After being in Afghanistan for the past 13 years, fighting the Taliban, the US and British forces began their final and phased withdrawal from that country. Towards that end, their biggest camps viz. 'Camp Leatherneck' of the US and 'Camp Bastion' of the British forces were handed over to the Afghan National Army last Sunday.
Camp Leatherneck, by itself, is sprawled over an area of 6,500 acres and during the height of the operations, both the camps together housed about 1,40,000 troops which is now going to move out of the country. However, about 12,500 US and British troops will continue to remain in Afghanistan for a few more years as trainers and advisers.
Having said the above, let me go through the diary of events of the last 13 years in a quick recap:-
(a) 07 Oct 2001 Consequent to the 9/11 terror attack on New York, US
and British forces launch 'Operation Enduring Freedom'
thereby, dislodging the Taliban out of power.
(b) Dec 2001 The UN establishes an international security force to
oversee the entire operation. And after two years, in 2003,
the International Security forces come under the ambit of
the NATO and had 43 countries contribute to the detail. The
interesting part was that a part of the US forces came under
the NATO control while the remaining continued to operate
independently!
(c) 02 May 2011 US forces pin point Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan's
Abottabad and destroy him.
(d) 13 Jul 2011 First batch of 650 US troops leave Afghanistan in a phased
withdrawal.
(e) 18 Apr 2012 US and NATO work out the sequence of the phased
withdrawal and the latter comes out with its blueprint
in May.
(f) 04 Jul 2012 The US-Afghanistan diplomatic treaty comes into being.
(g) 18 Jun 2013 NATO hands over its security responsibility to the Afghan
National Army.
The apprehension in everybody's mind is as to whether the Afghan National Army can stand their own against the wily Taliban. It's my sincere hope that they do.
Tailpiece.
In these times of the deadly ISIS, the Taliban seems to be a 'not-so-devious' terrorist group if one were to do a comparison of the horrors committed by the outfits. But it's for the well being of the civilised world to have all such extremists annihilated without compunction.
Camp Leatherneck, by itself, is sprawled over an area of 6,500 acres and during the height of the operations, both the camps together housed about 1,40,000 troops which is now going to move out of the country. However, about 12,500 US and British troops will continue to remain in Afghanistan for a few more years as trainers and advisers.
Having said the above, let me go through the diary of events of the last 13 years in a quick recap:-
(a) 07 Oct 2001 Consequent to the 9/11 terror attack on New York, US
and British forces launch 'Operation Enduring Freedom'
thereby, dislodging the Taliban out of power.
(b) Dec 2001 The UN establishes an international security force to
oversee the entire operation. And after two years, in 2003,
the International Security forces come under the ambit of
the NATO and had 43 countries contribute to the detail. The
interesting part was that a part of the US forces came under
the NATO control while the remaining continued to operate
independently!
(c) 02 May 2011 US forces pin point Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan's
Abottabad and destroy him.
(d) 13 Jul 2011 First batch of 650 US troops leave Afghanistan in a phased
withdrawal.
(e) 18 Apr 2012 US and NATO work out the sequence of the phased
withdrawal and the latter comes out with its blueprint
in May.
(f) 04 Jul 2012 The US-Afghanistan diplomatic treaty comes into being.
(g) 18 Jun 2013 NATO hands over its security responsibility to the Afghan
National Army.
The apprehension in everybody's mind is as to whether the Afghan National Army can stand their own against the wily Taliban. It's my sincere hope that they do.
Tailpiece.
In these times of the deadly ISIS, the Taliban seems to be a 'not-so-devious' terrorist group if one were to do a comparison of the horrors committed by the outfits. But it's for the well being of the civilised world to have all such extremists annihilated without compunction.
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