KEY FIGURES OF 8 THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN and 40 in Pennsylvania All 19 terrorists died Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network were believed to be responsible for the attacks the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in U S history In response to the attacks U S President George W Bush announced that the country would fight terrorism as the first war of the 21st century The United States also called on other governments to join it in an alliance against terrorism by sharing information and supporting each other s efforts to combat terrorist organizations Soon thereafter the United Nations UN Security Council passed a bind ing resolution requiring its member nations to pursue terrorists and their political and financial supporters Within a month the United States declared war on Afghanistan whose Taliban government it accused of sheltering bin Laden and his terrorist group By the end of the year the Taliban government had col lapsed but the fighting there continued In 2002 President Bush turned the world s attention to Iraq He accused the government of Iraq of having ties to terrorists and of ignoring a weapons ban that had been imposed on Iraq at the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 After the United States brought the matter before the UN in November 2002 Bush declared that Iraq was not cooperating with UN weapons inspectors While several member countries of the UN Security Council called for fur ther talks between the two sides the United States and Great Britain threatened to take military action against Iraq In March 2003 the talks came to an end and U S led troops invaded
INTRODUCTION 9 Although initially the United States believed it could produce quick victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq these wars are now among the longest wars in American history Public opinion from pri vate citizens to political leaders across the United States Europe and elsewhere has either steadfastly opposed or supported these wars Although at first there was little opposition to the war against Afghan istan strong voices have come out against the war in Iraq creating a global peace movement By June 2010 the United States had more troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq a trend that continued in 2011 when the U S military formally declared the end of its mission in Iraq and 2012 Events in 2014 however brought American forces back into Iraq to assist trapped refugees and to prevent the spread of insurgent attacks within and outside of Iraq The emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS and its brutal initiatives have stunned leaders and civil ians and pose significant threats Personalities and egos help shape conflict and the wars with Afghanistan and Iraq are no exception The biographies in this volume introduce some of the men and women charged with political and military leadership in these conflicts and describe their rise to power their specific roles leading up to or during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and their support or opposition to them They also demonstrate the vola tile nature of political leadership in Afghanistan and Iraq and the importance of
CHAPTER ONE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN Ihe Afghanistan War was an international conflict in Afghanistan beginning in 2001 that was triggered by the September 11 attacks and consisted of three phases The first phase toppling the Taliban the ultra conservative political and religious faction that ruled Afghanistan and provided sanctuary for al Qaeda perpetrators of the September 11 attacks was brief lasting just two months The second phase 2002 2008 involved a U S strategy of defeating the Taliban militarily and rebuilding core institutions of the Afghan state The third phase began in 2008 and acceler ated with U S Pres Barack Obama's 2009 decision to dramatically increase the U S troop presence in Afghanistan The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Afghan society 10
WAR IN AFGHANISTAN 11 PRE LUDE TO THE SE P TE MBE R 1 1 AT TA CKS The joint U S and British invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 was preceded by over two decades of war in Afghanistan On Dec 24 1979 Soviet tanks rum bled across the Amu Darya River and into Afghanistan ostensibly to restore stability following a coup that brought to power a pair of Marxist Leninist political groups the People s Khalq Party and the Banner Parcham Party But the Soviet presence touched off a nationwide rebellion by Islamist fighters who won extensive covert backing from Pakistan Saudi Arabia and the United States and who were joined in their fight by foreign volunteers The guerrilla war against UNITIAL b E VA A convoy of Soviet armoured vehicles crossing a bridge at the Soviet Afghan border May 21 1988 during the withdrawal of the Red Army from
