacks were orchestrated not only from above by
the centralized leadership (after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, based in
the Afghan-Pakistani border regions) but also by the localized, relatively
autonomous cells it encouraged. Such grassroots independent groups—coalesced
locally around a common agenda but subscribing to the al-Qaeda name and its
broader ideology—thus meant a diffuse form of militancy, and one far more difficult
to confront.
With this organizational shift, al-Qaeda was
linked—whether directly or indirectly—to more attacks in the six years
following September 11 than it had been in the six years prior, including
attacks in Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Israel, Algeria, and
elsewhere. At the same time, al-Qaeda
increasingly utilized the internet as an expansive venue for communication and recruitment and as a
mouthpiece for video messages, broadcasts, and propaganda. Meanwhile, some
observers expressed concern that U.S.
strategy—centered primarily on attempts to overwhelm al-Qaeda militarily—was ineffectual, and at the end of
the first decade of the 21st century, al-Qaeda was thought to have reached its
greatest strength since the attacks of September 2001.
On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was killed by U.S.
military forces after U.S. intelligence located him residing in a secure compound
in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 31 miles (50 km) from Islamabad. The operation was carried out
by a small team that reached the compound in Abbottabad by
helicopter. After bin Laden’s death was confirmed, it was announced by U.S.
Pres. Barack Obama, who hailed the operation as a major
success in the fight against al-Qaeda. On June 16, 2011, al-Qaeda released a
statement announcing that Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s long-serving deputy, had
been appointed to replace bin Laden as the organization’s leader.
Ideology and Goals
The
principal stated aims of al-Qaeda are to drive Americans and American influence
out of all Muslim nations, especially Saudi Arabia; destroy Israel, topple
pro-Western dictatorships around the Middle East, and unite all Muslims and establish, by force if
necessary, an Islamic nation adhering to the rule of the first Caliphs.
Al-Qaeda
THE UNITED STATES NEEDS A PLAN WITH A MISSION STATEMENT. DECLARE WAR!
Coalition Military Fatalities By Year
| Year | US | UK | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| 49 | 3 | 18 | 70 | |
| 48 | 0 | 10 | 58 | |
| 52 | 1 | 7 | 60 | |
| 99 | 1 | 31 | 131 | |
| 98 | 39 | 54 | 191 | |
| 117 | 42 | 73 | 232 | |
| 155 | 51 | 89 | 295 | |
| 317 | 108 | 96 | 521 | |
| 499 | 103 | 109 | 711 | |
| 418 | 46 | 102 | 566 | |
| 310 | 44 | 48 | 402 | |
| 127 | 9 | 25 | 161 | |
| 55 | 6 | 14 | 75 | |
| 22 | 2 | 3 | 27 | |
| 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| Total | 2382 | 455 | 681 | 3518 |
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