KABUL (Dispatches) — Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks triggered the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the country still bears the scars of a war that reshaped its politics, society and daily life.
In Kabul, the legacy of the war remains visible in the memories of residents who lived through years of bombing, displacement and political upheaval, even as the city has entered a period of relative calm under Taliban rule.
For some Afghans, the memories remain sharply personal.
Diljam Manan, a resident of Kabul who works for Qasemi Brothers Carpet Company, recalled the explosions and bombardments that marked earlier years of the invasion, including attacks around Television Hill.
The relative calm of recent years has brought some relief, he said, but there remains concern that stability could again give way to violence.
The consequences of the war are also reflected in the lives of a younger generation, particularly Afghan women and girls.
Mustafa Qasemi, who also works at the carpet company, pointed to restrictions affecting girls in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi district, where many are unable to attend school or university or pursue employment with the freedom and security they once expected.
For him, the situation remains painful despite the reduction in large-scale fighting.
The September 11 attacks in 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and fundamentally changed U.S. foreign and security policy. They were followed by the invasion of Afghanistan in October that year, which toppled the Taliban government and began America’s longest war.
The war continued for nearly two decades, involving successive U.S. administrations, NATO allies and Afghan governments before the withdrawal of foreign forces in 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power.
Its consequences extend well beyond Afghanistan’s battlefields. Reuters has reported that the wars launched in the aftermath of 9/11, principally in Afghanistan and Iraq, contributed to more than 900,000 deaths over the following decades.
Today, Afghanistan is no longer at the center of the U.S. military presence that defined much of the past quarter-century. Yet the physical and social consequences of that era remain embedded in the country’s streets, institutions and personal memories.
As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Kabul’s residents are living with both the distance from the war and its continuing legacy — a reminder that the effects of an invasion can endure long after the soldiers have left.