By Suraj Madiraju

Why we invaded Afghanistan The U.S. invasion in Afghanistan began because after 9/11, the U.S. government demanded that the Taliban turn in Osama Bin Laden and other leaders of al Qaeda (npr). The Taliban refused to turn in their leaders (npr). U.S. forces then commenced to “enter Afghanistan and lead the rebel Northern Alliance and other coalition forces to capture key cities” (npr).

Why We Invaded Afghanistan Cont... The Taliban then left Kabul (npr). The fight reached its peak in the battle of Tora Bora (npr). In this battle, the U.S. forces attacked the al- Qaeda members in a cave- like complex (npr). Despite this fact, Osama Bin Laden and other leaders escaped (npr).

Taliban vs. Al Qaeda Taliban BothAl Qaeda  The Taliban was founded by Mullah Mohammed Omar  Taliban began with religious students  Talib means student  The Taliban is restricted by region  Both Al Qaeda and the Taliban are Arabic  Both consist of Sunni Muslims who practice Wahabism which is a consevative and intolerant form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia  Al Qaeda was founded by Osama Bin Laden  Al Qaeda means base  Al Qaeda has no boundries e-between-taliban-and-al-qaeda/

From where did the Taliban come, and why did 9/11 happen? The Taliban emerged as a resistance against the Soviet troops after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (naz). The United States and Pakistan financed the Taliban, leading to heavy losses to the Soviets (naz).

From where did the Taliban come, and why did 9/11 happen? Cont… Nobody knows for sure why 9/11 happened. Some people believe that it was a plan by Bush to get an excuse to invade. Some people say that it was a plan by al Qaeda leaders to undermine the morale of the United States. However, it is clear that the purpose was to hit the economy/ government because if it was a mere terrorist attack, the bombers would have hit the Mall of America or an amusement park.

Effects of 9/11 “Millions of people were affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks — from physical and mental health problems to financial loss.” (nyc) Millions of Americans lost family members on September 11 Many Americans didn’t feel safe for weeks, months, or even years to come.

During the U.S. Invasion One of the major battles was at Kandahar, where the United States’ intent was “to take away from [the Taliban] access to the population where they are traditionally strongest. And that will take away from them some of their credibility as well as recruiting, funding, access to narcotics ( Schifrin) The fighting reached its peak in the battle of Tora Bora where we cornered the Taliban and al Qaeda. However, a majority of the leaders escaped (npr).

Impact of the U.S. Invasion Before the United States invaded Afghanistan, its population was million (CIA). Today, according to the CIA, Afghanistan’s population is 30,419,928. This means that the population has increased since then. However, at the beginning of the invasion, the population most likely plummeted.

Impact of the U.S. Invasion Cont… The human cost was about 4.9 million as of October of million post- invasion under 5 deaths “It has been estimated that the annual death rate is 7% for under-5 year old Afghan infants as compared to 4% for Poles in Nazi-occupied Poland and 5% for French Jews in Nazi-occupied France” (Polya)

Impact of the U.S. Invasion Cont… Deaths due to deprivation total to about 3.7 million “The US bombing and US-backed Pakistani Army offensive in NW Pakistan generated 2.5 million Pashtun refugees” (Polya) The male life expectancy was 42 for males and 43 for females (Polya)

Should We Have Invaded Afghanistan? Some people believe that we should not have invaded Afghanistan in the first place. According to Kelly, it is true that the Afghans wouldn’t turn in Bin Laden, but only withheld him because they wanted sufficient evidence that he was involved in the attack. According to CNN,

Should we have Invaded Afghanistan? Cont… The Taliban … refused to hand over bin Laden without proof or evidence that he was involved in last week’s attacks on the United States. … The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan … said Friday that deporting him without proof would amount to an ‘insult to “Islam’” (Kelly).

Fun Facts After 9/11, America was scared to pack a lot of people together so they moved the NFL season back a week. The Super Bowl used to be on the last week of January but is now played on the first week of February. The Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI (36) to win their first Super Bowl and to become the first team in history ever to win a Super Bowl in February.

Fun Facts Continued It took 99 days for the fires at Ground Zero to be completely extinguished Ron DiFrancesco was on the 81 st floor of the South Tower when the plane hit and he made it down and lived 20 people were pulled from the rubble alive (Leslie)

Sources afghanistan/ afghanistan/ ine/index.html ine/index.html pub.naz.edu/~aamghar6/History%20of%20the%20Taliban.htm pub.naz.edu/~aamghar6/History%20of%20the%20Taliban.htm factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html taliban-and-al-qaeda/ taliban-and-al-qaeda/ didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-9-11.html didn%E2%80%99t-know-about-9-11.html heart-taliban-country/story?id= heart-taliban-country/story?id=