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Warblog

Warblog

A warblog is a weblog devoted mostly or wholly to covering news events concerning an ongoing war. Sometimes the use of the term "warblog" implies that the blog concerned has a pro-war slant.

Description & Origins

Warblogs first appeared during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and attained maturity during the U.S.'s 2003 invasion of Iraq. While some warblogs arise out of and are directly limited in their coverage to the war in question, others expand their coverage to related political, social and cultural issues and continue commentating beyond the end of the war. Likewise, blogs that ordinarily cover non-war issues may dedicate their coverage during a time of war to the conflict, with some reverting to their previous missions at the end of the war, and others retaining their new character. The term was coined by Matt Welch, who launched his warblog on September 17, 2001.

Growth of Warblogging

Warblogging was popularized by Glenn Reynolds, whose Instapundit has become one of the most popular political blogs on the web. Some prominent warblogs like Steven Den Beste (now retired due to health reasons) existed before September 11, but made the war on terror their primary focus afterwards. Some people also put Little Green Footballs in this category, but webmaster Charles Johnson rejects the "warblog" label and never refers to LGF as such. New warblogs have also arisen since the 9/11 attacks, such as Command Post, Belmont Club, The Adventures of Chester, Pejmanesque, Winds of Change.NET, and many, many others.

Current Relevance

Some believe the term "warblog" has become something of an anachronism -- which would seem to be ironic, but speaks to the speed with which things change in the world of the Internet. Most blogs that gained popularity as "warblogs" have far expanded their focus to politics and general news. Many of these blogs became a focus of attention for frequently updated information related to the election during the 2004 campaign. Others, however, note that the warblogs' level of focus on the war remains a distinguishing feature, and separates them from blogs whose political coverage is mostly domestic in nature. The field has also birthed a related subsidiary class of webblogs known as "MilBlogs," which also tend to focus on the war. These blogs are written by serving or retired military personnel, or have members on their team blog that fit this description. See Soldier Blog for more. Blogging has also extended to people living in current or potential combat zones, with the growth of blogs by Iraqis, Afghans, and especially the Persian blogosphere (in both Persian and English) thanks to the efforts of Hossein Derakhshan. While these are not warblogs, there have been longstanding ties, including encouragement and material support of these activities by warbloggers; and warblog readers have often contributed a significant proportion of their English language audiences.

See also


- Soldier blog, which covers MilBlogs

External links


- [http://mattwelch.com/archives/week_2001_09_16.html#002533 Matt Welch, first post]
- [http://adventuresofchester.blogspot.com/ The Adventures of Chester] Former Marine officer who participated in Iraqi campaign offers insight on the war
- [http://www.andrewsullivan.com Andrew Sullivan]
- [http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/ Belmont Club]
- [http://www.command-post.org/ Command Post] Blog collective with up-to-the-minute news; CNN staffers fequently tuned in to The Command Post during the major combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in order to help stay abreast of events.
- [http://counterterror.typepad.com/ Counterterrorism blog]. Features a number of recognized and published counter-terrorism experts: Steven Emerson, Douglas Farah, Evan Kohlmann, Zachary Abuza, Dr. Walid Phares, et. al.
- [http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/ Global Guerrillas] Former clandestine special ops officer who participated in counter-terrorist operations provides insight on the new war.
- [http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ Little Green Footballs]
- Iraqi blogs: [http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/ Where is Raed?] the weblog of he first Iraqi blogger, "Salam Pax". Many other Iraqi blogs now exist; [http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/ Iraq the Model] is probably the most popular and well known at present.
- [http://www.denbeste.nu Steven Den Beste]. Steven no longer posts here, [http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/060036.php due to the effects of a genetically-caused degenerative disease].
- [http://windsofchange.net Winds of Change.NET]. Seeks to cover the events, trends, and discoveries changing our world. Motto is "Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory." Will not post war-related material on Saturdays, which are devoted entirely to good news.

Weblog

A blog is a website for which an individual or a group frequently generates text, photographs, video, audio files, and/or links, typically (but not always) on a daily basis. The term is a shortened form of weblog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts," or "entries". The person who posts these entries is called a "blogger".

Blog basics

A weblog or blog is an online publication with regular posts, presented in reverse chronological order. A blog typically consists of the following components:
- Title - main title of the post
- Body - main content of the post
- Trackback - links back from other sites
- Comments - comments added by readers
- Category - category the post is labeled with (can be one or more)
- Permalink - the URL of the full, individual article
- Post Date - date: time the post was published

How Blogs differ from traditional sites

A blog provides many advantages over a standard web page, including these:
- It allows for easy creation of new pages: new data is entered into a simple form (usually with the title, the category, and the body of the article) and then submitted. Automated templates take care of adding the article to the home page, creating the new full article page (Permalink), and adding the article to the appropriate date- or category-based archive.
- It allows for easy filtering of content for various presentations - by date, category, author, or other attributes.
- It (usually) allows the administrator to invite and add other authors, whose permissions and access are easily managed.

Difference from forums or newsgroups

Blogs are different from forums or newsgroups. Only the author or authoring group can create new subjects for discussion on a blog. A network of blogs can function like a forum in that every entity in the blog network can create subjects of their choosing for others to discuss. Such networks require interlinking to function, so a group blog with multiple people holding posting rights is now becoming more common. Even where others post to a blog, the blog owner will initiate and frame discussion.

Digital media

While straight text and hyperlinks dominate, some blogs emphasize images (see web comics, photoblog) and videos (see videoblogging). Some textual blogs link to audio files (see podcasting). A notable niche is the MP3 blog, which specializes in posting music from specific genres. New words have been coined for many of these content-oriented blogs, such as "moblog" (for "mobile blog").

History

Precursors


- Electronic communities existed before internetworking. For example the AP wire was, in effect, similar to a large chat room with "wire fights" and electronic conversations. Another pre-digital electronic community, amateur (or "ham") radio, allowed individuals who set up their own broadcast equipment to communicate with others directly. Ham radio also had logs called "glogs" that were personal diaries made using wearable computers in the early 1980s.
- Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, e-mail lists and bulletin boards. In the 1990s Internet forum software, such as WebX, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a electronic "corkboard." See "Common terms," below.
- Diarists kept journals on the Web: most called themselves online diarists, journalists, journallers, or journalers. A few called themselves escribitionists. The Open Pages webring contained members of the online-journal community. The first famous journaller was probably Justin Hall.
- Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger protocol.
- Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date.

Blogging appears

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz. He broke the word weblog into the phrase "we blog" in the sidebar of his weblog in April or May of 1999. [http://www.peterme.com/archives/00000205.html] "Blog" was accepted as a noun (weblog shortened) and as a verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or a post to one's weblog"). [http://www.bradlands.com/weblog/1999-09.shtml#September%2010,%201999] Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers. The site Xanga, launched in 1996, had only 100 diaries by 1997, and over 50 000 000 as of December 2005. Blog usage spread during 1999, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools: Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched Blogger.com (which was purchased by Google in February 2003), and Paul Kedrosky's started GrokSoup. As of March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms weblog, weblogging and weblogger in their dictionary. [http://www.oed.com/help/updates/motswana-mussy.html] Dave Winer is the one of the pioneers of the tools that make blogs more than merely websites. One of his most significant contributions was setting up servers that weblogs could ping to update themselves. Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier - specifically blogrolls and TrackBacks. This enabled bloggers to control the threads that connected them to others with similar interests, thereby wresting control from forum moderators.

