HIstory assignment descriptive writing on: TORA – BORA WAR
Post 9/11 the world saw the emergence of new global forces, not the ones which were known by their crude might and brutal military power but forces that made the difference. This difference was marked by the fact that the world looked up to them as the forces that could play as a leveler in the fight of global and regional balances.
It was shown to the world how the world’s most dominant force can be done with, if not completely dominated, by the people who wanted to do exactly that. USA always knew what the war on terror could do in the long run and what could be expense of such a step. The coalition forces i.e. US and its allied troops raided the mountains of Tora Bora for their life’s greatest quest ‘Osama-Bin-Laden’. The man believed to be behind the most dreadful terrorist outfit ‘Al-Qaeda’ which caused the ruckus (Krause 2008).
The key events that led to the war of Tora – Bora include the terrorist attack on 11 September 2001 in America. According to George Tenet, who was director of central intelligence that time, the system was blinking red and giving indications that something wrong is going to happen. Tenet tried to provide the top – secret to the senators about the rising threat of attack but only few members of the senators appeared to listen it.
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants from Islamic extremist Al – Qaeda hijacked four planes in America. They carried out suicide attacks against United States. Two planes hit the world trade centre in New York City and third plane hit the Pentagon outside Washington D.C. Fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania. This attack is often known as 9/11 and resulted in huge loss for the America and also raised the question against presidency of Bush. More than 3000 people were killed in the attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. Attackers of 9/11 were Islamic terrorist from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. This attack was financed by al – Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden. This attack in New York City led to the Tora – Bora war (History 2012).
The United States rightly anticipated that Bin laden will hide himself in Tora – Bora. According to the interview of Bin Laden taken by Peter Bergen, Bin – Laden reached to Tora – Bora by the end of November along with 1000 to 1500 fighters and bodyguards. Dalton fury was the senior military officer and was commanding about 90 special operations troops and support personnel. He arrived at the Tora – Bora in early December. Here Fury also got support from Afghan Militia. Afghan villagers were also involved in this war. They were providing food and other supplies for al – Qaeda fighters at Tora – Bora (N P R Books 2011).
The villagers were given devices so that they can inform when they see the number of al – Qaeda fighters. For several days Fury and his Afghan militia moved up the mountains. On December 9, a C – 130 cargo dropped a 15000 pound bomb on the Tora – Bora complex. This bombing affected the al – Qaeda fighters badly and at the same time Americans listened Bin – Laden on radio commanding his fighters to continue the fight and he apologized for getting them trapped (Krause 2008).
The air assault of U.S. army combined with fighting by local afghan troops left 300 bodies scattered. But the success of that operation and its impression, at the end of the battle – mask the failings of the U.S. Army. The outcome of the war resulted in the escape of the al – Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Evaluation of the Tora – Bora war reflected the dangers inherent in the U.S. strategy of relying on double – crossing and power – grabbing warlords while U.S. ground forces remained on the fringes of the fight. This kind of strategy of U.S. army gave bin – Laden and his al – Qaeda leaders several opportunities to escape, and the same happened (Roggio 2007).
According to Malik Haji Mohammed Nasir, the chief secretary of Nangarhar province, “the Americans relied too much on these commanders. They were trapped by them. ” At the main points of the battle the Americans realized that they had little or no control over the war.
During the war on December 12, an Afghan commander negotiated with al – Qaeda in hopes that some of them would surrender in the war- several hundred al – Qaeda members escaped themselves through the valleys and over the White Mountains to Pakistan. And in at least two ceases, Afghans who were paid to help the U.S. army in catching al – Qaeda members, took the money and disappeared. One, possibly both, led a group of bin – Laden’s men to Pakistan (Donnelly 2002).
The Afghan commanders who got even more than $ 1 million in total from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers in freshly minted $ 100 bills believed that the Americans were too less to fight with them. Hazarat Ali who was the main Afghan commander at Tora – Bora said that, “we got only fifty percent successes in getting al – Qaeda out from this area. We did not do what we should have in the mountains. The cease – fire was a trick and due to that a lot of people escaped (Donnelly 2002).”
In the continuous interviews of the commanders and fighters it was found that there were so many confusion among the U.S. army and Afghan commanders during the war. For example, al – Qaeda fighters were not under the deep caves complexes during the bombing because no such complexes exist. The exploration of 180 to 200 caves says that the largest cave found so far is 60 feet deep. Because of these confusions and wrong strategies adopted by U.S. army bin – Laden was able to escape with his other al – Qaeda members (History commons n.d.).
The disappointing outcome of the Tora – Bora war was largely due to three major factors: First, the lack of a swift deployment in response to U.S. intelligence about bin laden’s location, second, the lack of motivated well trained and well equipped assaulting force, and third, lack of motivated, well trained and well equipped blocking forces around Tora – Bora. The problems occurred because there were no proper plans to get the success in the war. Well, there could be some alternate strategies to win the war.
Intelligence plays a big role in the war and improper intelligence in Tora – Bora war was also a reason for the failure of the operation. The U.S. army needed a proper intelligence there so that they could find the location of bin – Laden. After the unsuccessful effort of capturing bin – Laden at Tora – Bora many officials said that bin – Laden was not there in Tora – Bora. They also said that they were unable to get intelligence reports daily since the information was kept secretly due to the threat of leaks. It is clear that bin – Laden was there in Tora – Bora at the time of war but the intelligence was not able to inform it properly. Another problem was the length of the force (Donnelly 2002).
The force which was going to fight required having the four most important characteristics which are rapid deploy ability to the region, small enough size to enable maneuver and not be perceived as a massive invading force, skill in irregular combat and ability to operate in difficult terrain. Long formed conventional forces create problems in deploy ability. The U.S. army was required to send all forces and supplies by air. But this was not there in the strategy of U.S. army.
When we discuss the long term effects of the unsuccessful war of Tora – Bora we find that failure to kill or capture him allowed bin – Laden to exert a malign influence over events in the region and nearly 60 countries where his followers had established extremist groups. It is also seen that the terrorist group are much stronger with their charismatic leaders than without them and failure to kill bin – Laden surely made the al – Qaeda group much stronger in recovering the loss in the battle of Tora – Bora. Although bin- Laden has been killed but the al – Qaeda members are still there and mostly in Pakistan, which is a great threat for Pakistan (Kerry 2009).
The war not only affected the army of U.S. and Afghanistan and other countries like Pakistan where al – Qaeda members exist but also it had an effect on the taxpayers of the U.S. The financial cost of the conflict had been staggering for American tax payers. The cost for the first eight year of the war was estimated at $ 243 billion and about $ 70 billion had been appropriated for the current fiscal year – a figure that did not include any increase in troops. Highest price was being paid in Afghanistan and Pakistan on daily basis, where 68000 American troops and hundreds of U.S. civilians were engaged in the ninth year of the war. Till now more than 950 U.S. troops and nearly 600 allied soldiers have lost their lives in Operation Enduring Freedom (Kerry 2009).
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