China News Service, March 1st (Guo Weiwei) On February 29th local time, the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan signed a peace agreement in Doha, Qatar, aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan.

According to the agreement, the United States will begin to gradually reduce its military presence in Afghanistan, and foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan are expected to withdraw within 14 months. The Taliban promised that Afghanistan would no longer be a shelter for terrorists. Afghanistan's future will continue to be negotiated between the Taliban and the Kabul government.

The Afghan war has been going on for more than 18 years, but the United States has failed to eliminate the Taliban and now has to hold peace talks with it. Where did this war start? What's the grievance between the two sides?

Data Map: In recent years, violence in Afghanistan has been frequent.

[US-Soviet Wrestling, Taliban Rise in Afghanistan]

During the Cold War, the United States attempted to enter Central Asia and set up military bases and deployed troops in and around Central Asia in the name of "counter-terrorism." When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the United States supported the local resistance forces and fought for ten years.

The Soviets withdrew in 1989, and the Najibullah regime supported by the Soviet Union fell in 1992. Subsequently, major forces in Afghanistan fought fiercely, killing more than 100,000 people in just two years. In 1994, the Taliban, a fundamentalist faction, gradually developed.

In 1996, Omar, the founder and supreme leader of the Taliban armed group, took control of the Afghan regime and introduced strict Islamic laws throughout the country. "Al Qaeda" also originated in Afghanistan. Due to similar political demands and close relations between the two sides, the organization was sheltered by the Taliban and developed rapidly.

On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered a series of terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Two of the World Trade Center buildings in New York were hit by hijacked passenger planes and suffered heavy losses.

Soon, the United States confirmed that the al-Qaida led by bin Laden was behind the attack. At the time, bin Laden hid in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, so the United States asked the Taliban to surrender it, but was rejected.

Data Map: Mullah Omar, the founder and former top leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

[After the "911" attack, 18 years of anti-terrorism smoke continues]

In October 2001, the United States began bombing Afghanistan. In November, the anti-Taliban "Northern Alliance" in Afghanistan controlled the capital Kabul with the assistance of the United States and multinational forces, and the Taliban were quickly expelled from the capital. In 2004, Afghanistan held its first democratic election, and a new Afghan government supported by the United States was formally established.

However, the Taliban has not disappeared since then, but has gradually recovered its power and increased its penetration into the grassroots of society. After the war, the situation in Afghanistan continued to be turbulent, the government was constrained by many conditions, and other countries had concerns about long-term military presence in Afghanistan. As a result, the Taliban, although always on the defensive, has gradually regrouped.

Ten years after the US military launched the war, it finally sniped Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. In 2014, NATO's international forces ended their combat mission, allowing Afghan government forces to continue fighting the Taliban.

However, the situation in Afghanistan is still chaotic, and the withdrawal of international troops has given the Taliban more opportunities. In 2019, the Associated Press reported that the Taliban's forces have reached the strongest stage since the 2001 Afghanistan war, and they controlled more than half of Afghanistan's land. Moreover, the Taliban are still launching bomb attacks against government and civilian targets.

Data map: The Taliban often launch attacks on government and civilian targets.

[Multi-round peace talks, twists and turns on the road to peace]

Three US presidents passed before and after the war in Afghanistan. During the current campaign, President Trump advocated that the United States should end the overseas war as soon as possible. However, after taking office, he instead sent additional troops to Afghanistan in August 2017. He claims to reluctantly approve the strategy without "following intuition."

At the end of 2018, the U.S. and Taliban representatives began holding talks. After a long and complicated game, in early September 2019, Khalilzad, the chief negotiator of the US side, disclosed that US Tower had reached an agreement in principle on a peace agreement.

However, on September 7, U.S. President Trump abruptly canceled a secret meeting scheduled on the 8th with the main Taliban leader and Afghan President Ghani in Camp David, Maryland. The United States declared "the peace talks are dead" and unilaterally suspended the negotiations.