Blogging's rise to influence

The first broadly popular american blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Jerome Armstrong's MyDD, and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga's DailyKos. In 2001, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president (many years before). Through the influence of bloggers and mainstream journalists, Lott's comments were popularly seen as his approval of racial segregation, a policy supported by Thurmond's presidential campaign. As a result, Lott stepped down as majority leader. By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) gained rapidly increasing importance. Established schools of journalism began researching blogging and noting the differences between journalism and blogging. Since 2003, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw both left-wing and right-wing bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that did not reflect the traditional left-right divide. Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues, cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong.) The Iraq war was the first "blog war" in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "milblogs" gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources. Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, bloggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks. Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word "blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blog as I watch her on television.") Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblogging." Blogging is now very popular. It is not uncommon for a top-rated blog to receive tens of thousands of unique "visitors" per day.

Blogging becomes popular

In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as MP Tom Watson of the UK Labour Party, began to blog to bond with constituents. Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The Blogging of the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of 2004, both (America's Democratic and Republican) parties' conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004. ([http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Blog_declared_Word_of_the_Year Wikinews]) Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal. To wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record, conservative bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques. This is viewed by many bloggers as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media both as a source of news and opinion and as means of applying political pressure. Bloggers can act as consumer activists by reporting defective products. They were instrumental in exposing the supposed the vulnerability of Kryptonite 2000 locks. Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and/or television: Duncan Black (a.k.a. Atrios), Glenn Reynolds, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (a.k.a. Kos), and Ana Marie Cox (a.k.a. Wonkette). Hugh Hewitt is an example of a media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2. In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis. [http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,1011763-1,00.html]

Blogging and the traditional

Many bloggers support the Open Source movement. The free speech nature of its technology has helped blogging to have a deep social impact. Blogging makes is easy for employees to irritate their bosses, and a number have been fired. (See Heather Armstrong, Mark Jen and Jessica Cutler.) Open Source Politics, or the ability of people to participate more directly in politics, is reframing terms of debate (see George Lakoff). Many bloggers differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither intellectual property nor the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Blogs have been seen as archives of human thought. They can provide useful insights to aid in dealing with humanity's psychological problems (such as depression and addiction). And they can also be used to solve crimes. (In 2005, a blogger's last blog entry identified his murderer.) [http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=ToTo247&tab=weblogs&uid=261268578] Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with Scottish Gaelic blogs, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional Gaelic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska. [http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/gaidhlig.html#comhradh] Blogs are also used regularly by Welsh language activists. Minority language publishing has traditionally been expensive and had small readership: blogs are counteracting this.

How blogs are made

Blogging software make blogs possible. These are some popular software packages: Nucleus CMS, Movable Type, Drupal, b2evolution, boastMachine, Antville, Serendipity and WordPress. A good program combines a user-friendly interface and format flexibility. Server-based systems eliminate the need for bloggers to manage the software. With web interfaces, these systems allow travelers to blog from anywhere on the Internet. A blogroll is a list of links that create a context for a blog. Bloggers with common interests will share a blogroll to help each other increase their visibility on the Internet. A feedback comment system allows visitors to blogs to post comments. Frequent comments testify to popular blogs, but some bloggers prefer to pre-screen or block comments. Tools such as Ecto, Elicit and w.bloggar allow users to maintain their Web-hosted blog without the need to be online while composing or editing posts. The TrackBack feature introduced by Movable Type in 2002 enables mulitple blogs to be automatically notified when certain topical or other changes are made to one blog. (bBlog has gone as far as implementing threaded trackbacks on comments and comments on trackbacks.) Linking between blogs is credited with complicating search engine page ranking techniques. [http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33366.html] [http://www.sixapart.com/log/2003/10/its_all_about_c.shtml] Integrating blogs into search results threatens websites that are arguably more credible. (However, as one Google executive may have remarked, it is the search engine's job to find the ways that a website represents a "vote" for another website.) Some Web hosting companies (Tripod), Internet service providers (America Online) and online publications (Salon) provide blog creation tools and blog hosting. Some people program blogs from scratch using ColdFusion, CGI, pure Ruby, Rails or other server side software. While this is difficult, the creativity can be rewarding.

Types of blogs

News and Politics

When discussed in the media, the term blog is often understood to refer to a political blog. Political blogs take different forms. Some link to news articles and post personal comments. Others write long essays about current political topics. Noteworthy is the recent trend of political candidates to incorporate blogging in their campaigns. Some candidates do their own blogging, while others, especially presidential candidates, assign blogging to campaign staff.

Personal

In common speech, the term blog is often used to describe an online diary or journal, such as LiveJournal. The blog format allows inexperienced computer users to make diary entries with ease. People blog poems, prose, illicit thoughts, complaints, daily experiences, and more, often allowing others to contribute. In 2001, mainstream awareness of online diaries increased dramatically. Online diaries are part of the daily lives of many teenagers and college students. Friends use blogs to communicate with each other.

Topical

Topical blogs focus on a niche. For example, the Google Blog covers nothing but news about Google. A blogs may fit more than one topical category or may be both topical and general. Blog directories must manage the needs of bloggers, who want to increase readership, and readers, who want relevant search results. Local blogs are a type of topical blog. Neighborhood reporting is ideal for blogging: Locals are the best witnesses of local events.

Business

The stock market is a popular subject of blogging. Both amateur and professional investors use blogs to share stock tips. Business blogs are used to promote and defame businesses, to argue economic concepts, to deseminate information, and more.

Collaborative

Many blogs are written by more than one person (often about a specific topic). Collaborative blogs can be open to everyone or limited to a group of people. MetaFilter is an example. Slashdot, whose status as a blog has been debated, has a team of editors who approve and post links to technology news stories throughout the day. Although Slashdot does not refer to itself as a blog, it shares some characteristics with blogs. Indymedia is an early (1999) example of a collaborative blog (although the term blog wasn't in circulation then). It was created to cover a specific event (the WTO in Seattle) but has since spread around the world. "Eclectic blogs" focus on specific (and unusual) niches. Eclectic blogs can be collaborative blogs.

Educational

Students can use blogs to record what they learn and teachers can use blogs to record what they teach. For example, a teacher can blog a course - specifying what homework students are required to carry out, including links to Internet resources, and recording day-by-day what is taught. This application has many advantages: (1) a student can quickly catch-up if they miss a class; (2) the teacher can use the blog as a course plan; and (3) the blog serves as an accurate summary of the course that prospective students or new teachers can refer to. Blogging can also be used to record class excursions and to create electronic "scrapbooks" of student life.

Directory

Directory blogs provide regularly-updated links to topics of interest. Directory blogs are usually focused on a particular news topic. Directory blogs are not "blog directories." Blog directories (and search engines used for blogging) have organization and automation, characteristics not typical of directory blogs.

