The American war on Afghanistan lasted 20 years and cost Washington two trillion dollars

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The American invasion of Afghanistan began in October 2001 and continued until the withdrawal of American forces from the country in 2021. Its goal was “to combat terrorism,” according to a statement by then US President George W. Bush, and it led to thousands of civilian and military casualties, and the United States lost huge sums of money. There were deaths from the ranks of its army and the armies of supporting countries, and it was the longest war America had fought in its history.

The beginning of the war

On October 7, 2001, the United States of America officially began its military operations in Afghanistan, and 51 countries participated in the war, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The declared goal of these attacks was to "fight terrorism" and respond to the events of September 11, 2001. American military operations were launched from Bagram Air Base, which is located 60 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A small number of US special forces and CIA personnel entered Afghanistan to direct the aerial bombing campaign. American military ships and aircraft launched three waves of air strikes on the Taliban movement inside Afghanistan, as American planes bombed the airport, and darkness prevailed in the city due to a power outage.

A second wave of raids targeted the city of Kandahar, the headquarters of the Taliban leader at the time, Mullah Muhammad Omar, and his home in the city.

The raids also targeted Kandahar City Airport and destroyed its radar facilities and control tower. Hundreds of residential units for members of Al-Qaeda, which was led by Bin Laden, were bombed.

On November 13, 2001, US-backed Northern Alliance forces entered Kabul, the Taliban withdrew to the south, and within a month, Taliban leaders fled southern Afghanistan to Pakistan.

In December 2001, the Northern Alliance forces launched an intense bombing campaign with heavy missiles on the village of Tora Bora near Jalalabad, due to the spread of news that Osama bin Laden was hiding in caves in the mountains of the region, and as a result of that bombing, 58 people were killed.

Important stations

In May 2003, Bush's focus shifted to the invasion of Iraq, and US officials announced the end of major combat operations in Afghanistan, which gave the Taliban an opportunity to reorganize its ranks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, to return with an armed attack in 2008.

In 2004, a new government supported by the United States took power in Afghanistan, but this did not bring about a significant change in the attacks that continued.

On February 17, 2009, Barack Obama issued the first military decision in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, which was an order to send 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to “suppress the insurgency,” and that number joined an army of 38,000, in addition to NATO forces.

On May 1, 2011, news was announced that Bin Laden had been killed in a US raid on Pakistan. His death coincided with an increase in the number of US Army forces in Afghanistan, and an intense presence at the rallies of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In December, American officials announced that about 6 secret meetings were held with Taliban representatives, most of which were in Germany and Qatar during the ten months preceding that announcement.

On May 27, 2014, Barack Obama announced the plan to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, with 9,800 soldiers remaining, to be withdrawn by the end of 2016.

On December 28, it was announced that the combat mission of the American forces in Afghanistan had officially ended, with leadership of the war shifting to the Afghan forces, with approximately 10,000 American soldiers remaining in charge of training the Afghan forces to combat terrorism.

On August 21, 2017, then US President Donald Trump announced a strategy calling for the open deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, which could lead the Taliban to hold peace negotiations with the Kabul government.

On September 4, 2018, American-born Afghan diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed special representative of the United States in its efforts to hold negotiations with the Taliban.

Victims of war

The number of Afghan civilian casualties in the American war on Afghanistan reached more than 38,000 civilians. Thousands of Taliban members were killed, in addition to thousands of Afghan police and army personnel. In the first three years of the war, American forces arrested 50,000.

In 2017, during the presidency of Donald Trump of the United States, the US military relaxed the rules of engagement and carried out air strikes, which led to a significant increase in the number of civilian casualties. The number of civilian casualties increased by 330%, and tens of thousands were arrested on charges related to participating in “terrorist operations.”

Throughout the 20-year war, the US Army lost 2,442 soldiers, and this is the number of those who died directly in the war, while the number of people who committed suicide as a result of the experience of participating in the war is not yet known.

40,000 American soldiers were injured in the war, while hundreds of thousands of Afghans were injured, and nearly 4,000 American retirees were killed, and the number of victims of soldiers and retirees from international coalition countries reached 1,150 people.

These numbers do not include indirect deaths resulting from hunger, disease, and water shortages, and even more deaths resulting from the health damage caused by the war.

A war that cost a lot

In 2021, the Costs of War Project at Brown University released an update of periodic analyzes showing that the Afghanistan war cost the US Treasury at least $2.261 trillion.

The report indicated that these costs are an underestimate, because they do not include what is paid to provide health care to veterans, nor do they include future interest payments on the money that was borrowed to finance the stay of American forces there for nearly 20 years.

Withdrawal from Afghanistan

On February 18, 2020, Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah disputed victory in Afghanistan’s presidential elections, and the dispute ended with them signing a power-sharing agreement, under which Ghani retained the presidency and Abdullah led peace talks with the Taliban.

On February 29, 2020, the Taliban and the United States signed a historic agreement in Doha stipulating the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

In return, the Taliban provided security guarantees, and unprecedented direct negotiations began between the Taliban and the Kabul government, and the Afghan talks actually began in Doha, but violence in Afghanistan escalated.

Afghanistan War Committee

In 2021, the US Congress agreed to form a committee to evaluate the failures of the Afghanistan war. The committee included 16 members appointed by the Democratic and Republican parties.

The committee's mission is to complete a full report on the war within 4 years, and the law that approved its work stipulates that it must conduct a comprehensive assessment of the war in Afghanistan and make recommendations to draw tactical and strategic lessons, as well as to know the impact of increasing and reducing forces.

International relations expert Andrew Baker stressed the importance of this committee’s report, because it is “an educational guide for the next generation regarding the foreign and security policies of the United States.”

Source: Al Jazeera + websites