This investigation will explore the question: "What factors led to the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan after the Soviet-Afghan War?" Although it will be necessary to discuss a period before the Soviet-Afghan War in order to provide context, the investigation will focus on events immediately after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan until ten years later, sufficient time to show the growth of the Taliban. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay The first source is an online article titled "Who is responsible for the Taliban?" ", published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, written by Michael Rubin and published in March 2002. The author has also written articles on the state of the Middle East during the Iraq War, suggesting expertise in the region . The aim of the paper is to assess who is responsible for the rise of the Taliban. However, in its conclusion, it is clear that the document has a secondary goal of downplaying the role of the United States in the rise of the Taliban to power. The document is valuable because it shows the internal and external factors that led the Taliban to rapid growth, while supporting the view that Pakistan is primarily responsible for the Taliban's rise to power. However, as expected, the document addresses America's responsibility for the rise of the Taliban in a limited way. The document contains a history of the Taliban's rise to power from the American perspective, concluding that the United States could have done something against the Taliban, but that nothing would have worked in the face of strong Pakistani fundamentalism. A second source is another online article, titled “Afghanistan: The Taliban’s Rise to Power.” This document is an article published on October 18, 2001 by Alexandra Poolos, editor-in-chief of Radio Free Europe, a U.S. government-funded organization that sends news to countries including Asia, the Middle East and Europe from ballast. The aim of this paper is to trace the history of the Taliban's rise to power, from the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan to modern times. The tone of this document is biased against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The article is valuable in that it presents the factors that led to the Taliban's rise to power in an easy-to-digest format. Its value also comes from its US-based bias, where, because it is a government-backed service, it shows the US government's belief that the Middle East is responsible for the Taliban. However, the document is also limited by its bias, because, by placing blame solely on the Middle East, it fails to address the role of the Soviet Union and the United States in the rise to power of the Taliban. The content of the document is similar to the first document analyzed, as both constitute a report on the rise to power of the Taliban. However, unlike the first document, this document editorializes the Middle East's brutal acts and rapid acceptance of the Taliban and links them to 9/11, directly implicating Middle Eastern countries as equally responsible for this event. Analysis The Taliban were an Islamist extremist terrorist organization born in Pakistan, following the Soviet-Afghan War. The Taliban began as a group of Muslim students (Poolos), but quickly grew within a few years into the radical Islamist organization they are better known as. As a group, their goal was to implement their interpretation of Sharia law throughout the region.Their rise to prominence and power was driven by its members, but facilitated by external factors, created by unrest in neighboring countries in the Middle East, the power vacuum left by the Soviet Union after the Soviet- Afghanistan and the inaction of the United States. States in response to the Soviet Union's authorization. The Soviet Union had had influence in Afghanistan before the Soviet-Afghan War, due to the communist puppet state – the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan – that the Soviets had created in the region in 1970 (Ahmed). This puppet government would prove unpopular, and there would eventually be multiple coups and assassination attempts against the government throughout the 1970s by Islamist groups in Afghanistan (Rubin). However, the successful 1978 assassination of one of the PDPA leaders would then be followed by the Saur Revolution led by Muhammad Daoud Khan, who would gain support from the Soviet Union through the establishment of a democratic republican government Afghan (Rubin). However, infighting within the Afghan government, as well as the rise of the mujahideen and rebel groups such as the Taliban who resisted regime change, would lead the Soviet Union, currently led by Brezhnev, to believe that intervention was necessary against these rebel groups. in order to ensure their political power in Afghanistan (Rubin). As a result, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan as part of a campaign against the mujahideen, because to secure the communist position in Afghanistan, any resistance had to be suppressed. The Soviet Union started the Soviet-Afghan War with the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 (Ahmed). What was expected to be a rapid invasion of Afghanistan, which would be over within weeks, would eventually turn into a