WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AFGHANISTAN

What exactly is the Taliban? The Taliban is a religious/political movement and military organization in Afghanistan that emerged in the early 1990s. During this period, the Taliban put in place strict fundamentalist Islamic rules, known as Sharia law. These rules didn’t allow television or music, stopped girls from going to school, and forced women to wear head-to-toe coverings. Spreading quickly, by 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan.

Of course, the Taliban changed the lives of those in Afghanistan. But the organization's takeover also had consequences in other parts of the world. The Taliban's rule allowed fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda to take root in Afghanistan. And in 2001, Al Qaeda launched the now infamous 9/11 terrorist attack against the United States.

In response to the attack, the United States began to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan. President George W. Bush authorized the use of force against those responsible for attacking the United States on 9/11. On Oct. 7, 2001, the U.S. military, with British support, began a bombing campaign against Taliban forces, officially launching Operation Enduring Freedom. Canada, Australia, Germany, and France also gave support, and the Taliban faced pressure from home-grown resistance movements. In response to the overwhelming wave of opponents, the Taliban was forced to give up their rule in Afghanistan.

For twenty years, that was the state of affairs in Afghanistan; the U.S. troops kept order while bolstering the legitimate Afghanistan government, strengthening it so that it would be able to hold its own against the Taliban in the future. But structural problems, including corruption, made it difficult for the legitimate Afghan government to stay strong. Nevertheless, many Afghans, as well as U.S. citizens,- were tired of the perpetual U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. As a result, the Trump Administration officially set a deadline for the U.S. military to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

When the Biden Administration took office in November 2020, they decided to move that date up to August 31.

But the Taliban hadn't gone away during those 20 long years. Instead, they mounted a resistance movement in response to the U.S. withdrawal, and in a shocking development, on Aug. 15, 2021, Taliban fighters overran the capital, Kabul, with little to no resistance. They took over the presidential palace hours after President Ghani left the country.

The next day, President Biden defended the withdrawal, arguing that the U.S. counterterrorism mission was complete. Importantly, he noted that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan was to prevent terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda from threatening the United States, not to "nation-build," or create a new Afghan government.

Meanwhile, the United States sent six thousand troops to evacuate U.S. and allied personnel and secured Kabul’s international airport, where chaos erupted as thousands of Afghans attempted to evacuate. Biden said that the military would help evacuate the Afghans, and he expanded refugee-status access for vulnerable Afghans.

On August 26, two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, and many were injured as they attempted to flee the country.

Roughly 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan between the early mornings of August 26 and August 27. White House officials said that since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 105,000 people out of Afghanistan. Since the end of July, approximately 110,600 people have been relocated.

When the U.S felt threatened by an Islamic State suicide bomber, they made a tragic mistake. They believed the bomber posed an imminent threat to the U.S.-led troops at the airport during the last stages of withdrawal. The U.S. attacked with a drone strike. After the attack, the U.S found out that it was unlikely that those killed were members of the local Islamic State affiliate, ISIS-Khorasan, or that they posed a threat to U.S. troops. Rather, 10 innocent civilians died, which included 7 children.

The history of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is a long and complicated one. There's room for a multitude of opinions about the Afghanistan occupation and withdrawal, but right now, the focus is on rescuing more Americans and Afghan citizens from the Taliban occupation.