When Elephants Fight (10 page)

The United States, acting with the approval of many of its allies, launched a series of cruise missiles against al-Qaeda training camps in response to the bombing of the embassies. This action had very limited success and, in some ways, simply elevated this terrorist group in status and emboldened them by making them believe that the international community would not take significant actions.

The members of al-Qaeda had vowed to take the war across the ocean and strike at the United States on its territory. This threat became reality when four airplanes were hijacked on September 11. These planes crashed into both of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and the fourth plane crashed before reaching its target, also in Washington.

The initial reaction of this massive attack, which resulted in the loss of over two thousand lives, was stunned disbelief. Not since Pearl Harbor had there been such a massive and coordinated attack on American soil. And in this attack almost all the fatalities were civilians, including the indiscriminate deaths of women and children. In that instant the world community became galvanized, and the entire world condemned the loss of innocent human life.

The reaction of the world community was strong and instant. On September 18, the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution demanding that the Taliban turn
over those people responsible for the September attack. The Taliban government requested proof of its involvement and again refused to follow this direction, but some attempts to negotiate through a third party were initiated. These attempts were seen as insincere by the western world.

While the political diplomatic process continued, members of the American and British Special Forces began to infiltrate Afghanistan and link up with the Northern Alliance, a group within the country which had been at ongoing war with the Taliban. On October 7, a massive aerial bombing campaign began, which targeted al-Qaeda training bases, military targets and airports. Next they targeted communication and control assets. While this barrage was militarily successful, there were undoubtedly large numbers of civilian deaths, and the country, already poor and lacking in infrastructure, was further weakened.

At the same time the Northern Alliance began a stepped-up campaign against the Taliban, attacking its positions. These attacks gained limited success until the Western powers directed air power against the Taliban positions, destroying equipment, killing fighters and providing accurate information to help direct the Northern Alliance attacks. By the beginning of November, the Taliban forces were decimated, and the combined Northern Alliance forces surged through the lines and made their way to the capital. Kabul was taken and cities across the country fell from Taliban hands, with the brunt of its forces retreating to the southeast, surrounding the city of Kandahar.

All through the assault US Special Forces troops had been on the ground to assist the Northern Alliance. At the end of November, there was a major influx of US combat troops. By December the last of the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces were killed, subdued, went underground, or fled the country and took refuge in the mountain areas of Pakistan. Thousands of US and allied troops were now stationed in the country to try to provide a stable environment for the creation of an interim government.

In December, Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun and the leader of the Populzai clan, was named head of the interim government. In June, 2002, he formally became president. This position and his legitimacy were further confirmed in October, 2004, when the first elections were held and he was elected president.

The defeat of the Taliban, the ousting of al-Qaeda and the democratic election of a president have not, however, led to stability within the country. The US-led coalition continued to contribute large
numbers of troops, equipment and expertise to support the government. It was highly questionable if the government could maintain order without the support of these external forces. Attacks have been continually launched on government forces, and large parts of the country remain under only marginal control of the central government.

In 2006 the US-led coalition was formally replaced by a UN-mandated force—the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is composed of NATO countries. This was the first time that NATO, created for the defense of Europe, had operated outside of Europe.

Over 30,000 NATO soldiers, from thirty-seven countries, are in the ISAF and are serving in Afghanistan. They are in the country, with the approval of the government, to give assistance to the Afghanistan army to provide stability, fight Taliban and al-Qaeda forces and allow the government to retain power and create an environment for the country to be stabilized and rebuilt and to continue to develop.

In August, 2006, a major offensive involving Afghanistan and NATO forces was believed to have killed over two thousand Taliban fighters and once again provided a further opportunity for Afghans to govern themselves.

While the fall of the Taliban forces took place over six years ago, the coalition forces have discovered what all other previous armies had discovered: taking the country is difficult, but holding it is even more challenging.

The United States and the Soviet Union were allies in World War II, acting to defeat Nazi Germany. At the conclusion of the war, having defeated this enemy, the two former allies found themselves politically and ideologically opposed to each other. There were fears in Western Europe that the Soviet Union and its allies would turn against them. In response, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949. This was composed of Canada, the United States and ten European countries—the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.

At the center of this treaty was an agreement that an attack on any country would be considered an attack on every country. This was considered a major deterrent to any of these countries being attacked by the Soviet Union or its allies.

In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined NATO. In 1955, West Germany was added and finally Spain in 1982.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Warsaw Pact dissolved. In fact, many of the former Warsaw Pact members pursued democracy and asked if they could become members of NATO.