decade-long war of attrition, as the United States quickly intervened and supported the Afghan rebels after the invasion (US State Government). . The Soviet Union would then end up spending $5 billion a year in its unsuccessful efforts to re-establish its puppet government in Afghanistan (Rubin). Due to the almost immediate American intervention against the Soviet Union, the Soviet-Afghan War could be seen as yet another proxy war against both countries, much like the Vietnam War was in the mid-20th century. This failure and eventual loss of the war was largely due to the extensive aid provided by the United States. According to the Washington Institute, the U.S. government began sending aid to the Afghan resistance in response to the Soviet invasion and gradually increased its aid from $30 million in 1980 to $250 million in 1985. directly to the Afghan rebels. This aid was motivated by the American position during the Cold War, where any attempt to spread communism had to be challenged. With the cooperation of the Pakistani ISI, the United States, through the CIA, would also supply weapons to the Afghan rebels (Rubin), but after the war these weapons were never taken back, leaving a large quantity of weapons in the hands of the Afghans. rebels. As a result, the Soviet Union would eventually admit defeat and withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 (History of the Taliban). Following the Soviet withdrawal, the Taliban would quickly grow in the power vacuum and infighting among the mujahideen left behind by the departure of the United States and the Soviet Union. Initially, the Taliban would have no shortage of weapons to arm its members, since the United States had already secretly supplied the rebel group during the Soviet-Afghan War andhad made no attempt to take back these weapons at the end of the war. war (Rubin). The Taliban also enjoyed significant support from Pakistan, due to ethnic and religious ties between Shiites within the Taliban and Pakistan (History of the Taliban). This support from Pakistan would then provide the manpower needed to supplement remaining US weapons and allow the Taliban to gain power. In Pakistan, many Muslims from various Middle Eastern countries were traveling to Pakistan just to join the Taliban, wanting to join the Taliban due to the support of the Islamic group by countries like Saudi Arabia (BBC). These travelers to Pakistan will be quickly indoctrinated within one of the 33,000 religious schools established in the country in 1988 and which taught the doctrine of the Taliban (Rubin). Pakistan's support, mediated by the Pakistani ISI (Rubin), and manifested in weapons and military training, would lead the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan throughout the 1990s, culminating in the conquest from Kabul in 1996 (History of the Taliban). A new alliance with al-Qaeda would then provide the financial support the Taliban needed through the illegal transactions of which al-Qaeda was a significant part (Poolos). However, Bin Laden's association with al-Qaeda would serve to further radicalize the Taliban's ideals, because with this association the Taliban would become more brutal and radical in their Islamic beliefs (Poolos). Regardless of their ties to al-Qaeda, the Taliban would continue to grow in territory and power, eventually controlling 90% of Afghanistan by 1998 (BBC). Initially, the rise of the Taliban initially went unnoticed by powers such as the United States (Rubin). However, after hearing about the Taliban and their goals, the group was met with hesitant optimism from Western powers and, as a result, there was no intervention from these countries in the Middle East. Orient (Rubin). In the United States, the Taliban were initially seen as a group capable of establishing a stable regime in Afghanistan, which would hopefully guarantee the flow of Middle Eastern oil to the United States (Ahmed). The United States, in particular, had high hopes for the Taliban because they were allegedly “anti-Iranian and anti-Shia” (Poolos). However, this view would quickly change with the Taliban's partnership with Osama bin Laden, who was then already considered a public enemy of the United States (Poolos). However, by the time the global perception of the Taliban had changed, it would be far too late for any country to intervene, as by that time the Taliban had already claimed Afghanistan and was therefore recognized as the official government of country by Pakistan. , Saudi Arabia and the Emirates (Rubin). Overall, the Taliban's rise to power was more due to the actions (or inactions) of other countries, allowing the Taliban to flourish after the end of the Soviet-Afghan War. The Taliban's own internal growth was due to the popularity of their membership in the Muslim extremist group, especially since as a group they had technically proven their strength against stronger world powers with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, instead of collapsing like any other non-state organization, the Taliban remained operational, as they were able to remain functional thanks to the large amount of resources left to them by the United States and the continued support of the Pakistan. Finally, the idea that the United States probably could not have done anything to stop the rise of the Taliban has.