The war in Afghanistan ran for two full decades before ending
The war in Afghanistan stretched from 2001 to 2021, making it one of the longest armed conflicts of modern times.
The conflict opened when a United States-led coalition invaded under the name Operation Enduring Freedom, responding to the September 11 attacks by al-Qaeda, which the Taliban had sheltered. Coalition forces, backing the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, pushed the Taliban out of major population centers and toppled their Islamic Emirate.
In 2004, a U.S.-backed Islamic Republic was established to govern the country. The fighting nonetheless continued for many more years.
It became a defining conflict of the early twenty-first century.
Why it mattersSpanning twenty years and a generation of soldiers, it reshaped how nations weigh the cost of long foreign wars.
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