Operation Enduring Freedom : September 2001-March 2002

Introduction

More than two decades have passed since the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 shocked the United States and the world. Nearly 3,000 people, mostly Americans but also including foreign nationals from some ninety countries, died that day at the hands of al-Qaeda. A united nation mourned its losses and vowed to punish the perpetrators. Afghanistan, a known training ground and safe haven for the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden, became the initial focus of military efforts to strike back. That distant, land-locked, mountainous country presented great challenges to planners and operators. The U.S. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy overcame those obstacles to project power halfway across the globe and conduct an offensive, in concert with Afghan allies, which drove al-Qaeda into retreat and quickly toppled the Taliban regime that supported the terrorists.

Having achieved that basic goal, national leaders remained concerned that the Taliban would reassert its influence in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda might emerge from the shadows yet again. That apprehension led to a deepening commitment to establish a stable democratic nation that would never again serve as a launching pad for global terrorism. That larger and open-ended strategic objective ran headlong into the additional complications of a nation cobbled together from disparate ethnic and tribal groupings with a long history of mutual discord and limited economic opportunities. The United States Army, which was trained and equipped primarily for conventional combat, had to reorient its forces and its thinking for a complex, irregular war—just as it would in Iraq after 2003. The conflict evolved into the longest-running war in our nation’s history.

This new monograph, which replaces Richard W. Stewart’s 2004 pamphlet of the same name, draws upon additional resources that were not available at that time. With this commemorative series, the U.S. Army Center of Military History aims to provide soldiers and civilians with an overview of operations in Afghanistan and to remember the hundreds of thousands of U.S. Army personnel who served there on behalf of their nation. These publications are dedicated to them.

Washington, D.C.
October 2022

JON T. HOFFMAN
Chief Historian