Forums

An internet forum is not a blog (technically speaking), but a blog can function as an internet forum. Internet forums typically allow any user to post (into the discussion). Blogs typically limit posting to the blogger or to the blogger and approved others. The distinction between blogs and forums is sometimes gray. Sites such as Slashdot, Indymedia and Daily Kos combine elements of the two. Business professionals use Content management systems to enable cooperation when making documents.

Spam

Spam blogs (splogs) are a form of high-pressure advertising. Like spam e-mails, splogs are characterized by bold lettering and outrageous claims. Affiliated splogs often link to each other to increase their Internet presence (See PageRank.)

Common terms

Blogging, like any human practice, has developed a specialized vocabulary. See List of blogging terms.

See also


- Content Management System
- Blog client
- Blogebrity
- Commonplace: a historical precedent for the weblog
- Diary
- Google bomb
- News aggregator
- Iranian blogs
- Podcasting
- Chronicle
- Massively distributed collaboration

External links


- [http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15000 Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents] by [http://www.rsf.org/ Reporters Without Borders]
- [http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ Legal Guide for Bloggers] by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2707 "Web of Influence"] — by Daniel W. Drezner, Henry Farrell from [http://www.foreignpolicy.com Foreign Policy Magazine]
- [http://www.offuhuge.com/ Worlds First Music Video Code Site 4 Blogs] Category:Digital Revolution Category:Internet Category:Internet terminology Category:Neologisms Category:Politics and technology Category:Blogs zh-min-nan:Bāng-chì ko:블로그 ja:ブログ simple:Blog th:บล็อก



U.S. invasion of Afghanistan

The United States invasion of Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) occurred in October 2001, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., marking the beginning of its "War on Terrorism" campaign. Seeking to oust the Taliban and find Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, the Afghan Northern Alliance provided the majority of forces, and the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada provided support. The officially-stated purpose of the invasion was to target al-Qaeda members, and to punish the Taliban government in Afghanistan which had provided support and haven to al-Qaeda.

Background

Since approximately 1996, Osama bin Laden had been resident in Afghanistan along with other members of al-Qaeda, operating terrorist training camps in a loose alliance with the Taliban. Following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, the Clinton administration fired cruise missiles at these camps with limited effect on their overall operations. After the September 11th attacks, investigators rapidly accumulated evidence implicating bin Laden. In the weeks prior to the military action in Afghanistan, US President George W. Bush delivered an ultimatum [http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen.bush.transcript/] to the Taliban, to:
- deliver Al-Qaeda leaders located in Afghanistan to the United States
- release all imprisoned foreign nationals, including American citizens [http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,595750,00.html]
- protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in Afghanistan
- close terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and "hand over every terrorist and every person and their support structure to appropriate authorities".
- give the US full access to terrorist training camps to verify their closure President Bush further stated that the demands were not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban refused to directly speak to Bush, stating this would be an insult to Islam, but made statements through their Pakistan embassy. Their initial response was to demand evidence of bin Laden's culpability in the September 11th attacks and to offer to try him in an Islamic court. Later, as the likelihood of military action became more imminent, they offered to extradite bin Laden to a neutral nation. Moderates within the Taliban allegedly met with American embassy officials in Pakistan in mid-October, in order to work out a way to convince Mullah Muhammed Omar to turn bin Laden over to the U.S. and avoid the impending retaliation from the United States. President Bush rejected these offers made by the Taliban as insincere. The UN Security Council also issued a resolution on September 18, 2001 directed towards the Taliban demanding that they hand over the terrorist Osama bin Laden and close all terrorist training camps immediately and unconditionally. The council also referred to a resolution it adopted in December 2000 demanding that the Taliban turn over bin Laden to the United States or a third country for trial in the deadly bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in August 1998.

Military operations

Initial attack

Prior to October 7, U.S. and British Special Forces clandestinely infiltrated Afghanistan to make contact with the Northern Alliance to organize those forces to over throw the Taliban. There were explosions in Kabul within a day of September 11, although these were minor rocket attacks by the Northern Alliance. At approximately 16:30 UTC (12:30 EDT, 21:00 local time) on Sunday October 7, 2001, US and British forces began an aerial bombing campaign targeting Taliban forces and al-Qaeda. Strikes were reported in the capital, Kabul (where electricity supplies were severed), at the airport and military nerve-centre of Kandahar (home of the Taliban's Supreme Leader Mullah Omar), and also in the city of Jalalabad (military/terrorist training camps). The US government justified these attacks as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the failure of the Taliban to meet any US demands. The Taliban condemned these attacks and called them an "attack on Islam." September 11, 2001 attacks. The carrier launched airstrikes in support of Operation Southern Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom.]] At 17:00 UTC, Bush confirmed the strikes on national television and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair also addressed the UK. Bush stated that at the same time as Taliban military and terrorists' training grounds would be targeted, food, medicine, and supplies would be dropped to "the starving and suffering men, women and children of Afghanistan." [http://www.australianpolitics.com/news/2001/01-10-07.shtml]. These drops came under criticism for having the same color as the cluster bombs that the United States was using. A number of different technologies were employed in the strike. Air Force general Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that approximately 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles, launched by British and US submarines and ships, 15 strike aircraft from carriers and 25 bombers, such as B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress and F-16 Fighting Falcon were involved in the first wave. Two C-17 Globemaster transport jets were to deliver 37,500 daily rations by airdrop to refugees inside Afghanistan on the first day of the attack. A pre-recorded video tape of Osama bin Laden had been released before the attack in which he condemned any attacks against Afghanistan. Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite news channel, claimed that these tapes were received shortly before the attack. In this recording bin Laden claimed that the United States would fail in Afghanistan and then collapse, just as the Soviet Union did, and called for a war of Muslims, a jihad, against the entire non-Muslim world.

Taliban retreat

Initial air campaigns

Bombers operating at high altitudes well out of range of anti-aircraft fire began bombarding al-Qaeda training camps and Taliban air defenses. During the initial build-up before the actual attack, there had been speculation in the media that the Taliban might try to use U.S.-built Stinger anti-air missiles that were the bane of Soviet helicopters during the Soviet occupation in the 80's. If any of these missiles existed at the time of the air campaign, they were never used and the U.S. never lost a single aircraft to enemy fire. Beyond that, the Taliban had little to offer in the way of anti-aircraft weaponry, relying mostly on left-over arms and weapons from the Soviet invasion. U.S. aircraft, including Apache helicopter gunships, operated with impunity throughout the campaign, while cruise missiles pounded the country. The strikes initially focused on the area in and around the cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. Within a few days, most al-Qaeda training sites had been severely damaged and the Taliban's air defenses had been destroyed. The campaign then focused on communications and "command and control". The Taliban began losing the ability to coordinate, and their morale began to sink. But the line facing the Northern Alliance held, and no tangible battlefield successes had yet occurred. Two weeks into the campaign, the Northern Alliance, not seeing a breakthrough, demanded the bombing focus more on the front lines. Critics began to see the war losing its way. Civilian casualties also began to mount. Several Red Cross warehouses were bombed. Meanwhile, thousands of Pashtun militiamen from Pakistan poured into the country, joining the fight against the U.S. led forces. The next stage of the campaign began. Hornet bombers hit Taliban vehicles in pinpoint strikes, while U.S. planes began cluster bombing Taliban defenses. However, for the first time, Northern Alliance commanders began seeing results. The Taliban support structure was beginning to erode under the pressure of the strikes. Then, for the first time, U.S. Special Forces launched an audacious raid deep into the Taliban's heartland of Kandahar, even striking one of Mullah Omar's compounds. However, the campaign's progress seemed to remain very slow. The last week of October had ended, and it was now the beginning of November. At this time, the next stage of the air campaign began to fulfill long-awaited Northern Alliance expectations. The Taliban front lines were bombed with 15,000-pound daisy cutter bombs, and by AC-130 gunships. Poor Taliban tactics increased the effect of the strikes. The fighters had no previous experience with American firepower, and often even stood on top of bare ridgelines where Special Forces could easily spot them and call in air attacks. By November 2, Taliban frontal positions were decimated, and a Northern Alliance march on Kabul seemed possible for the first time. Many Afghan Taliban troops had terrible morale, and were regarded as untrustworthy. Foreign fighters from al-Qaeda took over security in the Afghan cities, demonstrating how unstable the regime had become. Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance and their CIA/Special Forces advisors planned the offensive. Northern Alliance troops would seize Mazar-I-Sharif, thereby cutting off Taliban supply lines and enabling the flow of equipment from the countries to the north, followed by an attack on Kabul itself.

