The Global War on Terror
Overview
War on Terror
On September 11, 2001 ("9/11"), the United States was struck by a terrorist attack when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four airliners to be used in suicide attacks. They intentionally crashed two into both twin towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon, killing 2,937 victims—206 aboard the three airliners, 2,606 who were in the World Trade Center and on the ground, and 125 who were in the Pentagon. The fourth plane was re-taken by the passengers and crew of the aircraft. While they were not able to land the plane safely, they were able to re-take control of the aircraft and crash it into an empty field in Pennsylvania; this did kill all 44 people on board, including the four terrorists, and this heroic action saved whatever target those terrorists were aiming for. All in all, a total of 2,977 people perished in the attacks.
Learning Objectives
Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
al-Qaeda: a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s; widely designated as a terrorist group
Taliban: a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country; a group that uses terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals
“War on Terror”: designation for the U.S. government’s operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, among other terrorist organizations, in the wake of the 11 September 2001 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks
In response to what is now referred to as 9/11, President George W. Bush on September 20 announced a “War on Terror,” focusing on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, along with the groups and countries that assisted them, which included Afghanistan and Iraq. On October 7, 2001, the United States and NATO then invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq failed to stabilize the political situation in the Middle East and contributed to ongoing civil conflicts, with counterterrorism experts arguing that they created circumstances beneficial to the escalation of radical Islamism.
The U.S. government also took steps in the U.S. to prevent future attacks. The controversial USA PATRIOT Act increased the government's power to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services. A cabinet-level agency called the Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate federal counter-terrorism activities. Some of these anti-terrorism efforts, particularly the U.S. government's handling of detainees at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, led to allegations against the U.S. government of human rights violations.
Iraq War
Although explicitly stating that Iraq had "nothing" to do with 9/11, President George W. Bush consistently referred to the Iraq war as “the central front in the war on terror” and argued that if the United States pulled out of Iraq, “terrorists will follow us here.” The reasons for the invasion cited by the Bush administration included the spreading of democracy, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, and the liberation of the Iraqi people. The Bush administration based its rationale for the war principally on the assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and that the Iraqi government posed an immediate threat to the United States and its coalition allies. Select U.S. officials accused Sadam Hussein—the then leader of Iraq—of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda, while others cited the desire to end his repressive dictatorship and bring democracy to the people of Iraq.
Learning Objectives
Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Iraq War: 2003-11 conflict between the U.S. and Iraq, at the center of the U.S. "War on Terror". The U.S. invasion of Iraq began this war, and it was subsequently marked by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, replaced by a Shia-led parliamentary republic, and an insurgency against this new government, along with the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, which ended in 2011.
The Bush Administration began the Iraq War in March 2003, with the United States, joined by the United Kingdom and several coalition allies, invading Iraq; this prefaced the so-called “shock and awe” bombing campaign. Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed as U.S. forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Ba'athist government (under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party). President Saddam Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December 2003 and executed by a military court three years later. After the invasion, no substantial evidence was found to verify the initial claims about WMDs. And the rationale and misrepresentation of pre-war intelligence would later face heavy criticism within the U.S. and internationally.
In the aftermath of the invasion, Iraq held multi-party elections in 2005. Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister in 2006 and remained in office until 2014. The al-Maliki government enacted policies that were widely seen as having the effect of alienating the country's Sunni minority and worsening sectarian tensions. These policies and the fact that Iraq was a “nation” cobbled together by WWI allies out of already warring factions, combined with the power vacuum following Saddam's demise and the mismanagement of the occupation, led to widespread sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, as well as a lengthy insurgency against U.S. and coalition forces. The United States responded with a troop surge in 2007.
Despite some initial successes early in the invasion, the continued Iraq War fueled international protests and gradually saw a decline in US domestic support, as many people began to question whether or not the invasion was worth the cost. While proponents of the war outside of the Bush Administration regularly echoed the assertion that this would reduce the chances of terrorists coming to the U.S., as the conflict dragged on, members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. public, and even U.S. troops questioned the connection between Iraq and the fight against anti-U.S. terrorism. In particular, a consensus developed among intelligence experts that the Iraq war actually increased terrorism.
Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna frequently referred to the invasion of Iraq as a “fatal mistake.” London's International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2004 that the occupation of Iraq had become “a potent global recruitment pretext” for radical Muslim fighters and that the invasion “galvanized” al-Qaeda and “perversely inspired insurgent violence.” The U.S. National Intelligence Council concluded in a 2005 report that the war in Iraq had become a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists. David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, indicated that the report concluded that the war in Iraq provided terrorists with “a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills... There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries.” The Council's chairman Robert Hutchings noted, “At the moment, Iraq is a magnet for international terrorist activity.” The 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which outlined the considered judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, concluded that “the Iraq conflict has become the 'cause célèbre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.”
In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq War, along with the 2008 financial crisis, contributed to the election of Barack Obama, who questioned the Iraq War. After his election, Obama reluctantly continued the war effort in Iraq until August 31, 2010, when he declared that combat operations had ended. However, 50,000 American soldiers and military personnel were kept in Iraq to assist Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces, and work on counter-terrorism until December 15, 2011, when the war was declared formally over and the last troops left the country.
Aftermath of 2011 Withdrawal from Iraq
The invasion and occupation of Iraq led to sectarian violence, which caused widespread displacement among Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Red Crescent organization estimated the total internal displacement was around 2.3 million in 2008, and as many as 2 million Iraqis left the country. The invasion preserved the autonomy of the Kurdish region and because the Kurdish region is historically the most democratic area of Iraq, many Iraqi refugees from other territories fled into the Kurdish land.
Iraqi insurgency surged in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. Terror campaigns involving Iraqi (primarily radical Sunni) anti-government rebel groups and various factions within Iraq escalated. The events of post U.S. withdrawal have shown patterns raising concerns that the surging violence might slide into another civil war. By mid-2014, the country was in chaos with a new government yet to be formed following national elections and the insurgency reaching new heights. In early June 2014, the ISIL (ISIS) took over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit and stated it was ready to march on Baghdad, while Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of key military installations in the major oil city of Kirkuk. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked his parliament to declare a state of emergency that would give him increased powers, but the lawmakers refused.
In the summer of 2014 President Obama announced the return of U.S. forces to Iraq, but only in the form of aerial support, in an effort to halt the advance of ISIS forces, render humanitarian aid to stranded refugees, and stabilize the political situation. In August 2014, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki succumbed to pressure at home and abroad to step down. This paved the way for Haidar al-Abadi to take over. In what was claimed to be revenge for the aerial bombing ordered by President Obama, ISIS, which by this time had changed its name to the Islamic State, beheaded an American journalist, James Foley, who had been kidnapped two years earlier. Despite U.S. bombings and breakthroughs on the political front, Iraq remained in chaos with the Islamic State consolidating its gains and sectarian violence continuing unabated.
Consequences of the Iraq War
Various scientific surveys of Iraqi deaths resulting from the first four years of the Iraq War estimated that between 151,000 and over one million Iraqis died as a result of the conflict during this time. A later study, published in 2011, estimated that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. For troops in the U.S.-led multinational coalition, the death toll is carefully tracked and updated daily. A total of 4,491 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2014. Regarding the Iraqis, however, information on both military and civilian casualties is both less precise and less consistent.
The Iraq War caused hundreds of thousands of civilian and thousands of military casualties. The majority of casualties occurred as a result of the insurgency and civil conflicts between 2004 and 2007. The war destroyed the country and resulted in a humanitarian crisis. The child malnutrition rate rose to 28%. Some 60 – 70% of Iraqi children were reported to be suffering from psychological problems in 2007. Most Iraqis had no access to safe drinking water; a cholera outbreak in northern Iraq was thought to be the result of poor water quality. As many as half of Iraqi doctors left the country between 2003 and 2006. Poverty led many Iraqi women to turn to prostitution to support themselves and their families, attracting sex tourists from regional lands. The use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus by the U.S. military has been blamed for birth defects and cancers in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. By the end of 2015, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 4.4 million Iraqis had been internally displaced. The population of Iraqi Christians dropped dramatically during the war, from 1.5 million in 2003 to perhaps only 275,000 in 2016. The Foreign Policy Association reported that "“the most perplexing component of the Iraq refugee crisis” was that the U.S. has accepted only around 84,000 Iraqi refugees.
Throughout the entire Iraq war, there have been human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict. Arguably the most controversial incident was a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These violations perpetrated by American soldiers included physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. The abuses came to widespread public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, although the soldiers received support from some conservative media within the United States. The administration of George W. Bush attempted to portray the abuses as isolated incidents, not indicative of general U.S. policy. This was contradicted by humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. After multiple investigations, these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents; rather, they were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Several scholars stated that the abuses constituted state-sanctioned crimes.
