2001 Invasion of Afghanistan | Animated History (REMASTER IN DESCRIPTION)

Support our work by checking out ArmchairHistory.tv, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Discord. Master Sergeant John A. Chapman takes the initiative, pushing forward up the slopes and drawing fire away from his comrades. Encountering an enemy bunker, he eliminates the occupants in a deadly close-quarters firefight. Even as the SEAL Team leader pushes up the mountain to assist him, Chapman emerges from the bunker and engages the second enemy position, sustaining several direct hits in the process. Although he will succumb to his wounds before medical help can arrive, his heroic actions saves the lives of his squadmates, earning him a posthumous Medal of Honor. The sacrifice of John A. Chapman was just one more name added to the list of men who died in the pursuit of justice over September 11th, a date forever seared into the American consciousness. On that infamous day, four planes were seized by members of Al-Qaeda. While one was diverted from its target by the heroic efforts of its passengers, the other three would go on to strike the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, inflicting nearly 3,000 casualties in the worst terror attack to ever occur on US soil. But even as rescue teams began picking through the rubble, a cry for vengeance went out, resounding across the wounded nation. No matter who was responsible, this attack would not go unanswered. From the start, US intelligence operatives had one chief suspect in mind, Osama Bin Laden, head of Al-Qaeda and former member of one of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was already a suspect in the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa, and the Clinton administration had made several efforts to apprehend or assassinate him in 1998 and 1999. Unfortunately, Bin Laden was a wily opponent, seemingly capable of escaping from any trap. But with the international spotlight now firmly on Al-Qaeda's activities after the 9-11 attacks, pressure began to mount on their primary supporters in the Middle East, the Taliban. While the US was still mourning its dead, President George W. Bush issued a stirring ultimatum to the Taliban, who were the de facto rulers of Afghanistan. His message was clear and succinct, expel Al-Qaeda and turn over Bin Laden, or we will smash your illegal regime to pieces and dig him out of the rubble ourselves. The Taliban stubbornly refused, and so the stage was set for yet another bloody conflict in the Middle East. But before we discuss the 2001 invasion, let's take a few minutes to establish some context. Historically speaking, Afghanistan has been one of the most tumultuous and unstable regions on Earth. Isolated from its neighbors by the tall peaks of the Hindu Kush, it remained a land of nomadic cattle farmers and tribal fiefdoms well into the 20th century. Any real developments in modern infrastructure were rudely interrupted by the 1978 Communist Revolution, which led to a Soviet invasion one year later. As the new frontline of the ongoing Cold War, Afghanistan received immediate attention from a plethora of state actors, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, and most importantly, Pakistan. Ever since it gained independence in 1947, Pakistan has had good reason to meddle in Afghanistan's affairs. Much as Germany in the 19th century devoted its diplomatic efforts to prevent an alliance between France and Russia, Pakistan has invested huge amounts of time and resources into preventing Afghanistan from establishing ties with India. Such a union would isolate Pakistan, leaving it vulnerable economically and militarily. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence Agency, or ISI, anonymously funneled money and equipment from the CIA and Saudi Arabia to guerrilla forces in Afghanistan. The largest of these forces was the Mujahideen, a diverse group of tribal warlords and jihadists with little in common besides the shared goal of driving out their foreign occupiers. Using Afghanistan's mountainous terrain to their advantage, the Mujahideen waged a successful campaign of guerrilla warfare against the USSR. When the Soviet Union was forced to pull out of the country in 1989, it led to the total collapse of the not-so-democratic Republic of Afghanistan just three years later. It was during this period that the Taliban first came to prominence. Consisting of ethnic Pashtun students from traditional Islamic schools, the Taliban initially seemed a preferable alternative to the Mujahideen, who were now busy fighting amongst themselves. Taking advantage of this chaos, the Taliban stormed onto the international stage when they captured the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, and set up the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. This oppressive, totalitarian government would be officially recognized only by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and of course, Pakistan. Under the new regime, Afghanistan quickly became a safe haven for terrorists, drug traffickers, and slavery rings. By 1999, the country was exporting at least 4,000 tons of opium poppies, 75% of the world's supply. This was often the sole source of income for Afghan villages, ensuring that support for the Taliban would continue despite their brutal interpretation of Sharia law. This made the country a perfect hiding place for Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Of course, by 2001, the United States was no stranger to combat operations in the