Land advances: Mazar-e-Sharif

On November 9, 2001, the battle for Mazar-e-Sharif began. U.S. bombers carpet-bombed Taliban defenders concentrated in the Chesmay-e-Safa gorge that marks the entrance to the city. At 2 P.M, Northern Alliance forces then swept in from the south and west, seizing the city's main military base and airport. The forces then mopped up the remnants of the Taliban in the gorge in front of the city, meeting only feeble resistance. Within 4 hours, the battle was over. By sunset, what remained of the Taliban was retreating to the south and east. Mazar-e-Sharif was taken. The next day, Northern Alliance forces seeking retribution combed the city, shooting suspected Taliban supporters in on-the-spot executions. 520 young Taliban, demoralized and defeated, many of whom were from the fighters that crossed from Pakistan, were massacred when they were discovered hiding in a school. Looting was rampant. The same day the massacres of former Taliban supporters was taking place in Mazar-e-Sharif, November 10, Northern Alliance forces swept through five northern provinces in a rapid advance. The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif had triggered a complete collapse of Taliban positions. Many local commanders switched sides rather than fight. The regime was beginning to unravel at the seams throughout the north. Even in the south, their hold on power seemed tenuous at best. The religious police stopped their regular patrols. A complete implosion of the Taliban regime seemed imminent.

The fall of Kabul

Finally, on the night of November 12, Taliban forces fled from the city of Kabul, sneaking away under cover of darkness in a massive retreat. By the time Northern Alliance forces arrived in the afternoon of November 13, only bomb craters, burned foliage, and the burnt out shells of Taliban gun emplacements and positions were there to greet them. A small group of perhaps twenty devoted Arab fighters hiding in the city's park were the only defenders left. After a brief 15-minute gun battle, all of the foreign al-Qaeda fighters were dead, having had little more than some scrub to shield them. Kabul had fallen. Arab The fall of Kabul marked the beginning of a collapse of Taliban positions across the map. Within 24 hours, all of the Afghan provinces along the Iranian border, including the key city of Herat, had fallen. Local Pashtun commanders had taken over throughout northeastern Afghanistan, including the key city of Jalalabad. Taliban holdouts in the north, comprised of mainly Pakistani volunteers, fled to the northern city of Konduz to make a stand. By November 16, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan was besieged by the Northern Alliance. Nearly 10,000 Taliban fighters, led by foreign fighters, refused to surrender and continued to put up stubborn resistance. By then, the Taliban had retreated back to their heartland in southeastern Afghanistan around Kandahar, and even their hold there was tenuous at best. The regime seemed to be teetering on the brink of annihilation. By November 13, al-Qaeda forces, almost certainly with Osama bin Laden himself, had regrouped and were concentrating their forces in the Tora Bora cave complex, 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Jalalabad, to prepare for a stand against the anti-Taliban and American forces. Nearly 2000 al-Qaeda fighters fortified themselves in positions within bunkers and caves, and by November 16, U.S. bombers began stepped up pummeling of the mountain fortress. Around the same time, CIA and Special Forces operatives were already at work in the area, enlisting and paying local warlords to join the fight and planning an attack on the al-Qaeda base. CIA Just as the bombardment at Tora Bora was stepped up, the bloody siege of Konduz that began on November 16 was continuing. Finally, after 9 days of heavy fighting and blistering American bombardment, Taliban fighters surrendered to Northern Alliance forces on November 25.

Consolidation: the taking of Konduz and Kandahar

On November 25, the day that Taliban fighters holding out in Konduz finally surrendered and were being herded into the Qala-e-Jangi prison complex near Mazar-I-Sharif, a few foreign Taliban attacked some Northern Alliance guards, taking their weapons and opening fire. This incident soon triggered a widespread revolt by 600 detained fighters at the prison, who began grabbing AK-47s, machine guns, and grenades and attacking Northern Alliance troops. One American CIA operative who had been interviewing prisoners, Mike Spann, was killed, marking the first American combat death in the war. The fighters soon seized the southern half of the complex, once a medieval fortress. The revolt was finally put down after three days of heavy strafing fire by AC-130 gunships and Black Hawk helicopters. Less than 100 of the several hundred Taliban prisoners survived, and around 50 Northern Alliance soldiers were killed. The quashing of the revolt marked the end of the combat in northern Afghanistan, where local Northern Alliance warlords were now firmly in control. By the end of November, Kandahar, the movement's birthplace, was the last remaining Taliban stronghold and was coming under increasing pressure. Nearly 3,000 tribal fighters, led by Hamid Karzai, a Westernized and polished loyalist of the former Afghan king, and Gul Agha, the governor of Kandahar before the Taliban seized power, put pressure on Taliban forces from the east and cut off the northern Taliban supply lines to Kandahar. The threat of the Northern Alliance loomed in the north and northeast. Meanwhile, the first significant U.S. combat troops had arrived. Nearly 1,000 Marines, ferried in by Chinook helicopters, set up a Forward Operating Base in the desert south of Kandahar on November 25. The first significant combat involving U.S. ground forces occurred a day later when 15 armored vehicles approached the base and were attacked by helicopter gunships, destroying many of them. Meanwhile, the airstrikes continued to pound Taliban positions inside the city, where Mullah Omar was holed up. Omar, the Taliban leader, remained defiant despite the fact that his movement only controlled 4 out of the 30 Afghan provinces by the end of November and called on his forces to fight to the death. airstrikes As the Taliban teetered on the brink of losing their last bastion, the U.S. focus increased on the Tora Bora cave complex. Local tribal militias, numbering over 2,000 strong and paid and organized by Special Forces and CIA paramilitaries, continued to mass for an attack as heavy bombing continued of suspected al-Qaeda positions. 100-200 civilians were reported killed when 25 bombs struck a village at the foot of the Tora Bora and White Mountains region. On December 2, a group of 20 U.S. commandos was inserted by helicopter to support the operation. On December 5, Afghan militia wrested control of the low ground below the mountain caves from al-Qaeda fighters and set up tank positions to blast enemy forces. The al-Qaeda fighters, mostly composed of Arabs, withdrew with mortars, rocket launchers, and assault rifles to higher fortified positions and dug in for the battle. By December 6, Omar finally began to signal that he was ready to surrender Kandahar to tribal forces. His forces broken by heavy U.S. bombing and living constantly on the run within Kandahar to prevent himself from becoming a target, even Mullah Omar's morale lagged. Recognizing that he could not hold on to Kandahar much longer, he began signaling a willingness in negotiations to turn the city over to the tribal leaders, assuming that he and his top men received some protection. The U.S. government rejected any amnesty for Omar or any Taliban leaders. On December 7, Mullah Mohammad Omar slipped out of the city of Kandahar with a group of his hardcore loyalists and moved northwest into the mountains of Uruzgan province, reneging on the Taliban's promise to surrender their fighters and their weapons. He was last reported seen driving off with a group of his fighters on a convoy of motorcycles. Other members of the Taliban leadership fled into Pakistan through the remote passes of Paktia and Paktika provinces. However, Kandahar, the last Taliban-controlled city, had fallen, and the majority of the Taliban fighters had disbanded. The border town of Spin Boldak was surrendered on the same day, marking the end of Taliban control in Afghanistan. The Afghan tribal forces under Gul Agha seized the city of Kandahar while the Marines took control of the airport outside and established a U.S. base.

