Today in History: USA begins assault / occupation in Afghanistan

In what I personally consider to be one of the stupidest ideas that the United States has undertaken in a military sense, the entire organization that the US at one point supported both militarily and financially became public enemy number one in the eyes of the USA leadership. I'm referring to the Taliban of course.

While plenty of threats were thrown around regarding the surrender of the Taliban's top leadership over the September 11th attack in New York City, I kinda think that the decisions had already been made to occupy the country. The full-scale occupation wouldn't occur until some time later, but the covert ops and aerial bombing campaigns began today.

They year was 2001

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_{actual photo from 7-Oct, 2001}

It was entitled "Operation Enduring Freedom" and this was just one of the many dumb names that were chosen for the endless amount of operations that have taken place since that day. It's difficult to imagine that the might of the most powerful military force the world has ever known is actually completely incapable of defeating an enemy that is using antiquated technology and has a loose-knit operation at best.

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It is really remarkable that the States didn't take heed to the readily available information that had only recently happened. The might of the 2nd largest military force in the world had failed to accomplish this near exact task over the course of nine years. The Russians finally called it quits in 1989 and to me this would be a clear sign that maybe, just maybe, trying the same thing might not be the best idea. You may recall that the United States was a major financier of the Afghan rebels and even painted them as heroes in various films such as Rambo 3.

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To be fair, the soldiers in Rambo 3 were not the Taliban (they were Mujahedeen) as the Taliban did not exist at the time. However, there is no denying this group of non-government forces are similar in a way. The point is that these disorganized and poorly-equipped groups have proven they are capable of resisting an attack by a major military.

Often referred to as "The Forgotten War," the occupation of Afghanistan is the longest armed conflict the United States has ever been involved in. I personally know several people that have done tours in Afghanistan and some of them are pretty messed up now as they suffer from severe PTSD. You only have the hear a few stories about how they were talking to someone one second and then saw them die, right next to them, the next... to kind of understand how that would mess someone up a bit.

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The USA and NATO have trained the Afghan Military and provided them with weapons and money and what not but even though this isn't an official government standpoint, I believe it is widely understood that if the United States were to leave Afghanistan, this force would crumble rather quickly and the Taliban would gain control of the country again.

Around 2005, the focus of the United States military turned to Iraq (another fiasco) and the world kind of forgot that the US military is actually still in Afghanistan with troop numbers ranging from 14,000 to 25,000 or so over the years. In a recent tweet a soldier who had recently returned from the country he said something along the lines of

"We are fighting men in flip-flops that have 50-year old AK-47's living in caves with no electricity or water, and they are winning"

Personally, i think it is a terrible tragedy that the US ever went there and I don't think it really looks very hopeful that they will ever be able to fully leave.

The media rarely even talks about Afghanistan anymore because there is far too much important stuff like Trump talking to Ukrainian leaders or how silly Boris Johnson's hair looks today to focus on soldiers dying in what sometimes appears to be a senseless occupation.

It's hard to imagine but someone who was born the day the first bombs were dropped in Afghanistan is now old enough to vote and consequently, join the military to go over and fight in Afghanistan.