Afghanistan War (2001-2021)

Template:TOC-right After the 9-11 attacks, the United States learned that the al-Qaeda senior leadership, who took responsibility for the attacks, were based in Afghanistan. The ruling Taliban refused to surrender that leadership and shut down their facilities, and the U.S., also invoking the NATO treaty of collective defense, issued a conditional ultimatum that if the demands were not met, a new Afghanistan War would begin in 2001.

NATO participation was the first invocation of Article 5, the collective defense agreement at the heart of the NATO Charter. The operation was also authorized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373.

Initial concept and its development

GEN Tommy Franks, commanding CENTCOM, set out a four-phase plan that was briefed to the President on September 21, 2001:

• Phase I: Set conditions and build forces to provide the National Command Authority credible military options: build alliances and prepare the battlefield
• Phase II: Conduct initial combat operations and continue to set conditions for follow-on operations; begin initial humanitarian operations
• Phase III: Conduct decisive combat operations in Afghanistan, continue to build coalition, and conduct operations
• Phase IV: Establish capability of coalition partners to prevent the re-emergence of terrorism and establish support for humanitarian operation: expected to be a 3-5 year effort

It is a maxim of warfare that no plan survives contact with the enemy; it is a reality of modern warfare that no plan survives contact with higher headquarters. This particular set of plans also was quite different than others the U.S. had fought, in several aspects. It was to be a coalition from the start, both with the Afghan Northern Alliance against the Taliban government, with formal NATO cooperation and with both direct combat and assistive roles from other countries. Within the U.S. military, it was conceived as truly joint, not Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine; Special Operations forces were also to have a major role.

On the 20th, Franks had a tense meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), whom he felt each argued for a plan featuring their service. He asked for and received confirmation from the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), Donald Rumsfeld, that he had full command authority to develop a service-independent approach.

The actual briefing to the President and Vice President was made by Franks, retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) GEN Hugh Shelton, Vice CJCS GEN Dick Myers (who succeeded the retiring Shelton), and JSOC commander MG Dell Dailey; Dailey indicated the importance of special operations to the plan.

Phase I

Afghanistan is landlocked. Before any operations could proceed, basing rights needed to be established. Kyrgyzstan, which had had Special Forces trainers since 1999, allowed the initial basing at Dushanbe, which subsequently moved to a major facility at Manas.

Before United States Army Special Forces teams could be attached to the various Northern Alliance forces, Central Intelligence Agency Special Activities Division officers needed to link with their leaders. At first, only one CIA unit was present, with the forces of Mohammed Fahim Khan, who had taken command after al-Qaeda assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9.

The Special Forces teams waited at the K-2 base in Uzbekistan; for political reasons, Uzbekistan announced that it was assisting in humanitarian assistance and combat search and rescue. Air operations were controlled from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. AC-130 gunships and other fixed-wing support aircraft flew from Qatar.

Phase II

Large-scale overt air attacks started on October 7, 2001. The public name was , Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

It took approximately 2 weeks before the first Special Forces team, Operational Detachment A (ODA) 595 joined General Dostum of the Northern Alliance. Just afterwards, two direct action operations took place. The first was a paratroop attack, by the 75th Ranger Regiment, to seize an airstrip coded Rhino. A second force, by a JSOC Special Mission Unit (SMU), was to attack the Kandahar headquarters of Mullah Omar. Rhino was to receive the first conventional ground combat unit, of U.S. Marines.

Phase III

Other ODAs linked up, and the Northern Alliance advanced, taking control of Kabul on November 13. Heavy fighting, however, continued.

The U.S. set up Combined Joint Task Force 180 (CJTF-180) in June 2002 as the CENTCOM forward headquarters, under a lieutenant general.

Current situation

There is an Afghan government in place, with military capability of its own, the Afghan National Army (ANA). The major combat capability remains with the NATO International Security Assistance Force, commanded by a U.S. four-star general who is also commander of United States Forces - Afghanistan (USFOR-A), GEN David McKiernan. On May 12, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asked for McKiernan's resignation; he is to be replaced by LTG Stanley A. McChrystal.. McChrystal comes from a special operations background, as opposed to McKiernan's in armor.

Afghan security forces

The Afghan National Army is comprised of five corps, the 201st Corps based in Kabul; 203rd Corps in Gardez; 205th Corps in Kandahar; 207th Corps in Herat and the 209th Corps in Mazar-e-Sharif. Attached to each corps is an Afghan Regional Security Integration Command (ARSIC). Each ARSIC is comprised of a Regional Police Advisory Command (RPAC) and a Regional Corps Advisory Command (RCAC). The RPAC is responsible for training, coaching and mentoring all organizations of the Afghan National Police. The RCAC has the same function for the ANA corps and below.

Coalition order of battle

There are five regional commands of ISAF.

• North: Germany forces; primarily training
• East: U.S.
• South: rotating command between Dutch, Canadian, and British forces,
• West: Italy; primarily training
• Capital: The capital region included the composite ISAF HQ, made up of members of all 41 contributing nations, as well as
  • Regional Command Capital, under France

Under USFOR-A, overtly, are two major commands, one combat and one advisory/training. Combat capabilities are based on a U.S. division, forming a U.S. task force named for the division (i.e., currently Combined Joint Task Force-101, based on the 101st Airborne Division), which is also the ISAF Regional Command-East. Assigned to Afghanistan are the division headquarters, 4th Brigade Combat Team, the 101st Aviation Brigade and the 101st Sustainment Brigade; the remaining brigade combat teams are in Iraq.

Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan is headed by a U.S. major general, with British and Canadian brigadier general deputies.