Afghanistan’s Long War

With presidential elections approaching and a wave of U.S. troops who entered last month, Afghanistan has been struggling to establish itself as a stable state. The war that began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has dragged on, and the only thing certain is that there's still a long road ahead.

BY BRIAN FUNG, MICHAEL WILKERSON | AUGUST 7, 2009

Per-Anders Pettersson/ Getty Images

Taliban takeover: The Taliban's capture of Kabul on Sept. 27, 1996, set the stage for what would become today's long war in Afghanistan. After the extremist group took the Afghan capital, President Burhanuddin Rabbani was forced to retreat, along with anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was commanding the government's forces. Once in the city, the Taliban asserted authority by torturing and killing Najibullah, a one-named former communist president, and hanging his body on a traffic signal outside the presidential palace. Above, Taliban soldiers patrol outside Kabul on July 25, 1996.

Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images

 

Brian Fung and Michael Wilkerson are editorial researchers at Foreign Policy.

JAY GETTY

4:02 AM ET

August 28, 2009

Copyright infringement or plagiarism: Long lasting War c 1991

; I am the person who informed the US Congress about the downfall, by popular uprising of the government operating out of Moscow: 1986 ( figured it out by 1980); told congress Gorbachev would be running around selling his books: “for American dollars only”: 1989. Copyrighted “long lasting war” 1991 and delivered the message to every member of Congress (about the war we were in and the exact battle tactics that would be used against us), Jan 1999: that terrorist would again hit the World Trade Center and I went to N.Y. to see that beautiful city before the terrorist hit it and refused to go south of 40th street. Et al. the battle tactics are all wrong. My solution for wining this war is not even on the table; yet it is the only strategy to end the war and it is an updated version of the strategy I urged Congress to use in avoiding this War in 1986: in the same document that predicted the Moscow downfall.