Kabul today, 25 years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan : State of the World from NPR : NPR

This week marks twenty five years since the United States invaded Afghanistan, on October 7th, 2001.  It was less than a month after the September 11th attacks and President George W. Bush vowed swift revenge.  And the U.S. did quickly oust the Taliban– the Islamist group controlling the country– over its support for and harboring of Osama bin Laden and his militant group al Qaeda, blamed for the deadly attacks on U.S. soil.

But the war itself was far from quick, lasting 20 years.  U.S. troops remained on Afghan soil until August, 2021 when the Taliban again retook Kabul amid a somewhat chaotic U.S. exit.

On today’s episode we hear what life in Afghanistan is like now and try to understand how its people are dealing with the legacy of the conflict that began a quarter century ago.

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