20 Years of the September 11 Attacks and US Invasion of Afghanistan

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Twenty years of attack September 11 terror happen, United States of America have to swallow the bitter pill of reality because Afghanistan back in the grip Taliban.

Saturday (11/9) will mark the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on the land of ‘Uncle Sam’. Terror that hit three locations in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The two-decade anniversary of the 9/11 terror comes almost two weeks after the United States, aided by its allies, officially ended its invasion of Afghanistan in late August.

Unfortunately, the end of the two-decade US occupation of Afghanistan actually made the South Asian country fall again into the hands of the Taliban, which the Uncle Sam country had been trying to prevent.

Fight Terrorism

A week after the September 11 terror attacks, the then US president, George W Bush, declared a global war on terrorism. He is determined to use all US resources to crush global terrorism.

In the same week, Bush and the US Congress also approved a joint resolution concerning the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) which went into effect as law on September 18, 2001 until now.

The AUMF grants the president the authority to deploy the US military and all force against those deemed to have “planned, authorized, carried out and assisted” the September 11 terror attacks.

A month after the September 11 attacks, Bush decided to invade Afghanistan, a move that was widely supported by most Americans at the time.

The original goal of the US invasion of Afghanistan was to hunt down Al-Qaeda, and its leader, Osama bin Laden, as the main mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

At that time, Afghanistan was under the Taliban regime, which had close ties to Al-Qaeda.

Previously, Bush demanded the Taliban regime hand over members of Al-Qaeda including Bin Laden who was hiding in Afghanistan.

“The choice is between you and us, or you and the terrorists,” Bush said in an ultimatum to the Taliban regime and all countries in the world in a speech in September 2001.

However, the Taliban refused. Bush was furious and in October 2001 he decided that the US would invade Afghanistan, a month after the 9/11 terror attacks took place under the pretext of a global war on terrorism.

The US invasion of Afghanistan in fact went much more complicated than Bush’s original goal, hunting down Osama bin Laden. Instead of capturing Osama bin Laden, the US military in Afghanistan was distracted by their battle against the Taliban forces who were then in power.

Quoted Council on Foreign Relations, Bin Laden also briefly fled to Pakistan to avoid the US battle against the Al-Qaeda militia and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The US was also assisted by the Afghan militia, the Northern Alliance, in suppressing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Instead of killing Bin Laden, the US managed to oust the Taliban from the Afghan government just two months after its invasion of the country.

While hunting for Osama bin Laden, the US is helping Afghanistan form a new government and development in the country.

At the same time, the Taliban’s resistance to the US and allied occupation of Afghanistan continues. The group frequently launches suicide bombings and other attacks against Afghan and Western government forces.

Operation hunt and assassination of Osama bin Laden read on next page…