Afghanistan: Current Issues and U.S. Policy
Abstract
The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerge from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on Oct 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan during 1996 until its collapse in Dec 2001 at the hands of the U.S. and Afghan opposition military campaign. The defeat of the Taliban enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including bin Laden himself. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghan citizens are enjoying new personal freedoms that were forbidden under the Taliban. As U.S.-led combat against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force that is helping the new government provide security. To help foster development, the UN and the Bush Administration have lifted most sanctions imposed on Afghanistan since the Soviet occupation. The United States gave Afghanistan over $530 million in humanitarian and reconstruction aid during FY2002. Although the Northern Alliance emerged from the war as the dominant force in the country, the United States and UN mediators persuaded the Alliance to share power with Pashtun representatives in a broad-based interim government. On Dec 5, 2001, major Afghan factions signed an agreement to form an interim government that ran Afghanistan until a traditional national assembly ("loya jirga") was held June 11-19, 2002. The loya jirga delegates selected a new government to run Afghanistan for the next 18 months, and approved Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun, to continue as leader for that time.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 03, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA472840
Entities
People
- Kenneth Katzman
Organizations
- Library of Congress