Conflict in Afghanistan

1662 Words7 Pages
With reference to one recent major international conflict, analyse and assess the geographical impacts of the conflict on the area involved. The Afghanistan conflict stems from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan offering protection to Osama Bin Laden, an international terrorist who had attacked US embassies in East Africa in 1998. Their refusal to hand him over after the subsequent 9/11 attacks lead to US and UK troops invading Afghanistan on 7 Oct 2001 with operation enduring freedom, signalling the start of the conflict. The escape of Bin Laden from the Tora Bora Mountains, and the desire of the US to develop Afghanistan to prevent it from being used as a base for future terrorist activities, lead to conflict between US/UK troops and the regrouped Taliban/Al-Qaeda, which continues today. This conflict has posed several impacts, both positive and negative, on Afghanistan in a social, environmental and economic sense. These have occurred on a local, regional and national scale, all of which will be evaluated in this essay. The conflict in Afghanistan has posed several environmental impacts. The arrival of US and UK troops into the area resulted in the construction of power and hydroelectricity projects in order to improve the provision of electricity in remote regions of the country, for example Kajaki Dam which provides 51 megawatts of power to the Helmand Valley. However, Al Qaeda often make these projects the target of their attacks, meaning the extent to which the environment of Afghanistan has benefited from the conflict has in fact been limited. This is only furthered by the fact that 10,000 villages have been destroyed by bombing during the conflict, with these explosives having also created pollution by producing cyclonite, which can cause cancer. The fact that pollution has increased despite the environmentally friendly hydroelectric projects being
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