How Afghani History Repeated Itself After 25 years

By: M. Goncalves 

 
Back in 1996, shortly after a brutal Afghani civil war that claimed the lives of around 241,000 people, the self-proclaimed political party known as the Taliban took over Afghanistan. The Taliban, meaning students in Arabic, is a group that claims to be a political party who has vowed to cease corruption in their native Afghanistan in 1996. Feeling the need to implement their new rules, the Taliban forcefully seized over 3 quarters of the country, while putting the president at the time, Burhanuddin Rabbani on exile to be able to run the country with no restraint.  
 
The Taliban rule lasted around 5 years, in 2001 the US military drove them out following one of the most dreadful events to take place in recent history, one which took the lives of nearly 3,000 civilians and law enforcement officers, the infamous twin tower attack. Named after its date, this world-renowned terrorist attack is often called 9/11.  
 
Osama Bin Laden was a former member of his native Pakistani military, who had set up base in Afghanistan for Al-Qaeda, a group widely regarded as a terrorist organization which was both founded and led by Bin Laden. Fearing that more deadly attacks would take place in US soil, the American military removed the Taliban from power as they believed there was no control over the country, increasing chances of more terrorist attacks. From then on, the US supported all Afghani presidents and stationed many troops on the area to prevent a possible takeover of the government. 
 
Unfortunately, this did not last. In August 2021, American president Joe Biden made the decision to remove all US troops from Afghanistan, as he felt Americans shouldn’t be risking their lives for foreign citizens. This led to the Taliban overthrowing the Afghani government and once again implementing their laws in accordance with their beliefs.  
 
During a press conference addressing the issue Biden said, “To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask, what is the vital national interest?” Biden has made it clear he is not willing to risk American lives to protect a foreign country, even though that could have catastrophic repercussions, like that of 9/11.  
 
The Taliban is still in control of Afghanistan, and what measures the US will take to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, are still to be determined. Though one thing is for certain, a part of history has repeated itself with the Taliban overthrow, however, only time will tell if this repetition will continue and what problems will it cause.