WASHINGTON – Almost two decades after the United States invaded Afghanistan, the country’s capital fell under Taliban control.
And only weeks before the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops, the American flag at the US Embassy in Kabul was removed and most of the embassy staff was relocated to the city airport.
Chaotic reports stemming from Kabul have limited more than two decades of U.S. efforts in the country to eradicate terrorism and turn the nation into a functioning democracy. Thousands of American lives and nearly $ 830 billion in official spending, those efforts resulted in failure.
How Afghanistan, a country devastated by decades of conflict, arrived in this place is a long and arduous journey.
More:After two decades and billions spent, the Afghan government collapses when the Taliban occupy Kabul
Here is the timeline of the Afghan end of the 20th century, which led to the American invasion, by the latest action there:
April 1979: In the Saur Revolution, or April Coup, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan assassinated Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan.
December 1979: The Soviets invaded Afghanistan to support the government, which was facing an internal insurgency.
At the beginning of 1989: As the Soviet Union disintegrated, the military withdrew, leaving Afghan forces to take the lead in fighting the American-funded insurgency. U.S. intelligence estimates that more than 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in the decades-long war. The Soviets retained advisers in the Afghans and continued to fund the military.
1992: The American CIA, which supported the Afghan rebel groups, withdrew its help. The Russians have also cut funding. The pro-Russian government was overthrown, and Afghanistan fell into a bloody civil war, setting the stage for the Taliban takeover four years later.
1994: The Taliban, or “students” in Pashto, are descended from Islamist fighters in Pakistan and Afghanistan who fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan for more than a decade. That conflict ended in 1989.
1996: After a two-year civil war, much of Afghanistan comes under the control of the Taliban, who are establishing fundamentalist policies and widespread human rights repression.
September 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists hijacked commercial planes to carry out terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. Terrorists planned, trained and directed attacks from Afghanistan.
October 7, 2001: Forces from the United States and the United Kingdom are launching Operation Permanent Freedom, a campaign to bomb Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
December 17, 2001: U.S. and Allied forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda is splitting up.
April 17, 2002: President George W. Bush is calling for a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan.
March 20, 2003: The United States is invading Iraq, diverting military resources and attention from Afghanistan.
February 17, 2009: President Barack Obama is again sending US forces to Afghanistan to fight the “revived” Taliban.
March 27, 2009: Obama is announcing a new strategy for Afghanistan, linking the group’s return to parts of the country with the Pakistani Taliban. He calls for greater cooperation from Pakistan.
December 1, 2009: Obama announces that 30,000 additional troops will be sent to Afghanistan on top of the 68,000 already stationed in the country, which is later known as the “jump.”
May 2, 2011: Obama announces that the U.S. military and CIA agents have successfully found and killed Osama bin Laden.
June 22, 2011: Obama announces a reduction in the number of troops in Afghanistan.
December 5, 2011: World leaders gather in Bonn, Germany to discuss how to build a roadmap for the future of Afghanistan. The American and Western allies are investing billions in investments to support the development of the Afghan government.
May 27, 2014: Obama announces a plan to completely withdraw troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.
September 4, 2014: NATO is issuing a joint statement stating that Afghan security forces will “take full responsibility for the country’s security” by the end of the year. The international coalition ends operations in Afghanistan, the US continues its own battle.
August 21, 2017: President Donald Trump warns against the “hasty” withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan which would “create a vacuum”. Trump said he shared the “frustration” of Americans with foreign wars, assuring us that “we are not rebuilding the state; we are killing terrorists.”
September 7, 2019: Trump cancels US-Taliban peace talks which began in late 2018.
February 29, 2020: President Donald Trump is negotiating with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops by May 1, 2021.
November 17, 2020: The Pentagon is announcing plans to reduce troop numbers to 2,500 in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last days of the Trump administration.
New Supreme Commander:Trump claims that the withdrawal of Afghanistan would be “much more successful” if he were president. Would you?
April 14, 2021:Announced by President Joe Biden that the complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan will be completed by 9/11.
May 1: The United States begins the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
July 6:The United States is evacuating Bagram Airport, the largest military facility in the country since the 2001 invasion.
August 6: The provincial capitals are beginning to fall under the Taliban.
August 8: The capitals of Sar-e-Pul, Kunduz and Taloqan provinces belong to the Taliban.
August 11: The fall of the provincial capitals Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces in the northeast and Farah province in the west.
Who are the Taliban? Many fear that the Taliban will abolish Afghan human rights again, support terrorism
August 13: The district’s second largest city, Kandahar, the cultural center and foundation of the Taliban, belongs to a fundamentalist group.
August 14: The fourth largest city in the country, Mazar-e-Sharif, belongs to the Taliban.
August 15: Kabul, the capital of the country, falls under the Taliban. The Afghan president is fleeing the country, the government is collapsing. US Embassy in Kabul evacuated.
More:Taliban progress in Afghanistan tests Biden’s foreign policy promise “America is back”
Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.
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