According to reports, Afghanistan hasn’t been in a situation when we call it ”country in peace” for past decades. Afghanistan is located in South Asia and has very harsh climate condition. The country is more than half of desert. The literacy rate is one of the lowest in the world and poverty is a problem. But apart from these, more important problems are about corruption, terrorism and most importantly, violence.

This all started in 1973 when a coup took place in Afghanistan known as coup d’état. This coup overthrew King Mohammad Zahir Shah whose rule was considered as the nostalgic era of peace and prosperity. But the coup took place and he was overthrown by his brother Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan. This was considered as the start of the bloodshed in Afghanistan by many experts which is till now. Afghanistan then got attention in cold war and another coup took place. This time it was a communist coup backed by Soviet union which overthrew and killed Daoud Khan. This historical coup was known as Saur Revolution by the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). As they came into power, iron fist began and the country was running with pace but there was a defect in the pace of it as people were still not getting peace which they wanted.

But just a year after this, as being part of the cold war, the military started its own wave of power and now they wanted to rule the throne.With the support of people, from a farmer to doctor, all joined wave against the year-old government. PDPA asked for help from Soviets and got supplies and support from them. This cached attention of west, Pakistan and Gulf nations. With Soviet support, PDPA was somehow able to resist but as west got itself involved in this war, it got complex. West trained and supported groups who wanted to overthrow the government and combined all the groups which were the against the government. Now this group was called mujahideen. Many foreign fighters started engaging themselves in this war, which started the creation of many warlords. These warlords were also creating there militia side by side. With continuous people’s anger against the communist government, things started in favor of them.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took the general secretary and his opinions with unique foreign policies made soviet think twice about supporting Afghanistan. After 1985, the Afghan government saw their fall as opposition getting stronger by American continuous support. A very powerful missile by name stinger missile was started supplying by Americans to mujahideen which they used by hiding in mountains and firing them on Russian helicopters which made a huge loss for soviets. The Soviet Union was also getting weak at that time and in 1988, soviet signed Geneva accords in which they started the withdrawal of their army Afghanistan and 1989, soviet completely ended their support for the Afghan government. With this, Americans also started the withdrawal of their troops.

Now all was left were last communist leader Najibullah. Najibullah realized that his regime would never defeat the Mujahideen rebels and while calling them ‘traitors and filthy vultures’, he offered them various offers of reconciliation. Not surprisingly, the Mujahideen rejected them all. He tried to urge people that if something like this will continue then Afghanistan will lose its value and will become a pawn in the war between global powers. He traveled over the world for support, but his all strategies failed. Finally, in 1992, an agreement was signed between Najibullah and Massoud (opposition leader) in which an Islamic coalition government will be there. But there was one person who wanted sole rue, his name was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.From then for years, another war started between Massoud’s army and Hekmatyar’s militia which was backed by Pakistan. Then finally in 1994, they both settled the conflict. But there was another person whose army was still against Massoud. His same was Mullah Omar, who founded Taliban. This caught the attention of Pakistan and Pakistan diverted their support to Taliban than Hekmatyar. In 1996, Taliban controlled the maximum area of Afganistan and controlled Kabul and brutally killed Najibullah. Taliban controlled the whole nation in 2001 as Massoud was assassinated.

After that 9/11 took place. This attack shocked the whole world and after that America invaded Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, you don’t understand yourself solely as an individual. You understand yourself as a son, a brother, a cousin to somebody, an uncle to somebody. You are part of something bigger than yourself.
-Khaled Hosseini (Afghani novelist)

In the 1980s America reacted to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. We supported a war that left a nation torn to pieces. And as the last Soviet tank left the country, so did we.
-Simon Sinek (Author)