The Battle of Tora Bora: endgame deferred

The foreign al-Qaeda fighters were still holding out in the mountains of Tora Bora, however. Anti-Taliban tribal militia continued a steady advance through the difficult terrain, backed by withering air strikes guided in by U.S. Special Forces. Facing defeat and reluctant to fight fellow Muslims, the al-Qaeda forces agreed to a truce to give them time to surrender their weapons. In retrospect, however, many believe that the truce was a ruse to allow important al-Qaeda figures, including Osama bin Laden, to escape. On December 12, the fighting flared again, probably initiated by a rear guard buying time for the main force's escape through the White Mountains into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Once again, tribal forces backed by U.S. special operations troops and air support pressed ahead against fortified al-Qaeda positions in caves and bunkers scattered throughout the mountainous region. By December 17, the last cave complex had been taken and their defenders overrun. A search of the area by U.S. forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership emerged. It is almost unanimously believed that they had already slipped away into the tribal areas of Pakistan to the south and east. It is estimated that around 200 of the foreign jihadis were killed during the battle, along with an unknown number of anti-Taliban tribal fighters. No U.S. deaths were reported. Following Tora Bora, U.S. forces and their Afghan allies consolidated their position in the country. Following a Loya jirga or grand council of major Afghan factions, tribal leaders, and former exiles, an interim Afghan government was established in Kabul under Hamid Karzai. U.S. forces established their main base at Bagram airbase just north of Kabul. Kandahar airport also became an important U.S. base area. Several outposts were established in eastern provinces to hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives. The number of U.S-led coalition troops operating in the country would eventually grow to over 10,000. Meanwhile, the Taliban and al-Qaeda had not yet given up. Al-Qaeda forces began regrouping in the Shahi-Kot mountains of Paktia province throughout January and February of 2002. A Taliban fugitive in Paktia province, Mullah Saifur Rehman, also began reconstituting some of his militia forces in support of the foreign fighters. They totalled over 1,000 by the beginning of March of 2002. The intention of the rebels was to use the region as a base area for launching guerrilla attacks and possibly a major offensive in the style of the mujahedin who battled Soviet forces during the 1980s.

Operation Anaconda

Operation Anaconda U.S. and allied Afghan militia intelligence sources soon picked up on this buildup in Paktia province and prepared a massive push to counter it. On March 2, 2002, U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot southeast of Gardez. The rebel forces, who used small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars, were entrenched into caves and bunkers in the hillsides at an altitude that was largely above 10,000 feet (3,000 m). They used "hit and run" tactics, opening fire on the U.S. and Afghan forces and then retreating back into their caves and bunkers to weather the return fire and persistent U.S. bombing raids. To compound the situation for the coalition troops, U.S. commanders initially underestimated the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces as a last isolated pocket of dead-enders numbering less than 200. It turned out that the guerrillas number over 1,000, perhaps as high as 5,000 according to some estimates, and that they were receiving reinforcements. rocket-propelled grenades By March 6, eight Americans and seven Afghan soldiers had been killed and reportedly 400 opposing forces had also been killed in the fighting. The coalition casualties stemmed from a friendly fire incident that killed one soldier, the downing of two helicopters by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire that killed seven soldiers, and the pinning down of U.S. forces being inserted into what was coined as "Objective Ginger" that resulted in dozens of wounded. Ground fire from Afghan militia and American forces in a number of skirmishes, along with heavy aerial bombardment, resulted in over 400 al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels killed, according to U.S. estimates. However, fewer than 50 bodies were ever found. Regardless of the correct number of guerrillas killed, it is clear that several hundred somehow escaped the dragnet and melted away, almost certainly by moving in small groups along mountain trails to the tribal areas across the border into Pakistan. The Pakistani forces meant to serve as a blocking forces apparently lacked either the will or the capability, or possibly both, to seal off the border.

Post-Anaconda operations

Following the battle at Shahi-Kot, it is believed that the al-Qaeda fighters established sanctuaries among tribal protectors in Pakistan, from which they regained their strength and later began launching cross-border raids on U.S. forces by the summer months of 2002. Guerrilla units, numbering between 5 and 25 men, still regularly cross the border from their sanctuaries in Pakistan to fire rockets at U.S. bases and ambush American convoys and patrols, as well as Afghan National Army troops, Afghan militia forces working with the U.S-led coalition, and non-governmental organizations. The area around the U.S. base at Shkin in Paktika province has seen some of the heaviest activity. Meanwhile, Taliban forces continued to remain in hiding in the rural regions of the four southern provinces that formed their heartland, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, and Uruzgan. In the wake of Operation Anaconda the Pentagon requested that British Royal Marines who are highly trained in mountain warfare, be deployed. They conducted a number of missions over several weeks with very limited results. The Taliban, who during the summer of 2002 numbered in the hundreds, avoided combat with U.S. forces and their Afghan allies as much as possible and melted away into the caves and tunnels of remote Afghan mountain ranges or across the border into Pakistan during operations. This resulted in a number of fruitless missions conducted by American and British forces, in which no combat occurred and no enemy forces were captured or killed. Even with popular support (and it is not certain to what extent the coalition has obtained it), and advanced surveillance technology, locating small bands of 5-10 men in the vast stretches of rugged terrain that exist in southeastern Afghanistan and along the Pakistani border, and who are determined to avoid contact, is an almost impossible task. This rather frustrating situation persisted throughout 2002.

