Al Qaeda was born towards the end of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan around the end of 1988. During late 1970s, the "Holy War" began in Afghanistan fought between the communist Afghan government and the mujahideen, Muslim insurgents. Osama bin Laden fought against the Soviet during this war and the name Al Qaeda was born. Bin Laden called training camps he used Al Qaeda, which literally translates to "the Base". Al Qaeda was created to fight future "Holy Wars", but bin Laden wanted to take this fight globally, primarily against the US. They felt the United States intervened with issues across the world too much. In 1991, Al Qaeda moved to Sudan, where with the help of militants across North Africa and the Middle East, organized the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Al Qaeda viewed the World Trade Center as the symbolic center of the capitalists and globalists United States. Eventually Bin Laden was expelled from Sudan and fled back to Afghanistan where he organized the bombing of the US embassy in Kenya, which killed 224 people. Here he was protected from the United States by the Taliban, which refused to turn him over when the US asked where he was.
On September 11, 2001 four passenger planes were taken over by Al Qaeda suicide pilots and crashed into specific targets in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania resulting in the deaths of around 3000 people. The most infamous of these was the World Trade Center, where two planes flew into the Twin Towers in Manhattan. In response to this, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7th, forcing bin Laden to hiding. Bin Laden was able to evade US forces until May 2, 2011, when a Navy Seal shot and killed him in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
With their leader dead, Al Qaeda was still a threat because of its structure. It was a terrorist group that had many individual sects that could run themselves. Thus, the death of one of their leaders didn't affect other Al Qaeda groups.
Sources:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/17/al-qaeda-core-a-short-history/
This post was very interesting as it showed how Bin Laden became so powerful in his fight against the United States. It's interesting to see that the Taliban protected him even when the U.S. had set their sights on him. I found that the Taliban protected him because they hailed him as a hero for fighting the Soviets, and that he annoyed the Americans. While we view him as a terrorist, the Taliban still believed he was worthy of being a hero.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jul/28/terrorism
I thought that this was a very interesting post, because it is showing how the actions of the United States in these areas of the Middle East can be used by leaders to radicalize people. I also find it interesting how Bin Laden was able to escape the US forces for so long.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/osama-bin-laden
I am glad I read your post. I think it is important to be able to understand the motivations of the "other side" and see what historical events launched them into action.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post because it gave me insight to the orgins of the Taliban and their motivations. I was surprised about how powerful they are, and this made me wonder where they got their funding from. Apparently they make somewhere from 400 million to 1.5 billion a year selling narcotics, specifically opium. It's crazy to think the heroin someone buys in the U.S or Europe could be funding terrorism thousands of miles away in Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-46554097
I enjoyed reading your post, as I found it to be very informative. I liked how you elaborated on the origins of Al-Qaeda and the meaning of its name. One interesting pattern that is evident when comparing the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq is that the removal of an “evil” regime can often lead to more negative effects than positive.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.britannica.com/topic/al-Qaeda
Great post. I remember reading once that they wrote a whole manifesto blaming US intervention in conflicts completely irregarding of the US, except of course the American government would majorly disagree and discuss the threat that terrorism's success can be to the rest of the world and its order/peace. It begs the question, however, would terrorism stop either way? If we had not intervened in some conflicts, like in Iraq, terrorists of Al-Qaeda would have taken over the government, and if we had, new terrorists would emerge in anger. What is the correct approach? Big question, but I'd love to hear your take.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you're post was interesting about how Al-Queda came to be and why they are doing what they are doing. Also I think that it is important to realise that killing the leader does not effectively end the battle. Like you said, Bin Laden's death did not change the individual Al-Queda cells because they worked autonomously. I wonder how government are supposed to rid their countries of enemies so heavily entrenched in civilian life.
ReplyDeleteI think its crucial that we understand that we technically started Al Qaeda by fueling the Mujaheddin in the Cold War. Its important that we learn from this and not to do it again.
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