How they’ve taken over Afghanistan again. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO The roots of the Taliban movement go back to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. They were there to prop up a communist Afghan government that was supported by a minority of urban residents. But the vast majority of Afghans lived in rural areas. Here, authority came from tribal and ethnic groups, and life revolved around conservative practices of Islam. Rural Afghans formed militias called mujahideen and drove out the Soviets. But then they fell into a civil war with each other. Out of this chaos emerged a group of Islamic teachers and students called the Taliban. They swept through the country, destroying mujahideen groups and imposing a strict order. In 1996, they took the capital city of Kabul. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until 2001, when the US invaded. In a sense, the cycle of invasion and rebellion began again. Urban areas were reformed while rural areas suffered, allowing the Taliban to resurge. In 2021, the Taliban took back Kabul and the country. Further Reading: No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, Anand Gopal SIGAR quarterly reports: https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2021-10-30qr.pdf Ghost Wars, Steve Coll Directorate S, Steve Coll Taliban: The Unknown Enemy, James Ferguson The Rise and Fall of Taliban Regime (1994-2001), Dr. Qamar Fatima Across the Divide, William T. Vollman, The New Yorker Road Rage, Kathy Gannon, the New Yorker The Other Afghan Women, Anand Gopal, The New Yorker The Long War Journal: https://www.longwarjournal.org/mapping-taliban-control-in-afghanistan These reports from Human Rights Watch and Brown University’s Cost of War project has data that helped us understand Afghan civilian casualties throughout these wars: https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/afghanistan0908/3.htm#_Toc208224420 https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2020/Rising%20Civilian%20Death%20Toll%20in%20Afghanistan_Costs%20of%20War_Dec%207%202020.pdf These reports from the US Government Accountability Office and USAID provided us with useful information on the US-funded reconstruction projects in Afghanistan: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-08-689.pdf https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/usaid-field-report-afghanistan-oct-2002 https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/usaid-field-report-afghanistan-mar-2003 Afghanistan and Me: https://podcasts.apple.com/hu/podcast/afghanistan-and-me/id73802620?i=1000535848733 Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/ Make sure you never miss behind the scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Support Vox's reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: http://vox.com/contribute-now Shop the Vox merch store: http://vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom