The United States have invaded two Central Asian countries within the past decade. They invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and pushed into Iraq in 2003. American troops remain in both of those countries today, as we approach 2011. The invasion of Afghanistan was supported throughout the world while the invasion of Iraq was greatly opposed. The United States was justified and supported in invading Afghanistan, as they were pressed to retaliate for the September 11th attacks. However, their invasion of Iraq was not justified and not supported because the reasons for doing so did not appear and did not prove to be legitimate. In 2003, according to United States President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who teamed up to launch an Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, their goal was, ‘To disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s alleged support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.’ The United States reasoning behind and goal for invading Afghanistan was, ‘Removing the safe haven to Al Qaeda and its use of the Afghan territory as a base of operations for anti- United States terrorist activities.’
The invasion of Afghanistan took place in retaliation for the terrorist attacks carried out on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group Al Qaeda were deemed responsible for the attacks, and were using Afghanistan as a safe haven. The United States invaded Afghanistan on October 7th, 2001, a mission referred to as ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. The United States entered Afghanistan with only a few hundred troops, as they relied on the Northern Alliance to help them out. The Northern Alliance was lead by Massoud until he was killed, just days before 9/11, on September 9th, 2001. Hailing from Uzbekistan, Dostum became his successor and helped support the United States with his Uzbek and Tajik forces. On November 9th, 2001 the United States Green Beret Special Forces, along with Dostum and the Northern Alliance, seized Mazar Sharif and slaughtered thousands of Taliban forces. Those associated with the Taliban who survived fled to Kunduz as quickly as possible. Just a few days later, the Taliban as an army and as a governing body had been overthrown and run out of its own territory.
Even though the Taliban had been conquered the United States still considered Osama bin Laden and others members of Al Qaeda at large. Various members of Al Qaeda, including bin Laden and Zawaheri, fled southeast to Tora Bora after the Taliban was destroyed. The United States discovered the location of this group and had them cornered in a series of caves in Tora Bora. They bombarded these caves with daisy cutters and were almost certain that their main target, bin Laden, had been injured in the attack. The United States decided to send Afghani villagers in to retrieve bin Laden and others, instead of sending in American troops. They felt that the injured Al Qaeda members may surrender easier to Afghani people rather than Americans. However, this ended up being a major lapse in judgment and this decision gave bin Laden just enough time to escape. Al Qaeda and bin Laden paid off these Afghani troops to allow them enough time to flee from their known location. They fled across the border to Pakistan and into an area called F.A.T.A. This refers to Federally Administered Tribal Agencies, which consists of seven small provinces inside the mountainous region of Pakistan. It is mostly populated by wild Pashtun tribesmen, with each one run by an agent, and not considered a part of Pakistan. Since the F.A.T.A is not considered a part of Pakistan, the Pakistani military is forbidden from entering. The people living in the Pakistani F.A.T.A are very welcoming to guests and will accept and take in anyone that comes to them. They preach the idea of ‘melmastia’ which translates into ‘hospitality’ in English. When bin Laden and members of Al Qaeda showed up at the door of these Pashtun tribesmen, they were offered hospitality and were assured that they would not be turned in. It is believed that bin Laden and some of his followers remain there today, as the hospitality they received has not expired.
Although the September 11th attacks are the obvious reason for the United States invasion of Afghanistan, there is a history that led to them and that caused bin Laden carry out such a thing. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 25th, 1979, the United States, who hated the Soviets, took the approach that the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and supported Afghanistan. Although the United States supported Afghanistan now, they did not support them in the late 1960’s and 70’s, as they did not sponsor them when they needed weapons. However, once the Afghans were able to watch the Soviet Union collapse, they no longer needed support, and had also grown angry at the fact that the United States was supporting Israel. In 1989, Bin Laden became the head of foreign fighters and began to build up power as Al Qaeda was formed. In 1996, he began to set up bases in the Pashtun belt of eastern Afghanistan and the terrorist group Al Qaeda was taking shape. That same year, bin Laden issued a fetwa, or religious decree, calling upon Muslims everywhere to kill Americans because American taxpayers were helping to sponsor Israel. The first Al Qaeda attack took place in August of 1998 when two American embassies located in Africa, in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. Another was on the U.S.S. Cole, docked in Yemen, in the year 2000[1]. A while before, Ramzi bin Yusuf, nephew of Khaled Sheik Muhammed, planner of September 11th, attempted to blow up the World Trade Center in 2003. The major Al Qaeda attack that forced the United States to invade Afghanistan was that of September 11th, 2001. The main motive of Al Qaeda’s attack was in retaliation to the immense support that Israel receives from the United States, and the fact that they turned its back on Palestinians.
When the United States decided to invade Afghanistan, they approached the President of Pakistan, Musharraf. Pakistan, along with their intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, supported the Taliban and recognized it as a working government. Musharaff was told by the United States that Pakistan had to decide whether they would join the side of the United States or be against them, with continued support of the Taliban[2]. Musharaff wisely agreed to join the United States and was paid ten billion dollars for accepting. Pakistan helped out by putting troops along the border of Afghanistan to prevent Arabs from fleeing into their country. These people would be stopped and arrested, one of them being Khaled Sheik Muhammed, one of the major planners of September 11th[3]. Pakistan also allowed the United States to create and use bases in their country to set up Afghan raids. The United States getting Pakistan on their side was important in many ways. Along with getting support, the United States was also able to encourage the Pakistani Army to invade the F.A.T.A, something they were not authorized to do. They invaded two provinces, South Waziristan and Bajaur, in 2009, in hopes of conquering the Taliban and getting rid of what was left of Al Qaeda.
There were still a number of both Taliban and Al Qaeda forces located in Afghanistan. Most of them were living in a small area of the country, Shahi-Kot. The United States, alongside Afghan military forces, and various members of NATO, decided to launch an attack on this area in an attempt to destroy the remaining enemies. This occurred in March of 2002 and is called ‘Operation Anaconda’. A number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters had been killed and it seemed that the United States had succeeded. However, back when George W. Bush became president, former president Bill Clinton attempted to warn him about the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Bush put off the meeting until August of 2001, which ended up being too late, because he was more focused on Iraq. Even after the United States invaded Afghanistan, Bush still seemed to have a focus on Iraq. Soon after ‘Operation Anaconda’, in 2003, the Taliban began regaining confidence, and began to re-infiltrate throughout Afghanistan. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and made Afghanistan somewhat of an afterthought. The Taliban continued to renew their insurgency through 2005 and that is when the United States lost south Afghanistan.
In 2002, after ‘Operation Anaconda’, the United States had destroyed a large amount of Al Qaeda and the Taliban and was primed to strengthen Afghanistan as a country and keep terror out. The United States had a period of time during 2002 referred to as the ‘Window of Opportunity’ which would have allowed them to help uproot terrorism and rebuild Afghanistan. They had a chance to build schools and roads and similar things that would help Afghanistan function normally, and work as a way of creating organization and society, while keeping terrorist groups out. Another mistake was made by the United States as President Bush proclaimed ‘no nation building’ and decided against rebuilding Afghanistan. This proclamation by Bush was favored by the Taliban because they knew it would help them regain power and return to where they were prior to the fall of 2001 under Mullah Omar. President Bush turned his back on the war in Afghanistan, a war that was deemed necessary and was justified throughout the world. He decided that after a number of victories, that nothing else was really needed to be done. He turned the focus to Iraq, an invasion that was considered very controversial, while not being backed by many NATO members, and allowed the Taliban to re-infiltrate and regain the power that had been forced away from them.
The war on Al Qaeda was eventually diverted to socialist Iraq. Even before the September 11th attacks, President Bush had his sights set on invading Iraq. He had goals of taking out and ending the reign of Saddam Hussein, breaking off any connection to the Israel/Palestine peace talks, and rearranging the dominoes in the Middle East. Bush and the United States government did not have a clear cut reason to invade Iraq and under the provisions of NATO, they could not use warfare against a country unless it was in self-defense. Since Bush was focused on invading, he looked for ways to justify the action. The Bush Administration prodded United States intelligence to provide them with reasons for waging war on Iraq. However, they did not seem to have the answers as it was stated that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in charge of eighty-five percent of intelligence, while the CIA and other similar agencies only accounted for fifteen percent[4].
