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King, Anthony (2023) Why did the Taliban win? Armed Forces & Society . doi:10.1177/0095327X221096702 ISSN 0095-327X. (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X221096702
Abstract
On October 7, 2001, 3 weeks after 9/11, U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan; bombers struck Taliban headquarters and Al Qaeda training sites. By early December, the Taliban and Al Qaeda have been defeated and had fled. However, a war that began so successfully in 2001, eventually ended ignominiously on August 30, 2021, almost exactly 20 years later, with a U.S. withdrawal and a total Taliban victory. The speed of the Taliban’s triumph shocked everyone. The entire campaign, costing US$2.3 trillion and 2,488 U.S. lives, had failed—utterly. The United States had lost its longest-ever war. How is it possible to explain a defeat of that magnitude? This article seeks to address this question. Although numerous factors played a role, this article identifies three principal factors: the environment, the local politics, and the Taliban. Afghanistan is a very difficult place to conduct large-scale military operations. The West never came to terms with the local politics and consequently undermined their own efforts. Finally, although they were not militarily sophisticated, the Taliban were politically astute and very resilient.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government U Military Science > U Military Science (General) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Taliban, Taliban members, Afghanistan -- History, Afghanistan -- History --2001-2021, Afghan War, 2001-2021 , Afghanistan -- Politics and government, United States. Army -- History -- Afghan War, 2001-, Local government -- Afghanistan | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Armed Forces & Society | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0095-327X | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 2023 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| DOI: | 10.1177/0095327X221096702 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | Posted ahead of print. King, Anthony (2022) Why did the Taliban win? Armed Forces & Society. Copyright © 2022 by Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. © 2022 SAGE Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/armed-forces-society Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Copyright Holders: | © The Author(s) 2022. | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 7 April 2022 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 8 April 2022 | ||||||||
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