Us Troops In Afghanistan Research Paper

United States Interventions

Issue #1

United States Troops in afghanistan

Source: Greg Bruno, The War in Afghanistan
Just after the September 11th, 2001, attacks on American soil that took down the World Trade Center, America was already planning how to take down the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the one who planned the attacks. We discovered his location in Afghanistan only months later, and the thought of an invasion was on everyone’s minds.
The United States led multiple offensives against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, who were discovered to be holding bin Laden to protect him from the Armed Forces of the United States. How they got to be holding him was only due to one reason. The September 9th, 2001 assassination of Ahmad Shah
Massoud, the commander of the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance was completely Anti-Taliban, and their goal was to wipe out all Taliban forces. This assassination was a serious blow to the Anti-Taliban resistance, and it Assured Osama bin Laden’s protection by the Taliban. This was said to be, “The Curtain Raiser for the 9/11 Attacks.
There were multiple types of Operations against the terrorist groups; Airstrikes, Ground Offensives, and Counterinsurgency operations. The U.S. led an Air Campaign over Afghanistan in an effort to keep aerial control over the country, which was successful.
During November of 2001, during the battle for Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban suffered a major defeat at the hands of Abdul Rashid Dostum. Quickly after this, Taliban Strongholds began to crumble after multiple offensives were launched on them. Such offensives were the Taloqan offensive on November 11th, the Herat offensive of November 12th, and the Kabul offensive on November 13th. After these strongholds crumbled and the Taliban started to fall, the UN created Resolution 1378. This placed them in a central role for creating a transitional administration.
Sadly, on December 16, 2001, Osama bin Laden escapes from battle. We had intelligence on his location, the Tora Bora Cave Complex, and we sent groups to find and kill him. The Tora Bora Caves were extremely well equipped for battle, so victory would be difficult. This ended up being a two-week battle with al-Qaedan forces, with hundreds of deaths on both sides. After the battle, it was discovered that bin Laden escaped on horseback, most likely heading to a new, unknown location.
On May 1, 2011, almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden was killed in his home. A special forces group was sent into his house after intel was gained of his location. After he was killed, President Barack Obama was going to withdraw over 30,000 troops, but lawmakers called for hastened drawdown of US troops. Many wanted the troops to stay in Afghanistan, but on August 31, 2013, the war was over, but troop deployment kept going on after 2014. This was the longest war in United States history, and took many lives.

IIImage of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden

Source: Tom Kutch, Iraq Invasion and Occupation

Casualties
This is just a glimpse at the thousands of men who died during this war.
Was this war a mistake? Or was it necessary?
Fast Facts

176,000
Troops were deployed at the height of the counterinsurgency that took place in 2007.
2 Bunkers
Supposedly, there were enough Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq to fill two whole average-sized bunkers.
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Soldier standing in the rubble of a city in Iraq

This war was almost a, “Part Two”, to the Gulf War. The reason this invasion happened was due to the leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, holding Weapons of Mass Destruction. He was using these weapons on the people of Iraq, which was against international laws. The United States, along with other countries, stepped in and stopped this. The War in Iraq actually had two phases. The first phase, the shortest one, took place from March to April of 2003. This was the main war, where troops from The US, Great Britain, and other small countries invaded and took out Iraqi forces. The Second phase took place from 2003 to 2011. After the invasion and war, the United States led an occupation of the country to keep the peace. This was met by an Insurgency, which wanted the US out. Ground forces managed to settle the Insurgency down, until violence declined in 2007. After that, the removal of troops began. The last set of troops were removed in 2011, completing the
intervention. The whole outcome of this was that Saddam Hussein was ousted, captured, tried in prison, then executed. The Coalition Provisional Authority was replaced through an overseas election, and other governments wanted Iraq, but kept close ties with the country of Iran. Over 4,487 United States service members died in battle, and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians, Insurgents, and soldiers died. Iraq is still trying to recover from this war, with a new Insurgency gaining traction in Iraq today. In total, this war cost us over $1 Trillion US dollars.
The Libyan Uprising took place from March 19th of 2011 to October 23rd, 2011. The Goal of this intervention was to stop the forces of Muammar Gaddafi and halt the overrunning of rebel held Benghazi. There was little international authority before the uprising, but soon after the UN Security Council quickly passed a resolution. This resolution was based around the protection of Libyan civilians, but some say that Western and Arab countries used it as a cover for a regime changing military campaign. One of the types of operations was a NATO-led airstrike campaign. This campaign was supported by Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Sweden. There was also ground troops placed in Libya, but not many were United States troops. The United States had little involvement in the Libyan Uprising and the ending of Gaddafi’s reign. Mostly it was the countries Great Britain and France that led all of this. The United States did help with this, but we didn’t play a major role. The whole of the outcome of all of this was that Rebels ended up overthrowing the Gaddafi regime. Countries set up a provisional government until a better one could be set up. However, to this day, the political situation with Libya is still unsteady. This led to the September 11th, 2012 attacks on the US Consulate in Benghazi. Four people died, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
In

A protest against the Gaddafi regime, with many holding signs protesting him.

Image of Muammar Gaddafi himself, still the ruler of Libya at the time of this photo.

Source: Tom Kutch, The Libyan Uprising