Middle East. During the Gulf War, US forces had smashed Saddam Hussein's forces, despite the dictator possessing the fourth largest standing army in the world. Invading Afghanistan, however, presented challenges not seen since Vietnam. The US would face a decentralized guerrilla force, many of whom were veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War. While Saddam had arrogantly attempted to match the US gun for gun, the Taliban could simply retreat into their mountain strongholds and wait for the storm to pass. The key to a successful invasion was to cut off the Taliban from support in the Middle East. That meant dealing with Pakistan, whose inter-service intelligence agency had been a staunch ally of the Taliban since their inception. The US laid down a simple ultimatum. Pakistan was either against the Taliban or against America. When the leader of the ISI implored Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to consider the complex history of the situation, Armitage simply replied, no, the history begins today. Pakistan formally renounced its support for the Taliban on the 15th of September, just four days after 9-11. The next step was to establish contact with the sole opposition group to the Taliban left in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. Operating out of the remote Panjshir Valley, the Northern Alliance was chiefly composed of former Mujahideen who had agreed to set aside their differences and present a united front against their enemies. On September 26th, an eight-man team of CIA agents operating under the codename Jawbreaker arrived in the Panjshir Valley. Their purpose was to secure the cooperation of the Northern Alliance, a task made considerably easier by the $3 million in cash they had brought with them. Jawbreaker was then joined by Task Force Dagger, which began providing equipment and training to the Alliance militia. Ten days later, the U.S.-led Coalition of Nations launched an aerial bombing campaign. Taliban fighters all across the country had their morning prayer routines rudely interrupted by thousands of pounds of U.S. ordnance raining down on air bases and Within 24 hours, the Taliban's air defense network was obliterated, and ground forces were clear to move in. The coalition was made up of men from several nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. But at the start, only the U.S. and the U.K. were directly involved. Additionally, special forces units from dozens of countries were involved in invasion. The first special forces squads were inserted into the Panjshir Valley via the same route taken by the Jawbreaker team. There, they met with the overall commander of the Northern Alliance, Fahim Khan, and began a long and arduous trek through the mountains to the Taliban-controlled city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Simultaneously, members of the 75th Regiment of U.S. Army Rangers Thanks to skirmishes with the Northern Alliance closer to the city, only a single unfortunate Taliban soldier had been left as guard. With that airstrip secured as a forward operating base for later operations, the assault on Mazar-e-Sharif began on the 9th of November. The Taliban had entrenched around the city, but their fortifications only prolonged the inevitable. After the U.S. Air Force spent a few days bombarding the defenders, 2,000 Northern Alliance fighters, led by General Abdul Rashid Dostum, stormed the city to mop up any remaining resistance. After a battle that lasted only 90 minutes, 700 Taliban fighters had been killed or captured. The Northern Alliance suffered fewer than 50 casualties. The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif came as a major shock to both the Taliban and U.S. Central Command. Both parties had assumed the city would resist for months and require a long period of brutal street fighting to liberate. But now, the road to Kabul lay wide open, and the Northern Alliance wasted no time advancing south towards the capital. To their astonishment, the Taliban offered no resistance, and Kabul fell only three days later. This pattern continued for several weeks. Conventional resistance was all but pointless, U.S. air power was absolute, and moving in the open was a death sentence. The largest battle fought during this period was at the city of Kunduz, where 5,000 Taliban and Al-Qaeda soldiers were besieged by coalition forces for 12 days. During this time, the 75th Ranger Regiment conducted assaults on Taliban camps in the mountains around Kandahar. America was sending a strong message. Their forces could be anywhere at any time with no warning. There was nowhere to hide. However, despite all progress, things were about to take an abrupt turn for the worse. On November 25th, a prisoner revolt broke out at Qala-e-Zhangi near Mazar-e-Sharif. Over 600 Taliban and Al-Qaeda POWs seized the fortress and its armory, which included heavy weapons such as machine guns and rocket launchers. Although the revolt was eventually crushed, the body of CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann was recovered from the rubble. He was the first American killed in Afghanistan as a result of direct combat. Meanwhile, the siege of Kunduz ended with the Taliban surrendering en masse. However, many of their leaders were mysteriously absent when the city fell. It is suspected that they were airlifted out of the city by the ISI shortly before it fell. This incident, known as the Airlift of Evil, is one of the most controversial of the whole war and symbolic of the complicated political