Renewed Taliban insurgency

After managing to evade U.S. forces throughout the summer of 2002, the remnants of the Taliban gradually began to regain their confidence and started to begin preparations to launch the insurgency that Mullah Muhammad Omar had promised during the Taliban's last days in power. During September, Taliban forces began a recruitment drive in Pashtun areas in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to launch a renewed "jihad" or holy war against the Afghan government and the U.S-led coalition. Pamphlets distributed in secret during the night also began to appear in many villages in the former Taliban heartland in southeastern Afghanistan that called for jihad. Small mobile training camps were established along the border with Pakistan by al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives to train new recruits in guerrilla warfare and terrorist tactics, according to Afghan sources and a United Nations report. Most of the new recruits were drawn from the madrassas or religious schools of the tribal areas of Pakistan, from which the Taliban had originally arisen. Major bases, a few with as many as 200 men, were created in the mountainous tribal areas of Pakistan by the summer of 2003. Slipping across the long and rugged border in small groups is a relatively simple task, even with heavy patrolling by security forces. The will of the Pakistani paramilitaries stationed at border crossings to prevent such infiltration was called into question, and Pakistani military operations proved of little use. The Taliban gradually reorganized and reconstituted their forces over the winter, preparing for a summer offensive. They established a new mode of operation: gather into groups of around 50 to launch attacks on isolated outposts and convoys of Afghan soldiers, police, or militia and then breaking up into groups of 5-10 men to evade subsequent offensives. U.S. forces in the strategy were attacked indirectly, through rocket attacks on bases and improvised mines planted in the roadside. To coordinate the strategy, Mullah Omar named a 10-man leadership council for the resistance, with himself at the head. Five operational zones were created, assigned to various Taliban commanders such as the key Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah, in charge of Zabul province operations. Al-Qaeda forces in the east had a bolder strategy of concentrating on the Americans and catching them when they could with elaborate ambushes. The first sign that Taliban forces were regrouping came on January 28, when a band of 80 fighters allied with the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami were discovered and assaulted by U.S. forces at the Adi Ghar cave complex 15 miles (24 km) north of Spin Boldak. 18 rebels were reported killed and no U.S. casualties reported. The site was suspected to be a base to funnel supplies and fighters from Pakistan. The first isolated attacks by relatively large Taliban bands on Afghan targets also appeared around that time. As the summer continued, the attacks gradually increased in frequency in the "Taliban heartland." Dozens of Afghan government soldiers, non-governmental organization and humanitarian workers, and several U.S. soldiers died in the raids, ambushes, and rocket attacks. In addition to the guerrilla attacks, Taliban fighters began building up their forces in the district of Dai Chopan, a district in Zabul province that also straddles Kandahar and Uruzgan and is at the very center of the Taliban heartland. Dai Chopan district is a remote and sparsely populated corner of southeastern Afghanistan composed of towering, rocky mountains interspersed with thin gorges. Taliban fighters decided it would be the perfect area to make a stand against the Afghan government and the coalition forces. Over the course of the summer, perhaps the largest concentration of Taliban militants gathered in the area since the fall of the regime, with up to 1,000 guerrillas regrouping. Over 220 people, including several dozen Afghan police, were killed in August of 2003 as Taliban fighters gained strength. The U.S. military is currently sustaining approximately one death and four wounded per week in Afghanistan. One of the major reasons that U.S. forces are suffering such light causalities as compared to Iraq is that they have a much lighter presence in Afghanistan. The American strategy was never to mould Afghanistan as a model of Jeffersonian democracy but rather more narrow. Their strategy was to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and destroy Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The "light touch" strategy while helping to keep causalities low has also prevented the capture of Osama bin-Laden and thus can be considered a failure. The failure in Afghanistan has demonstrated the folly of network centric warfare where wars are won through high technology and not boots on the ground. The U.S. military depended on the Northern Alliance, Mercenary Warlords for ground assault and the Pakistani army for a blocking movement preventing Al-Qaeda and Taliban escape. Unfortunately for the U.S. the interests of Pakistan and the Northern Alliance did not perfectly align with the U.S. There was no significant blocking force by the Pakistani military across the border. The warlords were easily bribed by Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces and the Northern Alliance was more interested in consolidating their new found gains. For any chance of success the U.S. military needed 20,000 troops for the blocking force across the Pakistani border and a further 10,000 troops for the assault on Tora-Bora. U.S and Afghan government forces, meanwhile, were preparing an offensive to root out the rebel forces. During the last week of August, Afghan government forces backed by U.S troops and heavy American aerial bombardment advanced upon Taliban positions within the mountain fortress. After a one-week battle, Taliban forces were routed with up to 124 fighters (according to Afghan government estimates) killed. Taliban spokesmen, however, denied the high casualty figure and U.S estimates were somewhat lower. By the first week of September, however, Taliban forces had been scattered from their base at Dai-Chopan.

Psychological Warfare

According to an Australian TV report, the United States is applying psychological pressure to force enemy Taliban fighters out into the open. Members of the 173rd Airborne burned Taliban bodies which had been laid out to face Mecca. Many Muslims would find this to be offensive to them, which could detract from their fighting effectiveness. Psyops specialist Sgt. Jim Baker was recorded reading out an inflammatory message to the Taliban: "Attention, Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be." Another soldier stated: "You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are." U. S. authorities were to investigate the incident which may have contravened the Geneva convention. [http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=352718]

Nature of the coalition

The first wave of attacks was carried out solely by American and British forces. On the second day, only American forces participated. In addition to the United Kingdom, a number of other countries provided support. Although undoubtedly of practical value, in some cases it is generally seen as primarily a moral statement. In rough order of level of contribution, these were: Geneva convention
- Canada(Operation Apollo): about 2,500 troops, six ships and six aircraft. Since 9/11, more than 15,000 Canadian personnel have served in Afghanistan and the Gulf. Twenty Ships have been deployed to date. An Air Base is also maintained in the Persian Gulf. Sources say that only 40 JTF2 Commandoes were deployed in the initial stages of the war. However, a far larger number is currently present in Afghanistan.
- Australia (Operation Slipper): about 300 SAS troops, air-to-air refueling tankers, Navy frigates, two Orion electronic intelligence gathering aircraft, and F/A-18 fighter aircraft for Diego Garcia.
- United Kingdom (Operation Veritas): The naval element consisted of one aircraft carrier, one amphibious ship, one destroyer, one frigate, three nuclear fleet submarines and seven Royal Fleet Auxiliaries, SBS and No. 40 Commando (not deployed). The British Army provided the 22nd SAS and later 1,800 troops to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
- New Zealand: 50 Special Air Service soldiers, two C-130 Hercules.
- France (opération Héraclès) :~ 4,500 troops including 3,500 for the Marine Nationale (one CVBG), 600 for the Armée de l'Air) (~ 12 Mirage 2000, Mirage F1 and Mirage IV), 600 to International Security Assistance Force; ~ 200 special forces for 2003.
- Germany: approximately 2,250 troops including special forces, naval vessels, NBC cleanup teams.
- Russia
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- Croatia, 50 military police in Kabul area. From 2006 will become 159.
- Denmark: Special Forces and a C-130 transport aircraft. Six F-16 fighters were later deployed in the EPAF force.
- Norway: six F-16 fighters, logistic teams, mine clearance teams, a special forces commando group and several C-130 transports.
- Bahrain: Naval vessels.
- Jordan
- Japan, in its first military deployment since World War II, contributed naval support for non-combat reinforcement of the operation.
- Poland: 93 soldiers including GROM special forces. Their tasks included engineering reconnaissance, the construction of fortifications, mine removal and the transport of water and fuel.
- Romania: 25 military police and a C-130 transport aircraft.
- Note: this list is currently incomplete and almost certainly inaccurate (many countries refuse to specify the whereabouts of their elite combat units and so forth)' Despite reluctance in the Arab states towards retaliation against the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan, the Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf offered support. Pakistan and Iran agreed to open borders to receive the expected increased migration of refugees from Afghanistan. Earlier, Pakistan had supported the Taliban, especially during the 1996-1998 period when they were establishing control- later relations between the two were not as close. After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan allocated three airbases to the United States for the invasion of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has allowed the U.S. to place troops on the ground as well as use an airfield for humanitarian relief. 34 nations participate in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan. [http://www.afnorth.nato.int/ISAF/index.htm]

