Conflict in Afghanistan

Conflict and Conflict Resolution

Conflict is displayed though opposition actions and usually involves two or more parties expressing differences and mostly end up with intense hostiles (Jeong 2009, pp.3-16). Conflict mainly arises due to the failure to uphold antagonistic relationships which could social, cultural, economic, political or religious. For one to solve a conflict, the resume by a fact-finding mission which could either be caused by human rights abuse or the violation of the rights of the minority. Complex conflicts tend to have many sources that are both structural and psychological. A conflict is defined by some specific patterns of interactions between the opponents and we can see this from their differences in social interactions and the power asymmetry. Most large-scale conflicts are as a result of economic and political oppression and they end up being more destructive. The primary role of conflict resolution is to manage and prevent the reoccurrence of a destruction conflict through qualitative alteration of the antagonistic relationships (Jeong 2009, pp.3-16).

Conflict in Lawless Societies

In the lawless societies such as Somalia and Afghanistan conflict has been treated as uncontrolled chaos but their differences can also be handled in a non-rebellious manner like negotiations can be used to bring peace instead of employing violent tactics. Most conflicts arise from the competition for recourses difference in values and feeling dissatisfied in one’s basic needs and often other groups tend to apply force to demands for their needs to be fulfilled. And this we call resistance which has adverse results that include property destruction, deaths of innocent people, rape and at times it may reach genocidal eels (Ritzer 2005). This has been witness in countries like Nigeria Sudan and Morocco.

Causes of Conflict in Afghanistan

Fight for political power: since Afghanistan gained its independence, it has experienced political instability and this was witnessed with the series of coup d’états which saw power changing from a group to the other.

Economic power and ideologies: in the year 1978 a civil war broke out within Afghanistan that involved the pro and the anti-communist. Military forces were sent by the Soviet Union to support their communist partners resulting to a bloody conflict (Nagle and Clancy 2011, pp.122-128). The US also supported the anti-Soviet group through fund donations and military assistance. This resulted in the death of over a million Afghans with the Soviets being repulsed. The Soviet Union had the support of the Taliban and al-Qaeda terror groups.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban were declared terrorist groups by the resolution 1267 that was adopted by the United Nations Security Council and as a result, sanctions were imposed to the groups funding, traveling plus the import of arms (Nagle and Clancy 2011, pp.122-128). After the United Nations made this move there arose a new al-Qaeda leader who by the name Osama bin Laden and he led the terror army to Pakistan towards the ends of the 1980s, by the year 1991 they had already camped in Sudan then they left for the country Afghanistan during the mid of the 1990s.After the post-SOVIET civil war in Afghanistan, there arose the terror group by the name Taliban and they played the role of providing the sanctuaries of the operations of the al-Qaeda.

Case Study

On September 9th the year 2001, the al-Qaeda through its operations assassinated the commander of the Nothern AllianceAhmad Shah Massoud. The Nothern Alliance was an anti-Taliban coalition. He was killed in a guerrilla warfare that was aimed at blowing the Taliban resistance. This warfare was known as the lion of Panjshir. The terrorism experts concluded that this assassination assured that the Taliban would remain loyal to and protect Osama bin Laden.

Four commercial airliners were hijacked by the al-Qaeda on 11th September 2001. They crashed them into the world trade center in New York and in Washington DC’s Pentagon with the fourth one being crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These attacks results in about three thousand deaths. To our surprise, none of the hijackers was of the Afghan origin despite that the al-Qaeda had their base in Afghanistan. The hijack was led by Mohammed Atta of Ethiopian origin with fifteen members of his team having their origin in Saudi Arabia. The then American president George Bush vowed that he will do away with terrorism; he reached out in Afghanistan and asked the Taliban regime to reveal the hideouts of all the al-Qaeda leaders. On September 18th

2001, Bush passed a joint resolution that allowed forced to be used to finish terrorism into law which aimed at the US attackers of the 9/11. On October 7 2001, the US launched their anti-terror campaigns against the Taliban and they has the British support and this marked the operation of the operation enduring freedom. Other countries pledged future support and they include Germany, France, Canada and Australia. During the early phases of the war we had the US made air strikes on the al-Qaeda and Taliban militias. The US army was comprised of about one thousand US Special Forces and they had the help of the Nothern alliance and other ethnic groups that were against the Taliban. The ground troops were sent 12 days later and mainly battled the Taliban. November 2001 saw the retreat of the Taliban after defeat at Mazar-e-Sharif of 9 by Abdul Rashid forces who was an ethnic Uzbek military leader. On 14 of November the UN Security Council passed a resolution1378 that called out the member states to send forces to assist in keeping peace, promote stability and also help in deliveries (Jeong 2009, pp.3-16).