The Office of Special Plans was one intelligence group that worked hard at cherry picking information in order to obtain information that could help. On top of that, the United States received a great deal of intelligence from Israel. One of the main resources of intelligence they relied upon was from Chalabi, the head of the National Congress in Iraq and someone who opposed Saddam Hussein[5]. The intelligence gained was later used in a speech made by Colin Powell in the United Nations, a well respected man who the Bush Administration felt would help to sell the invasion of Iraq, convincing others that it was indeed necessary. In a speech written by John Hannah, Powell spoke very convincingly, leaving out all information that he felt was false. He stated that Iraq had predator drone planes that were able to reach across the Atlantic. Powell did seem to sway many people into thinking that the invasion of Iraq may in fact be justified. It was later determined that the intelligence received and presented was a hoax and Chalabi, an ally of the United States and the man they wanted to be in power in Iraq, was no longer a reliable source.
There were many factors that led to the desire of the United States and the Bush Administration to invade Iraq. These include the Iran/Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the Gulf War from 1990 to 1991, Saddam Hussein’s plan to assassinate George Bush Sr. in 1993, and the propaganda surrounding weapons of mass destruction. In the 1980’s, Saddam Hussein and the Sunnis dominated Iraq and decided to consolidate power and wage war on Iraq. Iraq allied with the Soviets as they received weapons and supplies. Since the United States was against the Soviet Union and the Soviets supported Iraq, they were against Iraq. During the Gulf War, American Foreign Policy controller April Glaspie told Saddam Hussein that the United States would not interfere with Arab to Arab conflict. This was yet another mistake made by the United States as Iraq soon invaded Kuwait in 1990 with 100,000 troops and annexed them from the map. However, in 1991 the United States invaded both Kuwait and Iraq, liberating Kuwait and wiping out the Iraqi army with total air dominance. The United States had a history of run-ins with Iraq but always seemed to be in control. After the Iraqi Army was wiped out, the United States put an embargo on Iraq that prevented any potentially dangerous goods from being shipped in. These were called Resolutions 661 and 687 while anything being shipped in that was involved with the military was confiscated by inspectors. These resolutions wiped out any chance of Hussein to create or develop nuclear weapons. The fact that the United States seemed to have a large amount of control over Hussein, with help of the United Nations, including Hans Blix of Sweden and other inspectors, it is puzzling that they still believed he had weapons of mass destruction.
The United States invaded Iraq under the title ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ in April of 2003. Turkey, a member of NATO, did not allow the United States to invade from their land so they invaded from the south, in Kuwait, aided by Great Britain. The United States got their man and captured Saddam Hussein in a spider hole in December of 2003, and eventually had him killed. However, the fact that they got the man they were looking for was not enough for them to cease fighting. Killing Saddam Hussein made both Iran and bin Laden very happy. By the summer of 2003, Sunnis were killing American troops; the United States had inadvertently ‘jihadified’ Iraq, while Iraq also became the country with the most suicide bombings. Jihads continued to pour into Iraq and Zarqawi became wanted by the United States[6]. He was in control of killing thousands of Americans and was being congratulated for it. Osama bin Laden invited Zarqawi to join Al Qaeda and in effect, Al Qaeda in Iraq was formed in 2004[7]. Soon after, a civil war in Iraq began between the Sunnis and the Shiites, with both sides continuing to kill Americans throughout. The Sunnis lost the civil war and by 2007, the Shiites controlled the majority of Baghdad. Fortunately, the war in Iraq finally began to turn and the United States announced in August of 2010 that they would cease fighting in Iraq. Three major reasons the war began to turn included a troop surge, the civil war dying down, and the Anbar Awakening of 2007. The Anbar Awakening was where the Sons of Iraq turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq, informed the United States of everything they knew about them including position and strategy and formed a 100,000 troop army to help fight alongside the Americans.
The United States invasion of Afghanistan was legitimate and had the backing of the majority of the world. The invasion was supported by NATO and various other countries because it was considered both retaliation and self defense. The United States reasoning and goal behind invading Afghanistan was to eliminate Al Qaeda’s safe haven and its use of the country as a means of harboring terrorism. These reasons proved to be justified. The invasion of Iraq, on the other hand, not only proved to be illegitimate and unjustified, but also ending up diverting the war in Afghanistan and allowing terrorists to re-infiltrate and regain power that had previously been taken away. The main reason for invading Iraq was to disarm the country of weapons of mass destruction, something that was proven they did not possess. This and other reasons for invading proved to be unjustified, and along with being a mistake, it ended up being quite diverting and distracting to other missions. The invasion of Afghanistan by the United States proved to be more rational, more legitimate, and more justified than the United States invasion of Iraq. The invasion of Afghanistan proved to be of necessity, while the invasion of Iraq proved to be of choice.