![By Shahid Parvez. Based on a file by User:Ssolbergj.Parvez gsm at en.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cms.accelerate-ed.com/image/3f553c6d-31cb-4f90-a114-eb3e09368a08.png)
Afghanistan is highlighted on this map. Iran is to the west, and Pakistan is to the east.
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In addition to shoring up America's defenses, President Bush also wanted to pursue the group responsible for 9/11. In fact, he wanted to combat terrorism all over the world. On September 20, 2001, Bush declared a
War on Terror that went beyond al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden: "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated."
The first battleground of the War on Terror was Afghanistan, a country that lies between Iran and Pakistan in central Asia.
In 2011, Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic group that outlawed most forms of technology and followed one of the strictest interpretations of Islam possible. The Taliban supported al-Qaeda's goals and allowed the group to settle and train in Afghanistan. When President Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and stop supporting terrorism, they refused.
On October 7, 2001, President Bush ordered American troops into Afghanistan, where they were joined by Great Britain and eventually the United Nations. The combined forces drove the Taliban from power, but most of its fighters escaped to Pakistan along with al-Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden. Pakistan was technically an American ally, but it also supported terrorists at the time.
As the war progressed, American troops faced more and more attacks from Islamic terrorists hiding in the mountains of Pakistan.
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While the Taliban and al-Qaeda were no longer in power, they still maintained influence over rural areas outside the major cities of Afghanistan, and they frequently launched guerrilla attacks against Western troops stationed there and the new democratic government. As of 2014, the war in Afghanistan was still going on. Osama bin Laden was finally killed in Pakistan in 2011, but the Afghan war remains the longest foreign conflict that the United States has ever been involved in.
Question
Was the war in Afghanistan a success?
The war in Afghanistan happened so recently that it's hard to assess, but based on its goals, some people might say it was a half-success. Al-Qaeda lost its base in Afghanistan and became an organization on the run, which was a victory. However, the organization wasn't destroyed entirely, and Islamic militants still threaten the country's stability.
