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Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama Bin Laden: the Background to September 11

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Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama Bin Laden: the Background to September 11 Social Education 75(4), pp 185–190 ©2011 National Council for the Social Studies Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden: The Background to September 11 The Choices Program, Brown University (www.choices.edu) On May 1, 2011, a group of U.S. soldiers boarded helicopters at a base in Afghanistan, in Afghanistan and the emergence of hoping to find a man named Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, the leader of the al Osama bin Laden as a global figure in Qaeda terrorist network, was responsible for a number of terrorist attacks around international terrorism. the world, including those of September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States. The United States had been looking for bin Laden for nearly The Rise of the Taliban 15 years. On this May night, U.S. soldiers found him hiding in a large house in The Taliban came to power in Pakistan with members of his family and a few al Qaeda members. The soldiers Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet killed bin Laden and four others and flew back to their base in Afghanistan. withdrawal from the country in 1989. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan The U.S. war against al Qaeda began base of operation in Afghanistan. Many during a time of turmoil in December shortly after September 11, 2001, in Taliban and al Qaeda members, includ- 1979 in order to install a new leader who Afghanistan, where al Qaeda had been ing Osama bin Laden, escaped into would protect its political interests in based since 1996. The Taliban, an neighboring Pakistan. the region. The Soviets assumed they extreme Islamist group that controlled Today the United States and its allies would be there for just a few months. In Afghanistan’s government, refused to remain in Afghanistan battling the fact, the invasion provoked a war that give in to U.S. demands to hand over Taliban, who are trying to regain power. would last a decade as Afghans united bin Laden and dismantle al Qaeda. (The The Afghanistan War has become one around a common purpose—resisting term Islamist is used to describe political of the longest in U.S. history. the Soviet invasion. movements based on an interpretation Who was Osama bin Laden and how of the principles of Islam.) On October 7, did he come to be such a wanted man? How did Afghans resist the Soviet 2001, the United States began a military Who are the Taliban and what is their invasion? campaign that overthrew the Taliban role in Afghanistan? In this article, you For almost a century, many Afghans government and eliminated al Qaeda’s will read about the rise of the Taliban believed that resistance to foreign invaders was a form of jihad (a struggle against the enemies of Islam). Armed This reading is excerpted from a new unit to be published by the Choices Program groups opposing the Soviets called at Brown University this September. The United States in Afghanistan includes themselves the mujahideen (a word a student text and teacher guide. Nearly 10 years after U.S. military forces first that means “those who struggle for entered Afghanistan, the United States and its allies remain in the country bat- Islam”). Afghanistan’s geography played tling an insurgency led by the Taliban. Students use primary source documents, an important role in how mujahideen readings, and new media sources to explore the issues at the heart of the conflict groups organized themselves. Without and consider the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. The unit will be available any central leadership, the different from the Choices Program at www.choices.edu. regions of the country had different resistance groups led by charismatic September 2011 185 leaders. In spite of their regional, ethnic, and political differences, they all called themselves mujahideen. These groups did not coordinate their efforts and at times even fought each other. The odds were against the mujahideen. Reuters/SayedSalahuddin The Soviet Union was a world super- power and had a powerful military with advanced airplanes, helicopters, tanks, and heavy weapons. The mujahideen could not win a large battle against the Soviet army, so instead they fought a guerilla war. Small groups of muja- hideen would ambush Soviet troops in Afghanistan’s rugged and mountainous terrain where soldiers with heavy weap- ons could not easily follow. Why did other countries become involved in the conflict? A number of other countries played sig- nificant roles in the war, most notably the United States, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. U.S. leaders saw the Soviet invasion as an attempt to expand towards the oil- Afghan Taliban soldiers return to Kabul from the frontline north of the capital on June 24, 2001. The Taliban continually resisted international pressures to stop supporting