Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

What was the point of the war in Afghanistan?

What was the point of the war in Afghanistan?

On 7 October 2001 President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom – the invasion of Afghanistan. The operation sought to bring the architects of 9/11 to justice and reduce the threat of terrorism.

Twenty years later, President Joe Biden has pledged to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by 31 August, bringing to a close the United States’s longest-ever conflict – known colloquially as ‘the forever war’.
But Biden, who supported the invasion, is pulling out at a time when the Taliban – the highly-conservative Islamic organisation that was harbouring al-Qaeda in 2001 – is sweeping through half the country, killing civilians and human-rights defenders and besieging three cities. The US withdrawal, at a time of grave uncertainty, reinforces the futility of its involvement in the first place.

Violence in Afghanistan was already increasing in May, when this final phase of the American withdrawal began. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of ‘huge consequences’ if the US army departed, and one of her predecessors, Condoleezza Rice, predicted that America would be forced to return to the country.

Given the Taliban’s recent military ascendence and its continued persecution of its opponents, it’s probable that the gains made by the fledgling Afghan state – such as in women’s rights – will soon be lost. Biden, who pledged to ‘protect and empower women around the world’ during his campaign for the presidency, will be very aware that forced marriages and sexual slavery could soon follow.

Biden defends the withdrawal on two grounds. The first is that a continued military presence is no longer in American interests. In an address last month, he maintained that the country has more pressing concerns: the coronavirus pandemic, the cyber-security threat, climate change, and what he described as a ‘strategic competition with China’.

Biden’s second justification – that the US is leaving because it has accomplished its original aims – is much more tenuous. In last month’s address, he maintained:

Bin Laden might be dead, but his organisation remains. According to Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat in the Middle East who now monitors al-Qaeda and the Taliban for the United Nations, ‘the al-Qaeda senior leadership is present in Afghanistan, present and co-located with the Taliban.’

Under the terms of the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban, signed in Doha in February 2020, the Taliban are obliged to sever ties with al-Qaeda. Fitton-Brown, however, says that ‘the Taliban links to al-Qaeda are close. There is no suggestion that the Taliban has done anything substantive or decisive to live up to its obligations to suppress any future threat from al-Qaeda.’

In other words, if the Taliban do regain power, the US will be leaving Afghanistan in the kind of state that prompted it to invade in the first place.

Even Biden, who is trying to justify withdrawing from Afghanistan, does not anticipate good faith from the Taliban. Asked by journalists if he trusted the group, he replied, ‘Is that a serious question? No, I do not. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military’

Biden also has an emotive argument. ‘How many thousands more of America’s daughters and sons are you willing to risk?’ he asked his detractors. ‘How long would you have them stay?’

There is logic to Biden’s move, especially if you believe that the only long-term solution to instability in Afghanistan is an intra-Afghan peace deal. The trouble is, the Taliban seem in a bellicose mood.

The US withdrawal might be the least-bad option, but it emphasises the pointlessness of the war. The American army is leaving a country it should never have entered, at a time when Afghanistan faces an existential threat that would return it to the pre-intervention status quo.

This is a war that has cost the US two trillion dollars. Thousands of Afghan and Nato troops have died. It led to the establishment of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Regardless of whether or not it is the right decision, the US withdrawal prompts the question – what was it all for?
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×