Twenty-one years before today, some members of the Al-Qaeda group hijacked four passenger planes that were flying in the American space and crashed into several buildings, including the World Trade Building in New York and the US Department of Defense in Washington, as a result of which nearly three thousand people were killed. People were killed and hundreds of others were injured.
Hours after this attack, George Bush, the president of the United States at the time, called al-Qaeda the first-class enemy of global security and declared war against this group. A few days after this incident, according to the American speculations about the relationship between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the United States began its airstrikes in Afghanistan.
Perhaps no one thought that the September 11th attacks would start America's longest war in Afghanistan, but this war, which was designed to suppress the Al-Qaeda group, gave way to confronting the Taliban, and since 2001, the presence of the United States in Afghanistan has been based on the country's definition of terrorism and long-term interests became mandatory.
In 2001, although the United States was able to overthrow the Taliban easily, it remained in Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism due to its large interests and the importance of Afghanistan's strategic position in the region.
The first years of the Karzai era, when the Taliban had not yet recovered, were the years of calm before the storm; But over time, in 2005 and 2006, Taliban forces entered the scene again and the battlefields in southern Afghanistan, especially Helmand and Kandahar, became hot.
Perhaps the United States did not take these wars that the Taliban started again seriously and did not consider it a serious threat to the presence of American forces and did not view these wars as a military battle, because the goal of the United States was to be more present in Afghanistan, as in recent years. The government of Hamid Karzai, this country wanted to sign a long-term security agreement with Afghanistan; despite the opposition of many Afghan parties, groups and personalities, this unilateral agreement was signed during Ashraf Ghani's government and the presence of America was guaranteed for at least ten years after that.
America, which had first marched into Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism, after disembarking military forces and establishing bases throughout Afghanistan, it intended to prolong its military and political presence under any pretext.
When the fire of the battle slowly heated up in recent years and the scope of the war spread from the south of Afghanistan to the west and north of the country and the casualties of the American and Afghan forces increased, this is where America's historical setback took place.
What was important in the midst of these attrition battles that had spread throughout Afghanistan was that in recent years, the casualties of the American forces had risen sharply, and the wars in Helmand and Kandahar were taking victims from the American forces every day.
The second issue was the huge financial cost of the war in Afghanistan, which had caused major dissatisfaction among American citizens, so that this matter became decisive in the election of Obama and Trump and then Biden in the presidential elections of this country.
Despite all these problems, American politicians were still trying to convince American public opinion for military presence in Afghanistan. However, after nearly two decades, the US was forced to leave Afghanistan due to the erosion of the Afghan war and the unnecessary expenses in it.
Trump seized power in America for four years with the slogan that he will bring the soldiers home. After coming to power, Trump, although he did not want to leave Afghanistan completely, as he mentioned in his last statement, but in order to fulfill his electoral promise, at least apparently, he gave the green light to negotiations with the Taliban, and as a result, the agreement Doha was signed between the US and the Taliban.
Just as Trump showed during his presidency that he is not bound by any agreement and violates it, he may have had the same view on the Doha agreement and wanted to somehow convince the public opinion in America; But he moved too late to circumvent the Doha Agreement and his presidency ended soon and he no longer had the opportunity to violate the Doha Agreement.
But when Joe Biden came to office with the slogan of reviewing Trump's policies, the Doha agreement had been signed, and when he looked at the Doha agreement, there was no way back. Because the public opinion in America was strongly against this war and also the hatred and disgust inside Afghanistan against America was increasing day by day; finally, Biden implemented this difficult decision on August 29, 2021, and all American forces left Afghanistan.
Now, after examining the 20 years of the American war in Afghanistan and the return to power of the Islamic Emirate, it can be seen that America has failed both in the military field and in the political and diplomatic field in Afghanistan. Because in the last twenty years, in addition to the loss of more than three thousand American soldiers and thousands of them injured, spending at least two trillion dollars to manage the war in Afghanistan has been back-breaking for America.
Of course, the failure of America's image and position in international politics as a belligerent and failed country that threw its head out of Afghanistan and did not achieve anything is worthy of consideration.