The history behind Afghanistan Crisis and the Rise Of Taliban.

So, there is a long history behind the Afghan crisis that has been started after the 1978 Saur Revolution, which saw the overthrow of Daoud Khan. After this, Afghanistan becomes a Democratic Republic Country and a new communist government comes into power led by the new President Nur Muhammad Taraki. Under him, some more good reforms take place like the lands were redistributed to the farmers, on Afghan Independence Day, he launched the first TV channel in the country, he stops the practice of unfair loans, he stops the practice of bride buying and he takes away the powers from the Islamist extremists and clerics. Girls were sent to school and he very famously said that, come visit us in a year and you will find the mosques empty. He was so against religion that the extremists in Afghanistan started taking a more extreme stance. 
                There were two main political parties in Afghanistan since their Parliamentary election system began, one Islamist and the other Communist (PDPA). The Islamist were frustrated by all the measures and became so extreme that they declared a civil war against the communists. By then the PDPA was already divided into two parts so that was also a reasoning for their weakening. Because of this war, Nur Muhammad Taraki gets assassinated in 1979. The Soviet Union then gets an excuse to invade Afghanistan as they wanted to protect their communist ideology. They saw that the communist parties in Afghanistan were in danger so they decided to give their all to protect them.
                 

Then they entered Afghanistan to start a war against Mujahideen (who are the members of a number of guerrilla groups operating in Afghanistan during the Afghan war). On the other hand, America saw this as an attempt by the Soviet Union to establish its influence on Afghanistan. Another country that America could lose to the Soviet Union during the Cold war. So how could America put themselves back? Then America started to look for the opposing ideology there, they provided fund and started to support them so that America could establish its own influence over Afghanistan. At that time the ideology which were opposing communism were of the Islamists and Mujahideen.

Now the question arise, how did the Taliban come to power in Afghanistan? Where does Osama Bin Laden come from? And how does America’s involvement in Afghanistan continue growing for long 20 years?

In 1979, Afghanistan’s president and Communist leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki gets murdered by a fellow Communist leader Hafizullah Amin. He first arrested Taraki, and then murdered him. After this, the Soviet Union starts its interference in Afghanistan.

While the infighting between the communists was going on, but at the same time, the communists and Islamists were also at war with each other in Afghanistan at this point. Around this time in 1979, a revolution took place in Afghanistan’s neighbour, Iran. That is known as the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Actually, the situation in Iran at this time, was quite a bit similar to the situation in Afghanistan. There were Islamists on one side, and Leftists and Communists on the other. Iran’s king Mohammad Rez, believed in modernism and secularism. And he had brought a lot of economic development for his country along with secularism. But at the same time, he was very attached to being on the throne. Because of his greed, he had the protestors in the opposition murdered. The voices of opposition were suppressed. He also outlawed the political parties and dismissed the Parliament. For these reasons, a revolution against him took place and in 1979, the Islamists took over Iran.

Watching this happening in Iran, Hafizullah Amin, who was a Communist in Afghanistan was worried about an Islamists takeover in Afghanistan. To avoid this, he thought that he needed to satisfy the religious conservative people. For this, he started constructing mosques, started including the name of Allah in his speeches, distributed copies of the Quran. All this despite being a Communist, because he was trying to somehow get the Islamists to his side as well. But the public of Afghanistan didn’t like him at all. He committed many atrocities against the people of Afghanistan. He was actually considered to be a semi-psychopath in Afghanistan.

In December 1979, before the Islamists could take over Afghanistan, the Soviet Union interfered by sending its forces. The Soviet Union then had Hafizullah Amin murdered. There was an ideological reason for it as well as a geopolitical reason. The ideological reason was that the ideology of Communism was losing ground in Afghanistan and was being misrepresented by Hafizullah Amin. So the Soviet Union wanted to lend its support to the real Communism ideology. The geopolitical reason was that there was the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the USA. If the Soviet Union would have gained influence in Afghanistan, then another country would have come under the influence of the Soviet Union and it would’ve benefited the Soviet Union in the fight against the USA.

After killing Hafizullah Amin, Babrak Karmal was installed as the new head of government. He was also a leader of the Saur Revolution. After coming into power, he had more than 2700 political prisoners released, he replaced the red Communist flag with a new one, he promised to bring a new constitution of Afghanistan. Apart from this, free election, freedom of speech, right to protest and freedom of religion were also promised. Finally, it seemed like there would be peace in Afghanistan and Afghanistan would move in the right direction.

