Video: Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?
18 years later, the US and its NATO allies still have troops in Afghanistan with no plans on leaving.
We were told this was about 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, but these were lies.
So why are the troops still there?
What was the war in Afghanistan really about?
The decision to invade
Afghanistan was taken by the Bush-Cheney war cabinet in the evening of
September 11, 2001. It was based on the presumption, “confirmed” by the
head of the CIA that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks and that Al Qaeda
was supported by the Afghan government.
On the following morning,
September 12, 2001, NATO’s Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels,
endorsed the Bush administration’s declaration of war on Afghanistan,
invoking Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization joins us to explain.
(Interview conducted in 2016)*
October 7, 2001: Waging America’s 9/11 War of Retribution against Afghanistan
The immediate response of
the US and its allies to the 9/11 attacks was to the declare a war of
retribution against Afghanistan on the grounds that the Taliban
government was protecting “terror mastermind” Osama bin Laden. By
allegedly harboring bin Laden, the Taliban were complicit, according to
both the US administration and NATO, for having waged an act of war
against the United States.
Parroting official
statements, the Western media mantra on September 12, 2001 had already
approved the launching of “punitive actions” directed against civilian
targets in Afghanistan. In the words of William Saffire writing in the
New York Times: “When we reasonably determine our attackers’ bases and
camps, we must pulverize them — minimizing but accepting the risk of
collateral damage” — and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror’s
national hosts”.
This decision was taken by
the Bush-Cheney war cabinet in the evening of September 11, 2001. It was
based on the presumption, “confirmed” by the head of the CIA that Al
Qaeda was behind the attacks.
On the following morning,
September 12, 2001, NATO’s Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels,
endorsed the Bush administration’s declaration of war on Afghanistan,
invoking Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
An act of war by a foreign
nation (Afghanistan) against a member of the Atlantic Alliance (the USA)
is an act of war against all members under NATO’s doctrine of
collective security. Under any stretch of the imagination, the attack on
the World Trade Center and Pentagon cannot be categorized as an act of
war by a foreign country. But nobody seemed to have raised this issue.
Meanwhile, on two occasions
in the course of September 2001, the Afghan government –through
diplomatic channels– offered to hand over Osama Bin laden to US Justice.
These overtures were turned down by president Bush, on the grounds that
America “does not negotiate with terrorists”.
The war on Afghanistan was launched 26 days later on the morning of October 7, 2001. The timing of this war begs the question: how long does it take to plan and implement a major theater war several thousand miles away. Military
analysts will confirm that a major theater war takes months and months,
up to a year or more of advanced preparations. The war on Afghanistan
was already in the advanced planning stages prior to September 11, 2001,
which begs the question of foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
The repeal of civil
liberties in America was launched in parallel with the bombing and
invasion of Afghanistan, almost immediately following 9/11 with the
adoption of the PATRIOT legislation and the setting up of a Homeland
Security apparatus, under the pretext of protecting Americans. This
post-911 legal and institutional framework had been carefully crafted
prior to the 9/11 attacks.
Michel Chossudovsky, September 12, 2019
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The original source of this article is corbettreport
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