ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the United States’ policies toward Afghanistan following the Soviet Union’s withdrawal and the fall of Najibullah’s regime in 1992 and throughout the 1990s. Then began yet another phase of the civil war during which the United States extricated itself from Afghanistan and shifted its hitherto alliance with Pakistan. The chapter shows how Washington’s myopic decision to encourage ethnosectarianism and spread jihadism for more than a decade divided Afghanistan among various warlords. This climate erupted into a bloody civil war that lasted throughout much of the 1990s. The force that emerged victorious was none other than the Taliban, with the support of several US-aligned governments in the region, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the United States itself, under the Clinton administration, considered recognizing the Taliban because it was initially seen as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan and a balancing tool against Iran. However, the consequences of supporting the rise of the Taliban fueled the rise of al-Qaeda, prompting the Clinton administration to shift its support back to the Northern Alliance against the Taliban.
