Historian's Corner

Dr. Mark Folse has taught history at Shelton State Community College, the University of Alabama, the United States Naval Academy, and Marine Corps University’s College of Distance Training and Education. He was the Class of 1957 Research Fellow at the Naval Academy from 2018-2020 where he taught Navy and Marine Corps history. Mark Folse is also a U.S. Marine infantry veteran (2002 - 2006) with service in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The George W. Bush Administration aimed to eradicate al Qaeda, find the terrorists responsible for the attacks, and destroy all terrorist support groups and safe havens.

The Taliban, a ruthless and zealously devout group of religious students, entered the fray in the mid-1990s. They fought to bring peace to Afghanistan via Shari’a law and by 2001, had gained control over most of the country through conquest. The Taliban’s ultra-religious conservatism and their fusion of Islamic religion with law and politics, known as Islamism, attracted Osama bin Laden, the leader of the international terrorist organization al Qaeda.

Like the Taliban, bin Laden believed that only through devout Islam and Shari’a law could lasting stability and peace be achieved. The Taliban, however, cared little about the outside world and fought mainly to control Afghanistan. Al Qaeda held global ambitions that included waging a worldwide jihad (holy war) against the United States and her allies, such as Israel and Great Britain. They planned and executed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.

Under the Taliban’s protection, al Qaeda planned and set in motion the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When President Bush demanded that the Taliban handover bin Laden, they refused.

Pakistan’s President Parvez Musharraf succumbed to international pressure and granted overflight rights and territorial access to U.S. forces as needed. The State Department then convinced the Uzbekistan government to allow the military the use of Karshi Khanabad airbase for staging and logistical purposes.

In exchange for large sums of money, they would help U.S. troops destroy the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Regional cooperation and indigenous forces would prove crucial in the upcoming campaign. After a bombing campaign that lasted from October 7-9 2001, U.S. Special Forces teams termed Task Force Dagger inserted into Afghanistan, linked up with the anti-Taliban militias, and began combat operations.

This mix of unconventional forces, Northern Alliance troops, and air power proved too much for the Taliban. They abandoned the key cities of Mazar-e Sharif on November 10 and Kabul on November 13, 2001. The Taliban fled Kandahar on December 7, 2001.

From December 3-17, 2001, U.S. Special Forces and their allies besieged the complexes with the aid of intense aerial bombardments. They cleared the caves, killing many of its defenders, but many others, including bin Laden, slipped into Pakistan to fight another day.

By the spring of 2002, U.S., NATO, and anti-Taliban forces had toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan and destroyed al Qaeda’s ability to use the country as a base of terrorist operations. Many U.S. commanders and government leaders claimed victory, but to the surviving Taliban who fled to Pakistan, the war was far from over.

As U.S. troops, diplomats, and contractors worked to rebuild Afghanistan into a democracy, replete with a representative government and a national army, the Taliban reorganized and regrouped. They launched significant insurgencies during the Obama administration. By 2011, Osama bin Laden had been eliminated, but the Taliban fought on. President Barack Obama officially ended Operation Enduring Freedom in 2014, but troops would remain on the ground, assisting the Afghan security forces to fight the Taliban, until August 2021.