But how could the USA have silently watched Afghanistan progress? The USA could see that the Soviet Union had established its influence in Afghanistan. Even in the countries like Vietnam and Ethiopia, the Soviet Union had humiliated America. America was a step below the Soviet Union in this war. So America decided to use Afghanistan as an opportunity to take its revenge against the Soviet Union.

How did America took revenge against the Soviet Union ?

America took this revenge by supporting the opposition ideology, Mujahideen, in Afghanistan. Countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were already supporting the Islamist Mujahideen in Afghanistan and America joined them in doing so. The CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY(CIA) conducted its largest-ever secret operation to do this, they named it Operation CycloneUK had authorised a secret aid of $500,000 to be given to the Mujahideen on 3rd July 1979.

Even after the change in power in the US, millions of dollars were given to the Mujahideen. It was happening even after Ronald Reagan came into power. Along with America’s CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, British Secret Agency MI6, and Saudi Arabia was also supporting Islamist Mujahideen.

Who were the Mujahideens? How did they gained lots of power?

Initially, they were only guerrilla fighters that fought while hiding in the mountains. But after getting so much support, not only they have weapons, not only guns but even anti-aircraft missiles were also available to them. That’s when the Soviet Union started feeling the effects of the fight.

Soviet Union withdrawal.

In 1988, Afghanistan’s President was Mohammad Najibullah. He signs the Geneva accord with Pakistan which is basically a peace agreement that neither country will interfere in the affairs of the other country. The guarantors of the peace agreement were the Soviet Union and the USA. The USA promised that if the Soviet Union withdraw its armies from Afghanistan, then the USA would stop supplying weapons to the Mujahideen. 

Finally, after 9 years, in February 1989, the Soviet Union withdraws its army from Afghanistan. The Soviet Union leaves Afghanistan and there were many reasons for it. The Soviet Union was itself breaking up into pieces. The Soviet Union then get divided into multiple countries and Russia becomes a major country among them.
Najibullah tries his best to end this conflict. He reduces his powers. In 1987, a new Constitution was brought in for Afghanistan. Afghanistan was ceased to be a one-party state like the other Communist countries of the time. The other parties were also allowed to contest elections as wel. In 1988, new Parliamentary elections were conducted and Najibullah’s party, PDPA wins the election and Najibullah retains his power.
In 1990, Afghanistan was declared to be an Islamic Republic and all references to Communism were removed. Najibullah tried to satisfy the religious conservative people in the country so that there could be peace in the country. Najibullah also tried to get Foreign Aid into Afghanstan and to start private investment.

The Final Battle. 

But despite doing so much, America continues to supply weapons to the Mujahideen, and the Mujahideen group does not steps back even a bit. They boycott the elections and even after everything, they thought that Islam were still in danger. The civil war continues. The Soviet Union tries to help Najibullah by sending foreign aid, but that doesn’t help because in 1991, the Soviet Union breaks apart itself. And in 1992, Mujahideen wins this civil war. Though Mujahideen was an Islamist group it was made up of people from various ethnicities. And in it too, there were many people greedy for power. Infighting begins in the Mujahideen group for power.

Rise of Taliban.

Finally in 1992, a person came into power and he becomes the new leader of the Islamic state of Afghanistan. His name was Burhanuddin Rabbani. By the next few years, a new enemy was risen called the Taliban. In 1996, Taliban removed this Islamist Mujahideen leader from power. Who are the Talibans?

