Afghanistan

Capturing the gravity of Operation Jawbreaker, we recount the daring early days of the War in Afghanistan, where CIA officers from the Special Activities Division, laden with boxes of cash to leverage local alliances, navigated treacherous terrain in a Russian Mi-17 helicopter to hunt down Osama bin Laden and combat the Taliban.

In the shadowed valleys of Panjshir, the ‘Jawbreaker’ team maneuvered discreetly, armed with cutting-edge tech and age-old diplomacy, bridging the past with the present in a quest for a safer future.

10th Mountain soldiers board a CH-47 Chinook in Afghanistan. September 4th, 2003.

The Taliban ultimately won the war in Afghanistan by biding their time and waiting out the US-led coalition. Not knowing how to run an already third-world economy, the Taliban’s theocratic and archaic laws have only exacerbated the cataclysm tens of millions of Afghans face. Nevertheless, the group now rules over a pile of ash, and the militants are solely responsible for the deterioration of Afghanistan.

US Special Forces soldier “Randy” gets a little heated with a suspected al-Qaeda supporter in Narizah, Afghanistan, 2002.

Team Alpha were a group of CIA agents who entered Afghanistan on October 17, 2001.

Then Captain Mark Nutsch of ODA 595 travels by horseback in Afghanistan. Today, he crafts a damn fine whiskey.

US Air Force pararescuemen from the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron are shown in Afghanistan

In this video, US Marines fight side by side with British SAS soldiers. The t shirts, ball caps and accent are dead giveaways as to who is who.

A US Army soldier takes up a good firing position from Observation Post Mace in eastern Afghanistan.

The government of the United Kingdom has initiated a separate investigation into reports that members of the British military committed multiple extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013.

At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, veterans of the Afghan War, some of whom were in tears, implored the government to acknowledge the mistakes made during the retreat and tackle the bureaucratic roadblocks that are keeping our allies from fleeing the Taliban’s retribution.