Casualties of the invasion

According to Jonathan Steele of The Guardian between 20,000 and 49,600 people may have died of the consequences of the invasion. According to Marc W. Herold's [http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/ Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing] at least 3700 and probably closer to 5000 civilians were killed as a result of US bombing[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1740538.stm]. Herold's study omitted those killed indirectly, when air strikes cut off their access to hospitals, food or electricity. Also exempt were bomb victims who later died of their injuries. When there were different casualty figures from the same incident, in 90% of cases Professor Herold chose a lower figure. Some people, however, dispute Herold's estimates. Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute and Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives question Herold's heavy use of the Afghan Islamic Press (the Taliban's official mouthpiece) and claim tallies provided them were suspicious. A contrary view is that the Taliban would have been motivated to downplay casualties. Conetta also claims statistical errors in Herold's study[http://www.comw.org/pda/0201oef.html#appendix2] [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/565otmps.asp?pg=1]. Conetta's study puts total civilian casualties between 1000 and 1300 [http://www.comw.org/pda/0201oef.html#appendix1]. A Los Angeles Times study put the number of collateral dead between 1,067 and 1,201.

Diplomatic efforts

Meetings of various Afghan leaders were organised by the United Nations and took place in Germany. The Taliban was not included. These meetings produced an interim government and an agreement to allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to enter Afghanistan.

Humanitarian efforts

Taliban It is estimated that in Afghanistan there are 1.5 million suffering from immediate starvation, as well as 7.5 million suffering as a result of the country's dire situation - the combination of civil war, drought-related famine, and, to a large extent, the Taliban's oppressive regime. In Pakistan, the United Nations and private humanitarian organisations have begun gearing up for the massive humanitarian effort necessary in addition to the already major refugee and food efforts. The United Nations World Food Programme temporarily suspended activities within Afghanistan at the beginning of the bombing attacks. The efforts have, as of early (December 2001), resumed with a daily distribution rate of 3,000 tons a day. It is however estimated that 30,000 tons of food will be needed by (January 2002) to provided sufficient relief to the impoverished masses. By November 1, U.S. C-17s flying at 30,000 feet (10,000 m) had dropped 1,000,000 food and medicine packets marked with an American flag. Doctors Without Borders called it an act of transparent propaganda and said that using medicines without medical consultation is much more likely to cause harm than good. Action Against Hunger head of operations in Afghanistan Thomas Gonnet said it was an "act of marketing". A further dangerous problem lies in the fact that the food packets are bright yellow in color; the same color as unexploded bomblets from U.S. cluster bombs. Besides of the color the bombs are larger, made from sturdy metal and plastic with only a latin number written on them while relief packages are covered in lose plastic wraps with pictures of usage and writings in local alphabets on them. Some injuries and damage to housing have said to happen from boxes of relief supplies dropped from U.S. aircraft. No actual casualties from those source have been observed so far thus can be seen as propaganda or myths.

Allegations of human rights abuses

The Dasht-i-Leili massacre allegedly occurred in December, 2001, when a number (disputed to be between 250 and 3,000) of Taliban prisoners were shot or suffocated to death in metal truck containers while being transferred by U.S. and Northern Alliance soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison in northern Afghanistan [http://www.sundayherald.com/25520]. These claims are disputed by journalist Robert Young Pelton, who was present at the time of the incident [http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/?uc_full_date=20030204]. There are allegations that coalition soldiers tortured prisoners in interrogations; many complaints center on the U.S. prison camp at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11017-2004May8.html]. Abdul Wali died on June 21, 2003, at a base near Asadabad. He was brutally beaten by former Army Ranger and CIA contractor David Passaro, who was arrested on June 17, 2004, on four counts of assault [http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5451302]. In 2004, the US-based human rights organisation Human Rights Watch released a report entitled 'Enduring Freedom - Abuses by US Forces in Afghanistan', containing multiple allegations of abuse by American forces. In February 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union released documents they had obtained from the United States Army which showed that, following the Abu Ghraib scandal, the Army in Afghanistan had destroyed photographs which documented the abuse of prisoners in their custody. Pictures were taken in the area of Fire Base Tycze, and around the villages of Gurjay and Sukhagen. The pictures were alleged to have shown soldiers posing with hooded and bound detainees during mock executions. See also: Bagram torture and prisoner abuse and Movement to impeach George W. Bush.

Protests, demonstrations and rallies

Main article: Protests against the invasion of Afghanistan Several small protests occurred in various cities and college campuses across the United States and in other countries in the first days after the start of the bombing campaign. These were mainly peaceful but larger protests and general strikes occurred in Pakistan, a previous Taliban ally. Some of these were suppressed by police with casualties among the protesters. In both Islamic and non-Islamic nations, protests and rallies of various sizes against the attack on Afghanistan took place. Many protesters felt that the attack on Afghanistan was unjustified aggression. Some believed it would lead to the deaths of many innocent people by preventing humanitarian aid workers from bringing food into the country. On October 7, there was a peace rally of 10,000 to 12,000 people in New York City. They marched from Union Square to Times Square, cheering the police at the beginning of the march. The list of about twelve speakers was cut to three or four by the police, and they were herded at the end into a one-lane-wide "bullpen". There was also a demonstration in London that organisers estimate was 100,000 people. LOL

Disputable information and rumors

Coded messages in Osama bin Laden tapes :The U.S. government requested that national media not air or check with the federal government first, before airing pre-recorded messages from Osama bin Laden. The reasons they gave were that bin Laden may be sending coded messages within the tapes (steganography), and that the airing of such propaganda was inadvisable. The networks stated that they would review the tapes before airing them.

Slogans and terms


- US Government:
  - Operation Enduring Freedom
  - War on Terror
- Yahoo: "Allied Strikes"
- CNN: "America Strikes Back", "America's New War"
- MSNBC: "America Strikes Back"
- ABC: "America Strikes"
- NBC: "Taliban Attacked"
- New York Times: "America Attacks" & "A Nation Challenged"

2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan -- Timeline


- 2001
  - October
  - November
  - December
- 2002
  - January See also: Afghanistan timeline, Invasions of Afghanistan, History of Afghanistan since 1992

Footnotes

The U.S. military campaign, led by U.S. general Tommy Franks, was initially given the name Operation Infinite Justice but quickly renamed Operation Enduring Freedom due to objections from U.S. and Afghan Muslim clerics of religious connotations —that only God could dispense "infinite justice." British military operations against Afghanistan were codenamed "Operation Veritas."

