While Donald Trump was in office, his administration made an agreement with the Taliban to pull American troops out of Afghanistan by May first, 2021. After the election of Biden, the new administration wants to push the decision to September first.
The Taliban conquered most of Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew from there, after occupying it for around ten years. The reason the Taliban could conquer Afghanistan so easily was that the Soviets left Afghanistan in an economic wreck - and their intentions seemed to be to simply restore peace in the land that the Soviets had left in ruins. Soon though, they started enforcing Sharia (Islamic) law onto all of its citizens. They took the Sharia Law and twisted it to fit what they wanted to complete. The Taliban led by Osama Bin Ladin in 1996 declared war on the U.S. which led the U.S. to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrow the Taliban. But it wasn't completely overthrown, since many Taliban members and leaders just moved to Pakistan and are still a big political power. In the twenty-tens, there have been U.S. troops in Afghanistan making sure that the Taliban doesn't come back and gain control, and also an Afghani government.
In 2017 the Taliban sent a letter to President Trump asking him to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and he agreed. Now President Biden wants to change the date. I originally felt like U.S. troops shouldn't withdraw, it seems like this exact moment has happened in history before with the Soviets. There are a few differences though, the biggest one being that Afghanistan has a government that would be taking care of their people after the troops leave. The Taliban is not gaining power anymore, their power has been falling ever since bin Ladin was killed. I think it would be better to stay on the safe side and keep troops there, but Biden seems to think that there are other priorities to attribute time and energy to right now, which is completely valid. I haven't looked at what he wants to do once the troops are out (which might be the reason for my hesitation), but that's a subject for another blog ;)
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-taliban-who-they-are-what-they-want-2352797
Hi Eden,
ReplyDeleteI had not really paid much attention to this in the news lately but I do agree with Biden's decision. I think that having American troops in the region is not good and only aggravates the situation. Now that the ISIS and Bin Laden situations seem to have calmed down I do think that now would be a good time to pull out from the Middle East.