Sayed Hashim Alavi: According to an impartial judgment, the result of the 20-year presence of America in Afghanistan has been nothing but the killing of more than 240 thousand people and the consumption of more than 2 trillion dollars. The achievements that are sometimes claimed are not one thousandth of the damages.

21 years ago today on September 11, 2001, a deadly attack was organized by the al-Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden and targeted the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, USA.
 
This attack was carried out by hijacked airplanes, by people related to Al-Qaeda group, most of whom had Saudi citizenship.
 
According to the report of reliable international organizations, following the September 11th attack, more than three thousand people of different nationalities were killed and more than 60 billion American dollars were caused to the world economy.
 
At that time, Osama bin Laden was recognized as the hero of this attack and was severely pursued by the American intelligence agency. Interestingly, according to the published reports, Osama bin Laden was able to send more than three thousand people to their deaths with a cost of less than 500 thousand US dollars and cause more than 60 billion dollars in financial damage to America and the world.
 
After the September 11th attack, George Bush, the president of the United States at the time, said in his first speech: Who has dared to attack our country? A question whose answer changed the equations of world politics.
 
After this incident, America, in a short-term investigation, finally recognized the Al-Qaeda group as 100% responsible for this attack and sought revenge.
 
While George Bush was seeking to punish the perpetrators of the September 11th attack, Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and under the support of the Taliban, the United States asked the Taliban to hand him over. But the Taliban denied this and said: America has not provided sufficient documents in this regard, and according to the rules of Islam, we will not hand over the guest to them.
 
The rejection of America's request by the Taliban imposed a heavy cost on the country. George Bush, who was disappointed with the arrest of Osama bin Laden, immediately started preparing for the attack on Afghanistan, and America and its allies officially entered Afghanistan.
 
In addition to obtaining permission from the United Nations, the United States and its allies entered Afghanistan initially with the slogan of fighting terrorism and narcotics, as an excuse to continue their presence in a country that at that time had no choice but to accept the occupation.
 
After entering Afghanistan in 2001 and the fall of the previous Emirate regime, America and its allies maintained their military, political and intelligence presence in this land for 20 years, but after the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the plan to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, proposed by Barack Obama and intensified during the time of Donald Trump, and finally, during the time of Joe Biden, this plan was implemented without any tangible results.
 
The cost of America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan
 According to an unbiased judgment, the result of America's 20-year presence in Afghanistan has been nothing but the killing of more than 240,000 people and the consumption of more than 2 trillion dollars. The achievements that are sometimes claimed are not one thousandth of the damages.
 
Over 20 years, a total of 2,448 American soldiers have been killed in this war, and 1,144 NATO coalition forces have also lost their lives.
 
According to some reports, 69,000 Afghan forces have also lost their lives in this war, and 72 journalists and 444 humanitarian aid workers have also been killed in the 20-year war. Of course, this statistic does not include those who died due to disease, lack of access to food, water and infrastructure and other indirect results of the war.
 
The withdrawal of America from Afghanistan, the escape of Ashraf Ghani and the re-domination of the Islamic Emirate last year, in addition to the fact that the hopes and aspirations of America and the West to form a modern democracy and also to institutionalize Western culture in the country, have razed the Afghan people to the ground.
 
Now that 21 years have passed since the attacks of September 11th, the presentation of the report of international organizations on the level of poverty, unemployment and hunger, the staggering statistics of migrations, as well as the incidence of various mental and nervous diseases of the Afghan people, is shocking and unbearable and imaginable, which can be considered as the main cause of the September 11th event and the invasion of Afghanistan by America and the West.