Afghanistan/2001 Invasion
 | |
| Date | 7 October 2001 - Present |
|---|---|
| Location | Afghanistan |
| Perpetrators | NATO |
| Description | The ongoing war in Afghanistan, instigated within a month of 9/11, supposedly in retaliation, with the claimed justification - for which no evidence has been presented - that the attacks were planned by Ossama bin Laden, and that he was based in Afghanistan. |
The 2001 Afghanistan war is still ongoing. It was a US-led attack but involves military contingents from many other countries. It began on October 7, 2001, as the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) with substantial British military support, allegedly (as the official narrative has it) 'in response to the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the US'. The UK has, since 2002, led its own military operation, Operation Herrick, as part of the same war in Afghanistan. By 2015, it has cost the US government over $1,000,000,000,000.[1]
Contents
Official Narrative
The justification for the attacks we as that the 9/11 attacks of September 11, 2001 were carried out by Al-Qaeda under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden, who was taking refuge in Afghanistan, under the protection of Taliban forces. NATO's December 2009 publicity strategy states that "building on NATO’s current media operations and public diplomacy efforts in support of the operation in Afghanistan, NATO will pursue more targeted and expanded communication activities to generate broader and more comprehensive reporting on what NATO’s operation has already achieved in Afghanistan".[2] As far as opium production is concerned, predictable smoke and mirrors are used to hide that fact that production has increased since the NATO-led invasion of the country.
Problems
The BBC reported a week after 9-11 that "Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October".[3] Osama Bin Laden denied responsibility for the attacks[4] and no evidence has been presented of his responsibility. On 5 October, the Taliban offered to try bin Laden in an Afghan court, so long as the U.S. provided what it called "solid evidence" of his guilt. The U.S. government dismissed the request for proof as "request for delay or prevarication".
Motives
| A recommended video by James Corbett |
While the MICC profits from war anywhere, a range of local factors undoubtedly contributed to the selection of Afghanistan as a target. Afghan grown opium is an obvious major factor.
Opium
Sibel Edmonds links the war to Operation Gladio/B, suggesting that - drug eradication rhetoric not withstanding - a major motive for the war was control of the world's opium production. This was very low in 2000 after the crop was banned by the Taliban, but has quickly risen again and exceeded pre-invasion levels.
Oil
Charlotte Dennett suggests that the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, planned since the early 1990s provides a more credible alternative explanation.[5] The secret intelligence services have long been interested in the large profits to be made from the global drug trade, for which
Mineral wealth
A 2007 study by the USGS noted about $1 trillion in mineral wealth in the ground in Afghanistan.
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seymour Hersh | “But one of the things we did, ostensibly to improve the conditions of prisoners, we demanded that the American soldiers operating in Afghanistan could only hold a suspected Taliban for four days, 96 hours. If not... after four days they could not be sure that this person was not a Taliban, he must be freed. Instead of just holding them and making them Taliban, you have to actually do some, some work to make the determination in the field. Tactically, in the field. So what happens of course, is after three or four days, "bang, bang" — I'm just telling you — they turn them over to the Afghans and by the time they take three steps away the shots are fired. And that's going on. It hasn't stopped. It's not just me that's complaining about it. But the stuff that goes on in the field, is still going on in the field — the secret prisons, absolutely, oh you bet they're still running secret prisons. Most of them are in North Africa, the guys running them are mostly out of Djibouto [sic]. We have stuff in Kenya (doesn't mean they're in Kenya, but they're in that area).” | Seymour Hersh | January 2011 |