Afghanistan War
The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred after the September 11 attacks in late 2001, overlapping the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. President Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. The Taliban government refused to extradite him (or others sought by the U.S.) without evidence of his involvement in the 9/11 attacks. The request was dismissed by the U.S. as a meaningless delaying tactic, and on October 7, 2001 it launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the United Kingdom. The two were later joined by other forces, including the Afghan Northern Alliance that had been fighting the Taliban in the ongoing civil war since 1996. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to assist the Afghan interim authorities with securing Kabul. At the Bonn Conference the same month, Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan interim administration, which after a 2002 loya jirga (Pashto for “grand assembly”) in Kabul became the Afghan transitional administration. In the popular elections of 2004, Karzai was elected president of the country, then named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. NATO became involved in ISAF in 2003 and later that year assumed leadership of its troops from 43 countries. NATO members provided the core of the force. One portion of U.S. forces in Afghanistan operated under NATO command. The rest remained under direct U.S. command.
Learning Objectives
Analyze the international structure that emerged in the post-Cold War era.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
al-Qaeda: a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s; widely designated as a terrorist group
Taliban: a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country; a group that uses terrorism as a specific tactic to further their ideological and political goals
Iraq War: 2003-11 conflict between the U.S. and Iraq, at the center of the U.S. "War on Terror". The U.S. invasion of Iraq began this war, and it was subsequently marked by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, replaced by a Shia-led parliamentary republic, and an insurgency against this new government, along with the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, which ended in 2011.
The Taliban was reorganized by its leader Mullah Omar, and in 2003 it launched an insurgency against the government and ISAF. Although outgunned and outnumbered, insurgents from the Taliban and other radical groups have waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, and turncoat killings against coalition forces. The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government, among the most corrupt in the world, to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. In the initial years, there was little fighting but from 2006 the Taliban made significant gains and showed an increased willingness to commit atrocities against civilians. Violence sharply escalated from 2007 to 2009. While ISAF continued to battle the Taliban insurgency, fighting crossed into neighboring northwestern Pakistan.
The Narang night raid was a raid on a household in the village of Ghazi Khan in the early morning hours of December 27, 2009. The operation was authorized by NATO and resulted in the death of ten Afghan civilians, most of whom were students and some of whom were children. The status of the deceased was initially in dispute, with NATO officials claiming the dead were Taliban members found with weapons and bomb-making materials, while some Afghan government officials and local tribal authorities asserted they were civilians.
On May 2, 2011, United States Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan. A year later, NATO leaders endorsed an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. UN-backed peace talks have since taken place between the Afghan government and the Taliban. In May 2014, the United States announced that its major combat operations would end in December and that it would leave a residual force in the country. In October 2014, British forces handed over the last bases in Helmand to the Afghan military, officially ending their combat operations in the war. In December 2014, NATO formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan and transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government.
Aftermath and Consequences of the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan
Although there was a formal end to combat operations, partially because of improved relations between the United States and the new President Ashraf Ghani, American forces increased raids against Islamic militants and terrorists, justified by a broad interpretation of protecting American forces. In March 2015, it was announced that the United States would maintain almost ten thousand service members in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2015, a change from planned reductions. In October 2015, the Obama administration announced that U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan past the original planned withdrawal date of December 31, 2016. U.S. forces continued to conduct airstrikes and special operations raids, while Afghan forces were losing ground to Taliban forces in some regions. This continuing U.S. presence in Afghanistan was unpopular with people in both the U.S. and Afghanistan. Consequently, in 2020 – 21 the U.S. carried out a withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.
War casualty estimates vary significantly. According to a UN report, the Taliban were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009. In 2011, a record over three thousand civilians were killed, the fifth successive annual rise. According to a UN report, in 2013 there were nearly three thousand civilian deaths, with 74% blamed on anti-government forces. A report titled Body Count put together by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival, and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) concluded that 106,000 – 170,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the fighting in Afghanistan at the hands of all parties to the conflict. According to the Watson Institute for International Studies Costs of War Project, 21,000 civilians have been killed as a result of the war.
An estimated 96% of Afghans have been affected either personally by or from the wider consequences of the war. Since 2001, more than 5.7 million former refugees have returned to Afghanistan but 2.2 million others remained refugees in 2013. In 2013, the UN estimated that 547,550 were internally displaced persons, a 25% increase over the 2012 estimates.