This shift in power left NATO without a purpose. There was no longer a clearly defined reason for its existence, and with the subsequent efforts of many former Warsaw Pact countries to pursue democracy, there was no longer a military force capable of challenging NATO in Europe. There were questions concerning the very purpose of NATO, and whether it should also be dissolved. However, it did have a distinct purpose in supporting and replacing UN forces in both Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1999 in the continued battles within the former Yugoslavia, in pursuing a policy of actively protecting human rights and creating an environment where peace could take root.

NATO's involvement in Afghanistan is the first instance where this organization has left Europe and taken on a very active role in another region. Its actions in Afghanistan are not so much in maintaining peace, but in actively fighting against an armed force and trying to destroy that enemy, and thereby create an atmosphere where Afghanistan can survive, rebuild and prosper.

It is significant that while Afghanistan is almost exclusively Muslim, all NATO members, with the exception of Turkey, are Christian countries. NATO's involvement has led to further claims by al-Qaeda and other Muslim organizations that it is, in some ways, a modern-day crusade against the Muslim faith.

Afghanistan is almost exclusively Muslim, and the region is officially known as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The vast majority of these Muslims, over 80 percent, are Sunni, while almost 19 percent are Shi'a. The conflict between these two groups has become very pronounced, even leading to deadly violence in many Middle Eastern countries.

The official languages of Afghanistan are Afghan Persian (or Dari), which is spoken as the first language of 50 percent of the population, and Pashtu, which is the first language of 35 percent of the population. Other languages, including Uzbek and Turkmen, make up the next largest language groups. There are more than a dozen other less popular languages, and many people speak more than one language, including either Afghan Persian or Pashtu or both.

Afghan women and children outside their tent in a camp for displaced people outside Kabul
.

The largest ethnic group is the Pashtun, who make up over 40 percent of the population; the Tajik are over 25 percent, and large numbers of Uzbek and Hazara groups constitute almost 10 percent each. Historically these groups have been in conflict or have maintained a tentative peace while not integrating.

Afghanistan has been one of the poorest countries in the world over the past one hundred years. The almost constant wars of the past thirty years have further destroyed the infrastructure of the country, killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, damaged its industrial base, hampered international trade and severely restricted farming and agriculture to the point where the country is not able to feed itself.

Recent mass influxes of capital and expertise since the overthrow of the Taliban regime have begun to reverse some of these trends, and progress is being made. However, this process is slow moving, and for many Afghans they do not see any progress or have a sense that their lives have improved. It remains a country with an extremely high infant mortality rate, high levels of illiteracy and low life expectancy, and millions of people have no, or limited, access to fresh water, reliable food supplies or guarantees of security in the face of ongoing conflicts.

Nadja turned over and opened her eyes ever so slightly. It was light, so the sun was up, but that didn't mean
she
had to be up. It wasn't like there was much of a reason to go out. There wasn't any school today— there hadn't been for months— and she wasn't even supposed to go outside.

She shifted around trying to get comfortable and get back to sleep, but she knew that wasn't really possible. Comfortable would have been in her bed in her room instead of on this thin mattress on the floor by the front door. It wasn't safe to sleep in her room. There was too much danger of the glass being shattered by an explosion or a stray bullet. Instead, her disturbed sleep was going to give way to an equally disturbing reality.

Outside the window lay the city that was her home—Sarajevo. It was a city of natural beauty. The Mijacka River ran through the core, and it was surrounded by heavily forested hills and majestic mountains, the Dinaric Alps.

It was these mountains that brought the world to Sarajevo in 1984, when it hosted the Winter Olympics. That was eight years ago when Nadja was only five, but she still remembered the atmosphere of the city during that time. Athletes and officials and tourists filled the streets, sightseeing, singing, sharing in the celebration of athletic excellence. In all there were 1,200 athletes from 49 countries, tens of thousands of officials, 10,000 volunteers and hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city.

The Olympics were recorded and broadcast around the world by almost seven thousand members of the media. They reported on the athletic events set against the backdrop of peace, goodwill, diversity and the beauty of the setting.

Nadja, aged 14
.

All of Yugoslavia celebrated when one of their athletes, Jure Franko, won their country's first-ever Winter Olympic medal, the silver in the giant slalom.

Of course, that was before the war—before different regions separated from Yugoslavia. Back then Sarajevo was a city in the region of Bosnia in the country of Yugoslavia. Now it was the capital of the newly independent Bosnia-Herzegovina. And while of course the mountains still remained, they weren't home to winter sports but to the cannons and tanks and snipers that rained down death upon the city.