Internet Resources
- The Global War on Terrorism: The First 100 DaysU.S. Department of State archive on the first 100 days of the War on Terrorism.
- The U.S. War in AfghanistanThe Taliban surged back to power two decades after U.S.-led forces toppled its regime in what led to the United States’ longest war.
- Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deathsA report from the Costs of War project at Brown University revealed that 20 years of post-9/11 wars have cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion and have killed more than 900,000 people.
Research & Reference
- Total budgetary cost to the United States of war spending in Afghanistan between FY 2001 and FY 2019, by categorySince 9/11, the United States has amassed an estimated two trillion U.S. dollars of war spending in Afghanistan, with the interest on additional borrowing alone costing over 456 billion U.S. dollars. These figures include budgetary spending between FY 2001 and FY 2019.
- Current political situation of Afghanistan in 2021- statistics & factsAs of August 2021, the Taliban reestablished their rule over Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops and their NATO partners. With that, the United States ended their almost 20-year mission in the country which began as a direct result of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on U.S. soil. Al-Qaida and their leader Osama bin Laden were responsible for the terrorist attacks and were at the time sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan, which thus led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the consequent overturning of Taliban rule over the country. It was then the mission of the U.S. troops and their NATO partners to stabilize the country and help establish a stable democratic country. However, it can be argued that neither political nor economic stability has been reached in the past 20 years.
- Key Numbers Behind The War In AfghanistanAfter 18 years, America's longest war might be coming to an end. The United States and the Taliban signed a deal in Doha on Saturday which is expected to end the conflict in Afghanistan, though the agreement remains fragile and was made without the involvement of the Afghan government.
Streaming Media
- Leaving AfghanistanInvestigating the consequences of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. With exclusive access to a militant wing of the Taliban, and the story of Iran’s growing influence across the country. Also: a report on politics and rape in India.
- Legion of BrothersImmediately after the 9/11 attacks, a small contingent of US Troops were sent on a secret mission to overthrow the Taliban. What happens next is equal parts war origin story & cautionary tale, illuminating the impact of 15 years of constant combat.
- Afghanistan: My Return to the Valley of DeathAn exclusive look at the world of the Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group. Fifteen years ago, when war broke out Merwais left his home in the Kunar Province for a new life in Europe. He returns to the notorious Valley of Death, the dangerous tribal area bordering Pakistan, to find out what happened to his friends and family after the American invasion. Travelling to an area closed to most western journalists, he tries to find out why the Taliban are such an enduring force in Afghanistan and are only getting stronger. What are the prospects for peace in the coming years?
Perspectives
Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
A high-ranking general's gripping insider account of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how it all went wrong. Over a thirty-five-year career, Daniel Bolger rose through the army infantry to become a three-star general, commanding in both theaters of the U.S. campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. He participated in meetings with top-level military and civilian players, where strategy was made and managed. At the same time, he regularly carried a rifle alongside rank-and-file soldiers in combat actions, unusual for a general. Now, as a witness to all levels of military command, Bolger offers a unique assessment of these wars, from 9/11 to the final withdrawal from the region. Writing with hard-won experience and unflinching honesty, Bolger makes the firm case that in Iraq and in Afghanistan, we lost -- but we didn't have to. Intelligence was garbled. Key decision makers were blinded by spreadsheets or theories. And, at the root of our failure, we never really understood our enemy.Why We Lost is a timely, forceful, and compulsively readable account of these wars from a fresh and authoritative perspective.
No Good Men among the Living
Told through the lives of three Afghans, the stunning tale of how the United States had triumph in sight in Afghanistan--and then brought the Taliban back from the dead In a breathtaking chronicle, acclaimed journalist Anand Gopal traces in vivid detail the lives of three Afghans caught in America's war on terror. He follows a Taliban commander, who rises from scrawny teenager to leading insurgent; a US-backed warlord, who uses the American military to gain personal wealth and power; and a village housewife trapped between the two sides, who discovers the devastating cost of neutrality. Through their dramatic stories, Gopal shows that the Afghan war, so often regarded as a hopeless quagmire, could in fact have gone very differently. Top Taliban leaders actually tried to surrender within months of the US invasion, renouncing all political activity and submitting to the new government. Effectively, the Taliban ceased to exist--yet the Americans were unwilling to accept such a turnaround. Instead, driven by false intelligence from their allies and an unyielding mandate to fight terrorism, American forces continued to press the conflict, resurrecting the insurgency that persists to this day. With its intimate accounts of life in war-torn Afghanistan, Gopal's thoroughly original reporting lays bare the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony. A heartbreaking story of mistakes and misdeeds,No Good Men Among the Living challenges our usual perceptions of the Afghan conflict, its victims, and its supposed winners.
Days of Fear: A Firsthand Account of Captivity Under the New Taliban
As brilliantly crafted and riveting as a first-rate suspense novel and with the emotional engagement of the best literary fiction, Days of Fear offers rare insight into the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan while telling an unforgettable tale of courage in the face of danger.
Reaping the Whirlwind
Cut adrift after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Afghanistan has become a political no-man's-land.Historically an artifical "buffer state, " Afghanistan has in recent years become the geopolitical playground of a variety of competitng interests - the Americans, the Saudis, Russians and Pakistanis, let alone drug barons, arms dealers and oil interests.Afghanistan's unstable and problematic history is now further complicated by the emergence of the Taliban - one of the most conservative and least understood Islamic movements in the world.The Taliban continues to grab the headlines, most notably for their appalling treatment of women, and their connections to Osama bin Laden. Investigative journalist Michael Griffin draws numerous interviews with key protganists, and offers a fasccinating eyewitness picture drawn from three extensive trips to Afghanistan. He paints the fullest picture yet of the Taliban movement, its origins, beliefs, religious and political ethos, and the character and impact of its particular brand of fundamentalism.In the process he reveals the controversial nature of the Taliban's links with the CIA, Saudi Arabia a
The Choice of War
A longtime scholar of the Cold War deftly weaves together the tradition of "just war" and an examination of current events to show how the time-honored concepts of jus ad bellum (justice of war) and jus in bello (justice in war) apply to the U.S. military involvement in Iraq. This timely analysis of President George W. Bush's foreign policy deals with the cornerstone of his administrations--the "war on terror"--as implemented in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and at Abu Ghraib prison. The Choice of War: The Iraq War and the "Just War" Tradition discusses NSS 2002, the national security statement that became the blueprint for the Bush Doctrine. It explains the differences and similarities between preventive and pre-emptive war and explores the administration's justification of the necessity of the March 2003 invasion. Finally, it analyzes the conduct of the war, the occupation, and the post-occupation phases of the conflict. In evaluating the Bush Doctrine, both as declared strategy and as implemented, Albert L. Weeks asks whether going it virtually alone in the global struggle against 21st-century terrorism should be incorporated permanently into American political and military policy. Answering no, he suggests an alternative to a doctrine that has isolated the United States and left the world divided.
Archives
- Afghanistan: Hoover InstitutionThese collections focus on political, social, and economic conditions in Afghanistan in the modern period. Particularly well documented are the Soviet invasion, the civil war of 1992, and US military operations during the war in Afghanistan beginning in 2001. Other topics include US economic assistance and development of education.
- Afghanistan ArchiveNational Archive's resource page on Afghanistan.