Afghanistan: Security Assistance
Other Releases
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Washington, DC
October 20, 2008
Background: Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. Subsequently, a series of civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama BIN LADIN. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. On 7 December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005. (Source: CIA—The World Factbook)Security Assistance Funding: (Source: 2009 Congressional Budget Justifications for Foreign Operations)
($ in thousands)
| Account |
FY 2007 |
FY2007 |
FY 2008 |
FY 2008 |
FY2009 |
|
|
Actual |
Supp |
Estimate |
Supp |
Request |
| IMET |
1,193 |
-- |
1,618 |
-- |
1,400 |
| NADR |
21,575 |
15,000 |
21,626 |
5,000 |
31,550 |
In FY 2007, the Department of State authorized the export of defense articles and services valued at $629,798,552.
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