American troops, regional forces (Northern Alliance), and allies together have been fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attack on America. By December 2001, the Taliban seemed to collapse. By 2003 U.S. troops were down to 8,000 and it looked like the major fighting was over.
But by February of 2009 American presence had climbed to 37,000. U.S. Pres. Obama declared that we would withdraw in 2011 and sent more military. Five months later, we had about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, and then he committed 30,000 more in December.
Plans and discussions centered for years on how to make Afghanistan secure and self-sustaining, and our troops were drawn down. The Taliban re-gained strength. By 2017 it controlled about a third of the country.
In January of this year Taliban violence escalated, and Pres. Trump sent more troops. At this time our service members in Afghanistan number around 14,000.
So that's a short summary to roughly answer the question, what's going on in Afghanistan?? It's taken from the Council on Foreign Relations.
"The Taliban have nowhere to hide,” the commander of American troops in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson, said [3 weeks ago]. “There will be no safe haven for any terrorist group bent on bringing harm and destruction to this country.”
(NATO photo)
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