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A two-decade-long civil war which began as an insurgency against the former communist-led government in Kabul led to the surprising emergence of the Taliban as the leaders in Afghanistan. However, Taliban’s version of Islam & Islamic law has only created trouble for Afghanistan, since its emergence. The U.S. war on Afghanistan is a brutal attack on a country that has already been almost destroyed by more than 20 years of foreign invasion and civil war.' The Soviet occupation, which lasted from 1979 to 1989, left more than a million people dead. Millions still live in refugee camps More than 500,000 orphans are disabled.
Ten million land mines still litter the country, killing an average of 90 people per month. At 43 years, life expectancy in Afghanistan is on average 17 years lower than that for people in other developing countries. The countryside is devastated and is currently experiencing a severe drought, with 7.5 million people threatened with starvation. The death and destruction wrought by the U.S. bombing campaign-and the cut off of food aid deliveries it has caused-have already killed hundreds and produced thousands more refugees scrambling to escape into Pakistan. In 1979, the Soviet Union launched an invasion of the country in order to prop up a pro-communist regime in Kabul. The United States and Pakistan played leading roles backing various Afghan guerrilla forces, known collectively as "mujahideen" (religious warriors), which gradually wore down the Soviet occupying force. Afghanistan's civil war continued after a Soviet pullout in 1989 as various mujahideen factions fought to fill the power vacuum. In the past four years, a newer group of mujahideen called the Taliban has gained control of most of Afghanistan. The movement got a significant boost from the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, which reportedly provided extensive organizational, logistical, and material support to the Taliban militia. The core leadership of the Taliban is from the Pashtun ethnic group, the largest single group in Afghanistan but still a minority of the population. The Taliban captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 1996, and then took control of all but the Panjshir Valley and other smaller areas in northern Afghanistan. They had imposed a highly restrictive form of Islamic law throughout Afghanistan which Muslim and non-Muslim observers had described as inhumane. The Taliban promised to put an end to the factional warfare that had claimed thousands of lives in the years following the defeat of the country's Soviet puppet government in 1991. The Taliban imposed an extremely repressive, sectarian Islamic regime on the Afghan people, barring women from work and education and even killing Shiite Muslims of the Hazari minority. Osama bin Laden, who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Afghans against the Soviet Union and who was a hero of the 'jihad' found a haven in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. Although not an Afghan, bin Laden soon bound the Taliban leadership to him through his great wealth, military assistance and marriage. Taliban welcomed him back to Afghanistan in 1996 after his expulsion from the Sudan. Bin Laden has reportedly cemented his ties to the Taliban leadership through his daughter's marriage to its leader, Mullah Omar. But more importantly, his "Arab Afghan" fighters have played a leading role in the Taliban's ongoing military campaign against its opponents. The Taliban's elite brigade was trained in Bin Laden's camps, and is believed to be loyal to the terrorist's "Al Qaida" movement. To oppose the Taliban, who are not purely Afghans; some of the mujahideen factions regrouped and formed the Northern Alliance. This front, which has never controlled more than 10 percent of the country, has fought the Taliban for six years without much success. Ironically, the most important leader of that alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud -- the man who really led the battle against both the Soviet Union and the Taliban -- was assassinated by terrorists only 36 hours before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. After the Taliban had seized power and control in the country several human rights activists and feminist groups had been lobbying the American government for some time regarding the repressive Taliban regime. Until they wanted to get Osama, the American government had paid little attention to the human rights abuses of the Taliban. Suddenly, justification for a military strike against the Taliban was found through the anti-Taliban human rights lobbyists and America went to war to free the Afghanis from the oppressive Taliban and destroy Bin Laden’s terrorist network. In the pursuing weeks leading up the invasion of Afghanistan, a plethora of new ‘evidence’ was produced, sometimes evidence which seemed completely contradictory, all pointing to and proving Bin Laden and his ‘network’ were responsible for the terrorist attacks in the US and the compliance of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. American diplomacy amongst the world community seeking endorsement of the invasion of Afghanistan shifted into ‘overdrive’ and when it seemed to fail President Bush adopted a more aggressive and polemical ‘with us or against us’ rhetoric as he declared a ‘crusade’ against terrorism. After lengthy ‘carpet bombing’ by American and British planes which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Afghan civilians, the US was losing the propaganda war for its attack on Afghanistan and so ground troops were employed. Within a few months America declared its operation a success and it declared the demise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It soon began talking about rebuilding Afghanistan and establishing democracy. But somehow efforts are still seen going invain. Starting from 2001, U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, troops have remained in Afghanistan, but their presence has only worsened the condition of Afghanistan. This, coupled with frustrations about the central government's failure to follow through with promises of development, created an environment for the Taliban to regain its influence. According to Sam Zarifi of Human Rights Watch, "People don't really like the Taliban but they don't feel like the government can provide them with anything." He also added that the Taliban offer an alternative to foreign influence in the region. "They are angry and frustrated with the heavy handed tactics by the U.S. and NATO forces." The Taliban have been taking out their frustration and anger by continuous attacks on the U.S. and NATO forces. They have yet not decided to surrender. And recently, 100 Taliban fighters used mines, rockets and gunfire to stage a "complex" ambush of a French convoy, east of Kabul, killing 10 French soldiers. It was the worst combat-related loss of life for the French military since a suicide bombing in Lebanon in 1983. The attack came at a time when France was considering to send another 3,000-strong contingent in eastern Afghanistan. However, in response to the assault, French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Kabul to reassure French forces. And reassured that his determination to send in more troops to Afghanistan remained intact. It was also the worst single loss in combat for troops from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan since US-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. And this ambush took to 24 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Accompanied with the Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Defence Minister Herve Morin and the French armed forces chief, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, Nicolas Sarkozy, told the French troops, “I have come to share your grief, to join in with your indescribable pain ... as do the whole French people, which have been shaken by the heavy toll from this ambush.” Sarkozy had sent extra 700 troops to Afghanistan this year, responding to US pleas for its NATO allies to do more to help check the resurgent Taliban. That brought the number of French troops in Afghanistan to about 2,600. Sarkozy said the work the troops were doing was vital. “A part of the world’s freedom is at stake here. This is where the fight against terrorism is being waged,” he said. “We are not here against the Afghans. We are with the Afghans so as not to leave them alone in the face of barbarism.” In a visit which lasted a few hours, Sarkozy first paid his respects to the dead soldiers. He then visited the 21 French soldiers wounded in the battle and held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai before leaving the country. Thus analyzing the condition of Afghanistan from stage 1, it is evident that the poor natives have been suffering hard and have no place to turn to. This means, no matter what the outcome, the war is certain to lay the grounds for more "blowback" in the future, therefore it should end. 
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