Osama bin Laden. rich Persian Gulf region. In response, President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) declared that the United States would use force to protect the oil of the Persian because of its nuclear weapons program, were unable to defeat the mujahideen. Gulf region from the Soviet Union. He renewed its aid in return for Pakistan’s At least 15,000 Soviets were killed and began to send military aid to Pakistan’s help getting weapons and assistance to another 37,000 were wounded. Even in Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which the Afghan mujahideen. The inflows of a closed society like the Soviet Union, in turn sent it to mujahideen groups U.S. cash also strengthened the ISI and where the government controlled the fighting the Soviets. U.S. aid to the Pakistan’s military dictatorship. media and press, the war became increas- Afghan fighters increased substantially Saudi Arabia saw the war in ingly unpopular. In 1989, the new Soviet under President Reagan (1981–1989). Afghanistan as a religious issue. Its leader Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew It eventually reached hundreds of mil- authoritarian monarchy, flush with Soviet forces from Afghanistan. lions of dollars per year and included money from selling oil, channeled surface-to-air missiles that could shoot billions of dollars through Pakistan Why did a civil war begin in down Soviet aircraft. to Afghan mujahideen. Saudi Arabia’s Afghanistan? Pakistan’s military dictator, intelligence services also played an The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan Muhammad Zia al-Haq was a political active role, coordinating the distribu- coincided with the end of the Cold War Islamist who believed that Islam should tion of aid from Pakistan. In addition, and improved U.S.-Soviet relations. By become the basis for Pakistan’s govern- several hundred Arabs—from Saudi 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed, ment and laws. Al-Haq saw a chance Arabia and other Arab countries—came and the U.S. government saw little rea- to increase Pakistan’s influence in to participate in the jihad against the son to continue pouring its resources Afghanistan by helping Afghans resist Soviet forces. One of them was Osama into Afghanistan. the Soviet invasion. Tens of thousands bin Laden. With the Soviet Union gone from of Afghans received military training Afghanistan and U.S. support with- in Pakistan so that they could return Why did the Soviets withdraw? drawn, the rivalries between muja- and fight the Soviets. The United During the war, Soviet forces numbered hideen groups grew into a civil war for States, which had cut off aid to Pakistan between 90,000 and 110,000, but they power and control over Afghanistan. Social Education 186 The United Nations tried to negotiate How did the Taliban come Islamist government in Kabul, threw its a transfer of power to a new government, to power? resources behind the Taliban. Pakistan but these efforts failed. Afghanistan The Taliban began to generate support provided military advisors, training, essentially had no central government. by protecting the population from the and supplies. Without Pakistan’s sup- For a country devastated by 10 years abuse and crimes of the warlords. The port, the Taliban would not have suc- of war (more than one million Afghans leader of the Taliban was a man named ceeded in taking power. Saudi Arabia were killed and four million had fled Mohammed Omar. Omar was poor and also funneled financial support to the the country), this situation was cata- had little formal education. Taliban. Saudi money bought supplies, strophic. The Taliban had two powerful and provided for training and transport, and The heavily armed mujahideen groups important backers. Pakistan’s military even helped pay other warlords not to fought to capture Kabul and created a and ISI, hoping for a pro-Pakistan oppose the Taliban. lawless environment in which ordinary Afghans paid a terrible cost. Tens of thousands were killed. Murder, coer- cion, rape, corruption, and robbery by these groups were commonplace. The YOUR #1 RESOURCE FOR leaders of these groups became known as “warlords” and the groups remained CURRENT SOCIAL ISSUES divided along ethnic lines. For some of the men who had fought to drive out the Soviet army, the violence and chaos plaguing Afghanistan was a disappointment. Their jihad against the Soviets had succeeded, but clearly a struggle for Afghanistan was continuing. Many returned to their villages to con- sult with elders or attended madrassas “Schools subscribing to this excellent resource will nd that the topics cross multiple disciplines while engaging students in thought-provoking content.” —School Library Journal (religious schools) in Pakistan. They believed that they could solve issues Published 44 times a year, each 13,000-word CQ facing Afghanistan by drawing on reli- Researcher report provides in-depth, unbiased gious principles. A new, armed move- coverage of today’s most important social, political, environmental and health issues.
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