See also


- List of casualties of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
- Afghanistan friendly fire incident
- 2003 invasion of Iraq

External link


- [http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/view_album.php?set_albumName=Operation_Enduring_Freedom A collection of photo albums of Operation Enduring Freedom] -- From Militaryphotos.net Category:2001 Category:Guerrilla wars Category:History of Afghanistan Category:Operations involving special forces Category:War on terror Category:Wars of the United States ja:アメリカのアフガニスタン侵攻

2001

:This article is about the year 2001. For information on the movie, see 2001: A Space Odyssey. For the Dr. Dre album, see 2001. 2001 (MMI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, 2001 is also the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. Popular culture, however, often views the year 2000 as holding this distinction. 2001 is also the year which marks:
- Australia's Centenary of Federation
- The International Year of the Volunteer
- The United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January

January
- January 1 - A black monolith measuring approximately nine feet tall appears in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- January 6 - The U.S. Congress, presided over by Vice President Al Gore as President of the Senate, certifies George W. Bush's Electoral College victory and thus as the winner of 2000 presidential election.
- January 11 - The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
- January 13 - Major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 hits all El Salvador.
- January 15 - Wikipedia, a Wiki free content encyclopedia, goes online (Wikipedia Day).
- January 20 - George W. Bush succeeds Bill Clinton as President of the United States after prevailing over Al Gore in the disputed U.S. presidential election, 2000.
- January 22 - Four of the "Texas 7" are caught at a convenience store in Woodland Park, Colorado and a fifth killed himself inside a motor home.
- January 23-25 - UN war crimes prosecutor Del Ponte demands that Serbia hand over Slobodan Milošević.
- January 24 - The last two of the "Texas 7" are taken into custody in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- January 24 - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson resigns from the British cabinet for the second time.
- January 26 - A 50-year-old DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
- January 26 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India. More than 20,000 deaths and most of the historical city is destroyed.
- January 29 - Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
- January 31 - The Scottish Court in the Netherlands convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

February

February hits the UK.]]
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: British and U.S. forces carry out bombing raids attempting to disable Iraq's air defense network.
- February 5 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announce that they have separated
- February 6 - Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon wins election as Prime Minister of Israel
- February 9 - American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks Japanese fishing vessel Ehime-Maru.
- February 12 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
- February 13 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 hits El Salvador, killing at least 400
- February 16 - Baghdad suburb bombed by US and UK war planes, 3 people killed.
- February 18 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt is killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500 while blocking for his DEI cars driven by his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Michael Waltrip, who won the race.
- February 19 - A Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
- February 20 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
- February 20 - 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis begins.
- February 24-27 - Patient Tony Collins spends 77 hours and 30 minutes on a hospital trolley outside the toilets in the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, United Kingdom
- February 28 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hits the Nisqually Valley area of Washington. There was one reported death, an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack.
- February 28 - The Selby rail crash kills ten people.

March


- March 23 - Russian space stations Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean
- March 24 - Apple Computer's Mac OS X v10.0 is released.
- March 26 - WCW is bought out by WWE.
- March 28 - Tornado [http://www.dallassky.com/fwtornado.htm Dallas Skys] rips through downtown Fort Worth killing five and causing more than 500 million dollars in property damage.
- March 31 - Invader Zim premieres on Nickelodeon.

April


- April 1 - An EP-3E American spyplane collides with a Chinese fighter jet and is forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew was detained for 10 days and the F-8 Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, went missing and presumed dead.
- April 1 - Former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
- April 1 - In the Netherlands, the Act on the Opening up of Marriage goes into effect. The Act allows same-sex couples to legally marry for the first time in the world.
- April 27 - Impostor Christopher Rocancourt arrested in Oak Bay, British Columbia
- April 29 - Census of population in the United Kingdom.

May


- May 1 - The Japanese cities of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono merge to form the city of Saitama.
- May 1 - Police declare the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Her remains were discovered a year later.
- May 7 - In Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia, an attempt is made to reconstruct the Ferhadija mosque. However, the ceremony resulted in mass riots by Serb nationalists that beat and stone three hundred elderly Bosnian Muslims.
- May 10 - In Ghana, a stampede at a soccer game kills over 120.
- May 11 - Comedy sci-fi author Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame, dies from a heart attack, aged 49.
- May 16 - John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister of United Kingdom, assaults Craig Evans at an election rally in Rhyll, North Wales.
- May 22 - Large trans-Neptunian object 28978 Ixion found during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.
- May 22 and May 23 - Official Opening of the Bahá'í Terraces on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel; site of the Shrine of the Báb and the Bahá'í World Centre.
- May 24 - Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to conquer Mount Everest.

June


- June 1 - Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal kills his father, the king, his mother and other members of the royal family with an assault rifle and then shoots himself. He dies June 4. King Gyanendra acceeds to the throne
- June 5-June 9 - Houston, Texas is devastated by flooding when Tropical Storm Allison produces 36 inches (900 mm) of rain. Particularly hard hit are the downtown area and the Texas Medical Center, which lost years of research and data and thousands of lab animals. Twenty-two people die; damage exceeds five billion American dollars.
- June 5 - Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate from the Republican party to the Democratic party
- June 7 - Tony Blair's Labour Party elected for second term in UK General Election
- June 8 - Popular editorial site suck.com, one of the first original content sites on the internet, publishes its final article, "Gone Fishin'."
- June 9 - The Colorado Avalanche win their second Stanley Cup Championship 3-1 in Game 7 over the New Jersey Devils at the Pepsi Center in Denver. This series was highly anticipated as longtime Boston Bruins star traded to become a [Colorado Avalanche|Colorado]] defenseman Ray Bourque wins the Stanley Cup for the first time in his illustrious 22 year NHL career, a few days after the team's victory, Bourque announces his retirement.
- June 11 - The United States executes Timothy James McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing.
- June 19 - 23 people killed and 11 wounded by an American missile hitting a soccer field in northern Iraq, Tel Afr County.
- June 20 - Pervez Musharraf becomes President of Pakistan after the resignation of Rafiq Tarar.
- June 20 - Andrea Yates drowns her children in a bathtub and confesses to her crime. She would get life in prison for it.
- June 21 - Total solar eclipse

July

July.]]
- July 2 - World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.
- July 3 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145
- July 16 - The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas for violating a provision of the DMCA.
- July 18 - In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel sparking a fire that will last days and virtually shut down downtown Baltimore
- July 19 - UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer, sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
- July 20 - Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.
- July 20-22 - The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is shot dead by a carabiniere and several others are badly injured during an attack by the police on a school which the protesters were using as their headquarters.
- July 24 - Tamil Tigers attack Bandaranaika International Airport in Sri Lanka, causing estimated $500 million of damages
- July 28 - Alejandro Toledo is sworn as the new president of Peru, eight months after the vote of no-confidence of former President Alberto Fujimori.

August


- August 1 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2 1/2 ton monument of the Ten Commandments surreptitiously installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building. He would later be sued to have it removed. Later, he would be removed from office.
- August 2 - Robert Mueller confirmed as the new FBI director.
- August 6 - : George W. Bush is informed in his President's Daily Brief that Osama bin Laden is determined to strike targets within the United States and that the FBI believed activity consistent with preparations for hijacking US airplanes was underway.
- August 9 - US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
- August 9 - In the