Afghanistan War Facts

The Afghanistan War began after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Shortly after the US would launch its war on terror and American and British armed forces would make it their goal to take Al-Qaeda, the terrorists responsible for the attack, down. The forces were on their way to Afghanistan with the objective of taking down the Taliban government and replacing it with a democratic one. Among the Afghanistan war facts that remained controversial is the legality of the invasion which is still disputed today.

In the first weeks alone the American and British forces had great success, and already during those first weeks Taliban leaders and officials started fleeing to neighboring Pakistan. Al-Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden soon became the most wanted man on the FBIs most wanted list. The initial motivation to go to war was to bring Al-Qaeda members to justice. However the war has been going on for far longer than anyone expected as the Taliban have proven themselves strong opponents because of their advantages of knowing the land they're fighting in, their ability to conceal themselves among the locals and maybe most important of all their ability to wage guerrilla warfare. Among the prominent Afghanistan war facts are the civil casualties caused by the US forces in the country.

In 2011 under the Obama administration a team of Special Forces killed the leader of Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden. Because of the cost of this war, which increases with every year the US declared that they will be pulling out most troops in 2011, around 10 000 in total. Even though Bin Laden has been killed there are still reasons to why the US has to remain in Afghanistan, the main reason is that the current government under President Hamid Karzai can't handle the remaining Taliban groups which still regularly terrorize the people of Afghanistan with frequent attacks and bombings.