War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive.

Article milestones Date Process Result January 18, 2005 Featured article candidate Not promoted March 13, 2010 WikiProject peer review Reviewed News items involving this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on October 7, 2001, and March 2, 2020. Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on October 7, 2004, October 7, 2005, and October 7, 2015. Current status: Former featured article candidate

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The section title "NATO's inability to stabilize Afghanistan" should be moved to the end of the article, and I think retitled "Assessment of Conflict".

Insertion of this section before aftermath is inconsistent with formatting. Summerhall fire (talk) 21:41, 23 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Bad RFC: per WP:RFCOPEN, "Before starting the process, make sure that all relevant suggestions have been tried." Allan Nonymous (talk) 03:19, 24 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Per WP:RFCEND #6, I'm closing this and have removed the RFC tags, as clearly no WP:RFCBEFORE was conducted. Summerhall fire, please follow the proper steps for an RFC next time, which require an attempt at informal discussion first. ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 06:28, 25 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

per this edit below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932021)&diff=prev&oldid=1314600759

The use of "stabilize" vs secure implies it was a host of different factions vying for control. Afghanistan continued to have a parallel government and the opposition to NATO forces was relatively cohesive. Summerhall fire (talk) 08:11, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Josephguy15, with this edit [1]] you readded Mohammed Atef, even though your earlier edit was reverted with the edit summary: Per MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE - not supported by body of article. The infobox is to summarise key facts from the article. He is not mentioned in the body of the article. There is nothing in the article to evidence that he is a key or significant commander that should be reported in the infobox. Cinderella157 (talk) 03:48, 25 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any name we could come up with other than using the years as a disambiguator? My first thought was United States war in Afghanistan or similar, but while the US led it, there was heavy multinational involvement. We could also move War in Afghanistan to a dab and make this the primary. Wikinav shows this war running away with it, but still less than 50%. Just an informal discussion, feel free to tell me to pound sand. ← Metallurgist (talk) 07:56, 7 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

In recent days, Place Clichy has added this article to 42 additional categories, almost all bilateral relations such as Category:Afghanistan–Montenegro relations. I think this is extraordinary over-categorisation for a single article. This article must now be in about 100 categories. I believe these bilateral relations categories should be removed. They're not defining, they duplicate the "Wars involving" categories (eg Category:Wars involving Montenegro) and they're contributing to massive over-categorisation of this article. AusLondonder (talk) 11:51, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

There were just a lot of countries that took part in this war. The fact that Montenegro sent soldiers to invade and occupy Afghanistan deserves recognition as part of Category:Afghanistan–Montenegro relations, unless you think that such bilateral relations categories should not exist at all. War is definitely a topic of bilateral relations if there has ever been one.

About the number of categories in the article, 2 things:

• For countries whose involvement in this war is the topic of other dedicated content, e.g. Australia in the War in Afghanistan or Category:War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) by country, I believe that this content belongs in bilateral categories instead of the general article. In this edit I took care not to include such bilateral relations to the general article about the war, but only those for countries for which there is no other dedicated content.
• There are other categories currently in this article which make me wonder: Category:Presidency of George W. Bush, Category:Presidency of Barack Obama, Category:First presidency of Donald Trump, Category:Presidency of Joe Biden, Category:Al-Qaeda, Category:Haqqani network, Category:Taliban. Should these be removed?

Also, per WP:EPONCAT and WP:SUBCAT it may not be useful to have the 40+ War involving... categories in the article as they are also present at parent eponymous Category:War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). I would say that for these belligerents the bilateral relationship is defining for only the main article about the war and not the other contents of the category, but the War... categories concern all contents of the category. Place Clichy (talk) 12:25, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Taking a look at other articles about multi-country wars, such as Iraq war, World War II Vietnam War none of these have been added to dozens and dozens of bilateral relations categories. The involvement of Montenegro is already appropriately categorised under Category:Wars involving Montenegro. Clearly a category about one of the belligerents in the war, the Taliban is a lot more appropriate than Category:Afghanistan–Iceland relations. I believe you are misapplying bilateral relations categories here and in other contexts such as football despite recent CFD discussions. AusLondonder (talk) 12:44, 9 March 2026 (UTC)[reply]