In the Pashto language, ‘Taliban’ means student. Initially the leader of this Taliban group was Mullah Omar who formed this group with 50 students. But with time, some refugees returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan who later became a part of this group. These people were even more religious extremists, even more extremely right-wing people compared to the Mujahideen as well. These Afghan refugees had apparently learned this extremism in some schools of Pakistan. But religion was not the only thing involved. As there were many parts of ethnic groups in the Mujahideen. Taliban also believed in the ideology of Pashtun nationalism in addition to being Islamists
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia supported the Taliban and it is said that America created Taliban. Practically it is true because America basically tried its best to ruin all the efforts og bringing democracy to Afghanistan by supplying weapons to the Mujahideen and an environment was created that enabled the birth of Taliban. Not only weapons, but America apparently spent millions of dollars in printing textbooks in Afghanistan. These books were filled with violent images and used to promote the extremist ideology. Later, these books funded by America were used by the Taliban.
By September 1996, the Taliban had successfully captured Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the beginning, the common people were supportive of the Taliban because they could finally expect some stability in the country. The fight going on for so many years was at an end. And in the beginning, the Taliban did indeed make some areas of Afghanistan peaceful. But with time, the conservative ideology of Taliban came to the front and the common people gets a glimpse of it. Taliban bans a lot of things in Afghanistan, the list of the banned item was so long it included Cinema, TV, Music etc.
Under Taliban’s rule, men had to compulsorily keep a beard and women had to keep their bodies covered in burqas, women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative companion. And because Taliban believed in the ideology of Pashtun nationalism, so the non-Pashtun ethnicities became victims of ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Muslims were killed, Christians got prosecuted, Hindus were given badges so they can be distinguished from the Muslims. The former president Najibullah was also murdered by them.
But there were three countries that recognized Taliban as a legitimate Government at that time. The three counties were Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. In the late 1990s, some Mujahideen forces tried to fight the Taliban, these were known as the Northern Alliance led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. But in 2001, the Northern Alliance lose their fight and Ahmad Shah Massoud gets killed as well. Only 2 days after it happened, a terrorist group Al Qaeda conducted the 9/11 attacks in the USA, an attack that changed the entire world. The leader of Al Qaeda at that time was a Saudi terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. Taliban helped to shelter Osama Bin Laden, giving him a safe place in their country.

Osama Bin Laden wrote a letter to America in which he says that the 9/11 attacks were a revenge for what America was doing in countries like Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan. He gives a justification by saying that America was committing war crimes against Muslims in these countries so they took revenge against America by carrying out the 9/11 attacks.

Us removes Taliban.

America wanted to take revenge for the 9/11 attacks, so America sends its forces to Afghanistan. America then conducted airstrikes on Afghanistan at places where they thought terrorist groups were hiding. Many civilians were also killed due to the airstrikes. But with the support of Mujahideen’s North Alliance, by December 2001, Taliban was totally pushed back by the USA.
Ahmad Shah Massoud’s aid Hamid Karzai became the new President of Afghanistan’s interim government. In 2004, a new Constitution was adopted in Afghanistan yet again. Elections took place and more than 6 millions of Afghans votes in that election. Hamid Karzai won the election and became the new President of Afghanistan. He established some good relation with India. Afghanistan and India’s relations became quite strong at that time. On the other hand, the USA conducts bombings and airstrikes in Pakistan to eliminate the hideouts of Taliban there.
In 2011, Osama Bin Laden was killed by the US forces. In 2015, it is found that Mullah Omar, the first and original leader of Taliban had died in 2013 due to an illness. During all these, the US had dispatched its army to Afghanistan to maintain peace and to keep Taliban in check. Additionally, as a support to the new democratic government in Afghanistan.

US-Taliban peace deal.

Even after years, Taliban was still not wiped out. The group keeps popping out at different places in different areas of Afghanistan and neighbouring countries where they were conducting shootouts and bombings in which hundreds of civilians were killed. 
In February 2020, while Donald Trump was the President of the USA, shockingly he started peace talks with the Taliban. The say that if Taliban cuts off its relations with terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, then America will withdraw its forces and America will leave Afghanistan. Because the American forces in Afghanistan required a lot of funding, more than $2 Trillion were spent and Americans were against it too. The Americans questioned that why they were fighting a war that wasn’t theirs. They were in a country for 20 years, where their people, their soldiers were getting killed and they weren’t getting anything from it.

US troops withdrawal.

In 2021, Taliban was the most powerful it had ever been. More than 85,000 fighters were fighting for Taliban. Now, when Joe Biden is the President of America, he continues with Donald Trump’s policy and decides to withdraw the American troops from Afghanistan. Especially before the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 attack, America says that its not their concern they’d get their troops out of the place.

CONCLUSION.

Now, many people say that if the purpose of America for staying in Afghanistan was revenge, then even after Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011, why did America let its troops be in Afghanistan then? Why didn’t they withdraw their army the? On the other hand, if America’s purpose of staying in Afghanistan was to make Afghanistan a democratic country and to end Taliban, then that purpose hasn’t been accomplished even a bit. If it is so, then America has completely failed in this aspect because Taliban is in power again and is at its strongest right now.