The Unintended Consequences of the Afghan war

The Afghanistan war was ongoing for around 20 years, it started in 2001 when a member of the anti-taliban coalition, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was murdered by Al-Qaeda. Soon after this Al-Qaeda attacked in the US(9/11). The US officially started helping the Afghanistan government in 2001 after the 9/11 attack.

There were multiple environmental side effects of the Afghanistan war, there were open air burn pits and the degradation of traditional irrigation systems. The US department of defense used these open air pits to burn a majority of their solid waste, these produced potentially hazardous fumes. These fumes were inconclusively linked to chronic and sometimes fatal illnesses. Military vehicles also consume petroleum-based fuels at an extremely high rate, these vehicles produce large amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide and CO2. These gasses can be extremely harmful to civilians who are around the vehicles. The water supply to villages or people living near the warzones has also been contaminated by oil from military vehicles and depleted uranium from ammunition. Animal and bird populations have also been affected, the destruction of forest covers can lead to a large number of animals native to the country dying or having to find a new habitat.

Written by Taruni Venkataraman

Sources: cfr.org, scientificamerican.com, waston.brown.edu