From 1996 to 1999, the Taliban had controlled 96% of Afghanistan's poppy fields and made opium its largest source of revenue. Taxes on opium exports became one of the mainstays of Taliban income. By 2000, Afghanistan accounted for an estimated 75% of the world's opium supply. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar then banned opium cultivation and production dropped. Some observers argue that the ban was issued only to raise opium prices and increase profit from the sale of large existing stockpiles. The trafficking of accumulated stocks continued in 2000 and 2001. Soon after the invasion, opium production increased markedly. By 2005, Afghanistan was producing 90% of the world's opium, most of which was processed into heroin and sold in Europe and Russia. In 2009, the BBC reported that “UN findings say an opium market worth $65bn funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year.”
War crimes have been committed by both sides: civilian massacres, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, use of torture, and the murder of prisoners of war. Additional common crimes include theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIGRC) called the Taliban's terrorism against the Afghan civilian population a war crime. According to Amnesty International, the Taliban commit war crimes by targeting civilians, including killing teachers, abducting aid workers, and burning school buildings. The organization reported that up to 756 civilians were killed in 2006 by bombs, mostly on roads or carried by suicide attackers belonging to the Taliban. NATO has also alleged that the Taliban has used civilians as human shields.
In 2009, the U.S. confirmed that Western military forces in Afghanistan used white phosphorus as a weapon to illuminate targets or as an incendiary to destroy bunkers and enemy equipment; this has been condemned by human rights organizations as cruel and inhumane because it causes severe burns. U.S. forces used white phosphorus to screen a retreat in the Battle of Ganjgal when regular smoke munitions were not available. White phosphorus burns on the bodies of civilians wounded in clashes near Bagram were confirmed. The U.S. claims at least 44 instances in which militants have used white phosphorus in weapons or attacks.
The 2001 – 21 Afghanistan War and the 2003 – 11 Iraq War were the two major efforts in the U.S.’s “War on Terrorism.” These two wars illustrated the challenges in trying to stop terrorism by radicalized religious groups with conventional military efforts conducted by coalitions of nation-states. These wars also illustrated the vulnerability of all societies to radicalization from terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Proud Boys.
Attributions
Images Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
Title Image - War on Terror Montage. Attribution: Derivative work: PoxnarAll four pictures in the montage are taken by the US Army/Navy., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia Commons. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:War_on_Terror_montage1.png. License: Creative Commons CC0 License.
Boundless World History
"The Middle East and North Africa in the 21st Century"
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY
Curation and Revision. Provided by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION
History of the United States (1991u20132008). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1991-2008). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
WTC_smoking_on_9-11.jpeg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States#/media/File:WTC_smoking_on_9-11.jpeg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Freedom of the Press (report). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_Press_(report). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Democracy in the Middle East. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_the_Middle_East. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Freedom in the World. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_in_the_World. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Human rights in the Middle East. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_Middle_East. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Women in Arab societies. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Arab_societies. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Politics of Iraq. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Iraq. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
800px-Iraqi_voters_inked_fingers.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iraqi_voters_inked_fingers.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Hadith. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islam and modernity. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_modernity. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Salafi movement. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Muslim Brotherhood. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Al-Qaeda. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Hezbollah. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islamic fundamentalism. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_fundamentalism. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Jihad. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Sharia. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Taliban. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islamic revival. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_revival. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Hamas. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islamism. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Taliban. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
War in Afghanistan (2015u2013present). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2015%E2%80%93present). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Ba'athist Iraq. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba'athist_Iraq. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Iraq War. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Casualties of the Iraq War. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
War in Afghanistan (2001u20132014). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932014). License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Operation Enduring Freedom. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Northern Alliance. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Alliance. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
2002 loya jirga. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_loya_jirga. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
War on Terror. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Narang night raid. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narang_night_raid. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Arab Spring. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Impact of the Arab Spring. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_Arab_Spring. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Joint Plan of Action. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Plan_of_Action. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Iran nuclear deal framework. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_nuclear_deal_framework. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Nuclear program of Iran. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Iranu2013Israel relations. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_relations. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
P5+1. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P5%2B1. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Iranu2013United States relations. Provided by: WIkipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93United_States_relations. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Sanctions against Iran. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iran. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Negotiations leading to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiations_leading_to_the_Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
History of Iran. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
800px-Iraqi_voters_inked_fingers.jpg. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iraqi_voters_inked_fingers.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Saudi_soldiers_Mecca_1979.JPG. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_seizure#/media/File:Saudi_soldiers,_Mecca,_1979.JPG. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike