Photo By: Shahzaib Akber/EPA
The United States' presence in Afghanistan has been a source of debate ever since the first troops arrived. However, the Taliban have been generating chaos to pursue their goal of domination over Afghanistan long before the US began interfering. The Taliban, a group of radical terrorists, rose to power following their victory in the Soviet-Afghan War. They controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, imposing their extremist policies which included the oppression of women, the censorship of media, and the use of violence as a method to consolidate power.
Although Afghanistan has contended with meddlesome nations for decades, it was in 1999 when the United Nations imposed sanctions on the Taliban and al-Qaeda that animosity against western powers truly started brewing. As a part of the United Nations, the United States fully supported the measures taken in order to weaken the Taliban and al-Qaeda. However, the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States only truly crumbled after the terrorist attack of 9/11 which resulted in the death of more than three thousand people. The United States' military launched Operation Enduring Freedom, which consisted of dropping bombs on Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. The Taliban strongly fought against US troops, considering them to be the embodiment of American Imperialism, but after a series of events lead to changes in Taliban leadership, the internal structure of the group weakened. Eventually, in December 2001, the Taliban was forced to relinquish its grip on power. The internal situation in Afghanistan slowly shifted, as interim governments hoped to ease the country into a new reality, free of radicalism and violence. In 2004 Afghanistan drafted a new constitution, and the newly elected president visited the United States. This meeting culminated in the 2005 agreement, which made Afghanistan and the United States strategic partners.
Unfortunately, in 2006, chaos once again enveloped Afghanistan. Suicide bombers, mass killings, bombs, and shootings all showed that Afghanistan had never healed, it had only swept its troubles under a rug—and they inevitably resurged. Consequently, when president Obama assumed the presidency in 2008, he sent 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, set on the idea of stabilizing the region. The US military kills Osama bin Laden in 2011 and sends even more troops into the region; by then, the war spanned ten years. Subsequent years follow the violent patterns. The Taliban attempts to expand, the United States attempts to control, and a vicious cycle is established and unconsciously enforced.
Most recently, The United States has begun withdrawing all American troops from Afghanistan, a mission set to be completed by September 11th, 2021. Many worried that extracting troops would lead to the strengthening of terrorism and would therefore make the United States vulnerable to attacks. Others believed that it was best not to become further involved in the region’s politics, as a decade of intervention yielded no results. Regardless of personal perspectives, the Taliban have begun their quest for power once again, and have now taken over all major cities in Afghanistan. The Taliban have entered Kabul and Ashraf Ghani, the nation’s president, has fled. President Biden has responded to the crisis by saying, "Afghan leaders have to come together. They have got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”
During the Taliban’s previous reign, they established a system which oppressed women, promoted violence, and encouraged corruption. Various times a day, the Taliban went from house to house collecting food while also forcing citizens to pay the “Taliban Usher,” an offering encouraged by Islamic Sharia that is usually reserved for the poor, but became a tax to fund the group. Said tax consisted of 10% of a family’s harvest and income, no matter their economic situation. If rules were not followed, the Taliban would carry out public acts of discipline which included beatings, lashes, and even executions. Due to their radical interpretation of Islam, they forced women to stay at home, only allowing them to leave if escorted by a male. Women were forced to wear burkas and could not go to school, work, hospitals, or clinics.
With the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan is in danger of going back in time to 1996 when the extremist group first took control. Testimonies from people in Afghanistan have confirmed that the aforementioned patterns of oppression are being implemented again. In an interview for the BBC, a man named Asif said that all schools and educational institutes in his area were shut down as the Taliban invaded and asserted their power. Kabul’s international airport is in chaos as tens of thousands of desperate citizens literally cling onto planes that are about to take off. Horrifying images of people chasing airplanes and grabbing onto their wings only to fall off have been circulating the media, showing the fear and desperation that is taking over Afghanistan. In their first press conference in power, The Taliban assured viewers that women will play an active role in society (within their interpretation of Islamic Law) and that private press can also continue (as long as it doesn't offend them). The Taliban continuously say that they are looking for peace, but their credibility is fundamentally nonexistent. Thousands of Afghans are trying to endure, to persevere, to survive. When reading a news update, one must consider the full extent of its impact, because the rise of the Taliban not only results in a political crisis, it results in the destabilization of the Afghan people’s future, the shattering of women's rights, and the fragmentation of an entire culture.
Written By: Carolina Mejia Rodriguez
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