Three months later, the peace talks between the two sides "re-entered the road." On November 28, Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to pay condolences to the U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan and meet with Afghan President Ghani. Trump said after the meeting that the United States has resumed dialogue with the Taliban.

In February 2020, important progress was made in the negotiations. The two sides reached a temporary ceasefire agreement. After the ceasefire lasted for seven days, the United States and the Taliban finally took the pen to sign a peace agreement.

US President Trump said, "We want to reach a peace agreement. The Taliban also want to reach a peace agreement, and they are tired of fighting."

[High cost: trillions of expenses, tens of thousands of people die]

The war in Afghanistan that has lasted for many years has been costly. A total of nearly 3,500 soldiers of the NATO coalition died in the Afghanistan war, of which more than 2,300 were US soldiers. The Brown University Watson International Research Center said that the Taliban killed 42,000 soldiers.

In addition to the heavy casualties, the New York Times calculated the bill, saying the total cost of the war was more than $ 2 trillion. Some of the costs are as follows:

US $ 1.5 trillion in war, most of which goes to training, fuel, armored vehicles and facilities; US $ 87 billion in training to support the Afghan army and police forces in terms of equipment, training and funding; and US $ 30 billion in other reconstruction projects. However, the investigation found that some funds were wasted by “corrupt and failed projects”.

This war has become a "difficult wound" that consumes the national strength of the United States.

At the same time, the war also brought heavy suffering to the local area. In January 2019, Afghan President Ghani said that since 2014, 45,000 members of the security forces have been killed. A February 2019 report from the United Nations states that more than 32,000 civilians have died.

Tadashi Yamamoto, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said: "In Afghanistan, almost no civilian can escape the impact of the current violence." Now that the war is coming to an end, the prospects for peace talks in Afghanistan are uncertain, and when will the people be able to escape the shadow of violence. Is unknown.

Data sheet: Afghan parliament building was attacked by explosives fired by Taliban militants.

[Events of Afghanistan War]

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hosted four civil aircraft and hit locations such as the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC, killing nearly 3,000 people. The U.S. says Al Qaeda's leader, bin Laden, planned the attack.

On October 7, 2001, as the Taliban regime refused to hand over bin Laden, the United States began bombing Taliban targets and the Al-Qaida network in Afghanistan.

On November 13, 2001, the Taliban was expelled from the Afghan capital Kabul and retreated to the southern Kandahar province; on December 7, the Taliban abandoned the last stronghold of Kandahar, and two days later gave up the last held Zabul province, completely lost in Afghanistan Control.

In 2002, the US-backed Afghan Interim Government was established.

In January 2004, Afghanistan adopted a new constitution and a presidential election was held in October. More than 10.5 million eligible voters elected the new president Karzai; Karzai, who was the leader of the interim government, received 55% of the vote.

In 2009, then-President Obama announced a new strategy for the Afghan war, sending more military and civilian trainers to Afghanistan.

On May 2, 2011, the U.S. forces stormed a building in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing bin Laden.

In June 2011, Obama announced his withdrawal plan, withdrawing 10,000 troops at the end of 2011, until 2014, he completely handed over responsibility for security to the Afghan government.

In 2013, Afghan government forces took over all military and security tasks from NATO forces.

In September 2014, Ghani was elected as the new President of Afghanistan after two rounds of voting.

In December 2014, NATO officially terminated its combat mission in Afghanistan.

In October 2015, on the ground that the situation in Afghanistan was still unstable, Obama overturned the goal of a complete withdrawal in 2016, and continued to maintain about 9,800 US troops to assist the Taliban in the local area.

Since October 2018, U.S. and Taliban representatives have begun peace talks in Qatar.

In September 2019, U.S. President Trump cancelled the scheduled meeting between the Afghan President and Taliban leaders on the grounds that the U.S. forces were attacked and killed by the Taliban in Kabul.

On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha, Qatar. The United States and its NATO allies agreed that if the Taliban adhere to this agreement, they will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan within 14 months.