game being played out in the background of the invasion. Speaking of politics, November's operations saw the rise of Hamid Karzai, future president of Afghanistan. Using a small guerrilla force backed up by coalition troops and air support, Karzai liberated the town of Terenkot on the 15th and defended it against a Taliban counterattack. Local militia then flocked to Karzai's banner, swelling his ranks to over 800 men. On December 6, Kandahar, the Taliban's last major stronghold in Afghanistan, came under siege. The city had already been the target of coalition bombing campaigns and had been hit by a wide variety of ordnance, including Tomahawk cruise missiles. Now surrounded on all sides, the defenders decided that negotiation might actually be preferable to death after all. In the end, the biggest obstacle US forces faced was a friendly fire incident that saw a bomb dropped near Hamid Karzai's position, lightly wounding him and killing three American soldiers. Despite this, negotiations were successful, and Kandahar surrendered on the 7th. With this victory secure, Hamid Karzai became Afghanistan's new president, which marked the end of the Taliban regime, although there was no sign of Osama bin Laden or most of Al-Qaeda's leadership. US intelligence speculated that they fled to Jalalabad, and the coalition mounted a swift pursuit. But then the terrorist forces withdrew to one location everyone had hoped to avoid, the infamous White Mountain Cave network known as Tora Bora. Not wishing to repeat Soviet mistakes, coalition leaders decided to rely on local Afghan troops for the assault. Using money provided by the CIA, they recruited 3,000 militia and sent an Army Special Forces team, Operation Detachment Initially, things seemed to be going well. The militia were able to take the mountain slopes, and airstrikes were called on every insurgent, suspected insurgent, or suspicious patch of brass in the area. Fighting in the caves proved harder, and the Afghan militia was not as well suited to the task as their CIA handlers had assumed. In fact, the militia leader was persuaded to open negotiations with the terrorists. During the brief ceasefire that ensued, most of Al-Qaeda's leaders, likely including bin Laden, escaped into Pakistan. Although deeply frustrated by their failure to capture the primary objective of the invasion, coalition leaders tried to remain positive. Afghanistan was now nominally free from Taliban rule, and the democratic process seemed to have resumed. Aid workers and relief supplies were pouring in, and it had cost the U.S. fewer than a hundred casualties. Unfortunately for America, the highly controversial occupation had just begun. In February of 2002, a U.S. intelligence analyst identified what was presumed to be a force of around 300 Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters moving into the Shah Iqat Valley. In response, the U.S. airlifted 2,000 Special Forces soldiers into the area, where they were joined by 1,000 Afghan militia. Operation Anaconda began on March 2nd, and would quickly become known as an unmitigated disaster. From the moment they touched down, the American forces found themselves in a Taliban kill zone. The insurgents were heavily armed, and the Apache gunships that were supposed to provide air support found themselves under concentrated fire from rocket launchers and anti-material rifles. Two Chinook helicopters were shot down, and mortars bombarded U.S. positions. The Afghan militia, meanwhile, blundered around the valley in brightly colored trucks with headlights blazing, making perfect targets for Taliban borders. Although numerical superiority, training, and air support eventually turned the tide in America's favor, Operation Anaconda demonstrated key weaknesses in both their tactics and coordination with local forces. Even after the valley was cleared, a mere 23 Taliban bodies were found. The exact number present in the valley has never been verified, but it is thought that there were at least 600 or more initially suspected and most likely escaped over the border when the tide of battle turned. Eight U.S. soldiers were killed, and dozens more wounded. The fyric victory of Operation Anaconda set the tone for U.S. operations in Afghanistan for the next decade. The start of the Iraq War in 2003 also diverted resources from the region, leaving the new UN-sanctioned government all but powerless beyond the capital city of Kabul. Most importantly, Osama bin Laden remained at large, his whereabouts unknown, and his debt to the American people still outstanding. The manhunt for the notorious leader of Al-Qaeda would continue long after news from Afghanistan stopped making headlines. We'll be covering the end of that manhunt next week with our video titled Operation Neptune Spear. As the U.S. prepared for the invasion of Afghanistan, data security was a top priority. Even a small, seemingly insequential leak might have provided the enemy with key insight into the American battle plan. Fortunately, you don't have to rely on organizations like the CIA in order to protect your identity online. Instead, services like NordVPN are available to protect your data with military-grade encryption. With 5,468 servers in 59 countries, NordVPN allows you to securely surf the web anywhere in the world on up to 6 devices. Since it's NordVPN's 8th birthday, every single buyer of a 3-year plan will not only receive one additional month for free, but also a special surprise gift by going to nordvpn.org slash history or by using my coupon code at checkout.