Approving Afghanistan

The War in Afghanistan, also called the Afghan war, or Enduring Freedom started for the United States on October 7, 2001. The United States went to war because of the attacks on the twin towers on 9/11 and the fact that the leader that orchestrated these attacks, Osama Bin laden, according to Intel, was hiding out there. The goal of this war was to up root the Taliban from power and create a stable democracy, and to hunt Osama Bin Laden down for his crimes against the United States. In this paper I will be elaborating why this war was justified by these reasons; the fact that Al-Qaeda killed and expressly aims to kill U.S. citizens and, the Taliban in Afghanistan have partnered with al-Qaeda, harboring a known United States enemy named Osama Bin Laden, threating other democratic countries of their freedom including their own. The different historical interpretations of the event, and the positive and negative outcomes of this event will be elaborated on also.
On Tuesday morning on September 11 2001, 19 terrorists from the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes. These terrorists intentionally crashed two of these planes in to the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another plane was purposely crashed into the pentagon and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Roughly 3000 people lost their lives that day.
These attacks were a direct attack on the United States. Believed to be behind these attacks was a terrorist named Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden was the founder of the group al-Qaeda, the same group behind the attacks on 9/11. He was thought to be hiding in Syria or Afghanistan. Thus with “Operation Enduring Freedom” the United States pledged to liberate the population from the clutched of the Taliban. And with the Taliban out of the way the United States could rebuild Afghanistan from the twenty three years of ravished land (Tarzi, 2009). But did these attacks justify the United States going to war in Afghanistan?
Some legal justification implies that the United States had every right like if your nation has been subjected to an armed attack by another nation, you may respond militarily in self-defense. Others will argue saying that the terrorists that led the 9/11 attack were not citizens of Afghanistan (Griffin D. R., 2010). The invasion of Afghanistan was aimed directly at capturing Bin Laden and overthrowing the Taliban regime that has harbored him, rather than being a war against the entire Afghan people. The Afghan people have suffered greatly under Taliban rule, especially women and ethnic and religious minority groups, and they deserve a different and better government. In the past few years the Taliban have made it very difficult for the UN and other aid agencies to deliver humanitarian relief in Afghanistan, so in the medium-term an invasion would improve matters.
Others believe that only the United Nations, can only conduct the war and the United States bi-passed that but the international community (UN) is working to obtain a more concrete set of commitments from Afghanistan’s leadership to deal with the problems that have undermined the Afghan government’s legitimacy: namely corruption, weak governance, and poor performance on providing justice (Thistlethwaite, 2009). So the United States is just helping where they can by fighting the Taliban. Remember the Taliban is the reason why there is corruption, weak governance and no justice.
Was the invasion completely necessary for all this to happen? Some believe that an invasion using conventional military tactics and techniques will never be an effective measure against an elusive and highly secretive international network such as Al-Qaida. This is completely wrong; the United States has adapted military tactics just to fight this regime. Other point is If they are driven out of one country, they will always be able to find somewhere else to base their activities. This is true, thus we must move to that country till they have nowhere else to run. I believe that invasion was the only way to stop future terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base of operations. Using the history books as a lesson the Taliban have provided a supportive base for a range of terrorist groups seeking to overthrow regimes in former-Soviet Central Asia, China and Kashmir, as well as for the global terrorist campaign of Al-Qaida. I believe the stability of the whole Asian region pivots upon the installation of a new government in Afghanistan dedicated to peaceful coexistence with is neighbors, and this can only be achieved through an invasion. Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m by a joint operation force of C.I.A. and Navy S.E.A.L.S. This operation was called Operation Neptune Spear was ordered by the president of the United States. The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan. After the raid, U.S. forces took bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried it at sea within 24 hours of his death. This is what we went to Afghanistan for in the first place as many recall, and immediately wanted US troops to pull out of Afghanistan. Mission Accomplished right? Wrong. Yes this was our initial reason to go to Afghanistan in the first place, but with the Taliban still in control we cannot pull out. If we did many negative things would occur. The main being the country would no longer have a defense that we set up there thus resulting in the country being immediately taken back over by foreign or domestic terrorist. The positive side of pulling out would be the fact that we would no longer have American troops dying, civilians killed by us on accident, and we could start redeeming ourselves within the Muslims eyes that the United States is not an evil western country craving blood.

In conclusion I believe the war at the time was justified unlike the Iraq war, but its more than time to start gradually pulling soldiers, airmen, Marines, and seaman out .

Works Cited
CNN News. (2011, October 3). The Afghan war 10 years later: A look at the numbers. Retrieved from www.CNN.com: http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03/the-afghan-war-10-years-later-a-look-at-the-numbers/
Griffin, D. R. (2010, June 25). Did 9/11 Justify the War in Afghanistan? Using the McChrystal Moment to Raise a Forbidden Question. Retrieved from Foreign Policy Journal: http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/06/25/did-911-justify-the-war-in-afghanistan/
Griffin, P. D. (2010, June 25). Did 9/11 Justify the War in Afghanistan? Retrieved from www.globalresearch.ca: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19891
Jamail, D. (2009). Will to Resist : Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chicago, IL, USA : Haymarket Books .
Lawson, B. S. (2010). Reconstruction under Fire : Case Studies and Further Analysis of Civil Requirements. Santa Monica, CA, USA : RAND Corporation .
O'Hanlon, M. E. (2010). Toughing It Out in Afghanistan. DC: Brookings Institution Press .
Ryan, D. (2007 ). Frustrated Empire : US Foreign Policy, 9/11 to Iraq. London, GBR : Pluto Press .
Tarzi, R. D. (2009). Explaining the Taliban’s Ability to Mobilize the Pashtuns. In R. D. Tarzi, The Taliban and the crisis of Afghanistan (p. 59). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Thistlethwaite, R. B. (2009, November 19). How to Make the Afghanistan War a “Just War”. Retrieved from Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/just_war.html
Wikipedia. (2009-Present). War in Afghanistan (2001–present). Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)