Osama bin Laden escaped in December 2001 following a two-week fierce battle al-Qaeda between the US and which last from December 3 to 17 of the same year. A few hundreds of people died as a result died during the operation (Schubert and Lambsdorff 2013, pp.539-563). Laden is said to have escaped to Pakistan on a horseback on 16th

December which was a day before the roundup of his remaining 20 men.

November 2001 saw the fall of Kabul, the UN later invited the major Afghan function which was the northern alliance that was headed by a king excluding the Taliban to a conference held in Bonn Germany where they signed the Bonn agreement that was approved by the United Nations Security Council 1383. The agreement called out Iran to diplomatically help the northern alliance install an interim government with Hamid Karzai as the head and also established the interim international security assistance force ISAF by resolution 1386. The Taliban collapsed on 9th December 2001 with their leader Mullah Omar fleeing from the city. We still had al-Qaeda leaders hiding out in the mountains (Bew, Frampton, and Gurruchaga 2009).

They launched a major attack towards the al-Qaeda and the Taliban groups in March 2002 who were estimated to be about 800 in Paktia province with about 2000 US soldiers and 1000 Afgan troops. This called the Canada which instead of focusing on Afghanistan the planners shifted their attention to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein since it was considered as a major terror threat.

On April 17 the year 2002 Bush gave a speech at the military institute in Virginia calling out for the reconstruction of Afghanistan a better place to live that is free from evil. Yet, the US and the international community did not approve his plan since the US Congress estimated it to cost about over $378 billion dollars from 2001 to 2009 which is so expensive.

In June 2002 Afghanistan had a transitional government with Hamid Karzai as the chairman of this interim leadership. He was picked up during an emergency assemble in Kabul that was attended by 1550 delegates representing the 364 afghans districts among which 200 were women. The northern alliance failed to ascend to prime ministership but could check o presidential powers through impeachment by elected parliamentary authorities. In November 2002 the US military came up with the reconstruction model to help Kabul expand his government and help him sustain peace and development. In May 2003 the US announces the end of a major war with Iraq and says that Afghanistan is at a point where it can easily stabilize and reconstruct. They predicted that the transition from combat to stabilization was to open door for aid from most aid organizations. On August 8 2003 the North Atlantic Organization took over ISAF of Afghanistan hence they expanded their role across the country as NATO/ISAF. ISAF was in charge of the international military forces in the eastern region of Afghanistan by the year 2006 with consequent intensive operations in the south of Afghanistan (Nan 2011).

In January 2004 it was agreed Afghan delegates amounting to about 502 in an assembly that they adopt a constitution. This constitution had a powerful presidential system with the aim of uniting various ethnic groups of the country which was viewed as a great move towards democracy. On October 9, 2004 Afghanistan witnesses their first democratically elected president Karzai who won with a large margin as he had 55% while his closest competitor had 16%. There was a large voter’s turn out despite terror threats (Bew, Frampton and Gurruchaga 2009). Three weeks after the country had its elections Osama resurfaces taunting bush’s administration through the Arab television saying that they want to restore their freedom. And this was on the 20th of October 2004. On May 23, 2005 afghan and the US got into an enduring agreement that allowed the US to access the Afghan military equipment and prosecute war against international terror. This ensures Afghanistan security, democracy and prosperity. On September 18, 2005 the country experiences the most democratic elections ever. In July 2016 violence reoccurred with increased suicide attacks. In November 2016 the NATO coalition cracked with some of its troops being loyal to Afghanistan. In May 2007 the notorious Taliban commander named Mullah Dadullah was assassinated in an operation by the Afghan, US and the NATO forces. At a time he reported to the BBC that he has a hundreds of suicide bombers waiting for his command to attack the US military. On August 22, 2008 there are collateral killings in Afghanistan by the US army (Ritzer 2005). On February 17, Obama recommits to Afghanistan and sends more troops to the war zones. On March 27, Obama announces a new strategy to stabilize Pakistan.

Conclusion

Since both sides were not willing to negotiate and solve the conflict, the use of force was the only way to bring peace in Afghanistan by suppressing the enemy to retreat and surrender (Bew, Frampton and Gurruchaga 2009). The war has eluded the United States former presidents and the war against terror has been considered to be very costly on the part of the United States of America. This calls for the need to pull out to save on the resources. However, the Taliban is seen to be growing stronger due to the rampant cases of corruption that favor this terror group.

References

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Diehl, P. and Lepgold, J. (2003). Regional conflict management. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Gillard, A., 2013. The war in Afghanistan. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Jeong, H., 2009. Understanding conflict and conflict analysis. Los Angeles [etc.]: Sage, pp.3-16.

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Nan, S., 2011. Consciousness in culture-based conflict and conflict resolution. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 28(3), pp.239-262.

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Schubert, M. and Lambsdorff, J., 2013. Negative reciprocity in an environment of violent conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 58(4), pp.539-563.

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