| Joint Special Operations Command | “The point of the 'Special Operations’ teams (SOT) is that they do not distinguish between civilian and military oppositions, between activists and their sympathizers and the armed resistance. The SOT specialize in establishing death squads and recruiting and training paramilitary forces to terrorize communities, neighborhoods and social movements opposing US client regimes. The SOT's 'counter-terrorism' is terrorism in reverse, focusing on socio-political groups between US proxies and the armed resistance. McChrystal's SOT targeted local and national insurgent leaders in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan through commando raids and air strikes. McChrystal was a special favorite of Rumsfeld and Cheney because he was in charge of the 'direct action' forces of the 'Special Missions Units'. 'Direct Action' operative are the death-squads and torturers and their only engagement with the local population is to terrorize, and not to propagandize. They engage in 'propaganda of the dead', assassinating local leaders to 'teach' the locals to obey and submit to the occupation.” | James Petras | 2009 |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:A warring nation, united against us | Letter | 19 August 2021 | Craig Murray | Craig Murray's letter to The Herald from prison in Edinburgh: "As with the previous three times when UK invasions were defeated in Afghanistan, we have united a warring nation in hatred of us." |
| Document:Britain’s delusions that it could take on the Taliban alone are ludicrous - what are our empire-nostalgic MPs smoking? | Article | 19 August 2021 | Tom Fowdy | The UK Parliament was recalled for an emergency debate over the Afghanistan/2021 withdraw. While the BBC focused on the divide between the sides of the house with their face mask wearing, Parliament was united against the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan. Most MPs are urging Boris Johnson to go back to Afghanistan, and take on the Taliban, alone if necessary. |
| Document:CIA Killings Spell Defeat In Afghanistan | article | 8 January 2010 | Douglas Valentine | |
| Document:Gaddafi's 2009 speech: "Let's call it the UN Terror Council" | Speech | 23 September 2009 | Muammar Gaddafi | No one is above the UN General Assembly. All nations should be and should be seen to be on an equal footing. At present, the UN Security Council is security feudalism, political feudalism for those with permanent seats, protected by them and used against us. It should be called, not the UN Security Council, but the UN Terror Council. |
| Document:General Hamid Gul - Interview | interview | 26 November 2001 | Arnaud de Borchgrave Hamid Gul | Just 15 days after the 9-11, an exclusive interview with former Pakistani Gen. Hamid Gul. in which he opines that Mossad, not al-Qaeda were the perpetrators of the attacks, and suggests that it USA has any evidence against Al Qaeda, it should present it to an international court. |
| Document:How British journalists are seduced by the Ministry of Defence and spooks | Article | 28 September 2021 | Richard Norton-Taylor | In the world of the spooks, few in the media raised questions about the root causes of terror attacks in Britain even when Eliza Manningham-Buller, then head of MI5, warned that the invasion of Iraq would increase the terrorist threat in Britain. |
| Document:Pushing Ukraine to the Brink | article | 9 July 2014 | Mike Whitney | An illuminating introduction to extent that control of both gas and oil pipelines defines Usaian global policy and actions - especially in the Middle East, Central Asia and Ukraine. It is essentially anti-Russian and aimed at maintaining Ango-US dominance over the EU and Europe |
| Document:The 20-year war on Afghanistan was a mistake | Speech | 18 August 2021 | Zarah Sultana | Speaking outside Parliament on 18 August 2021, prior to the Afghanistan emergency debate, Zarah Sultana joined colleagues including Jeremy Corbyn to say: "The war on Afghanistan shows – once and for all – that the West cannot deliver liberal democracy at the barrel of a gun. This war – the first 'War on Terror' – must be Britain's last war of aggression." |
| Document:The bloody legacy of Bomber Blair | Article | 1 January 2022 | Alex Snowdon | "Petition for Tony Blair to have his 'Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter' rescinded" Such an honour rests upon expecting us to conveniently forget or ignore the enormous damage that Blair did. People are right to be angry. |
| Document:Truth lies and Afghanistan | report | 2011 | Daniel L Davis | |
| Document:US Afghan exit may depend on a Syria one | article | 23 June 2013 | Sharmine Narwani | |
| Document:We are the war criminals now | Article | 29 November 2001 | Robert Fisk | George W. Bush says that "you are either for us or against us" in the war for civilisation against evil. Well, I'm sure not for bin Laden. But I'm not for Bush. I'm actively against the brutal, cynical, lying "war of civilisation" that he has begun so mendaciously in our name and which has now cost as many lives as the World Trade Center mass murder. |
| File:Afghanistan - Exit vs Engagement.pdf | paper | Unknown | ||
| File:Dereliction of Duty II.pdf | report | 27 January 2012 | Daniel Davis | |
| File:ISAF-Spokesperson.pdf | presentation | 17 September 2012 | ISAF Staff | |
| File:Inside-the-wire-reference-guide.pdf | handbook | 2 February 2012 | US/Military | A US Army pocket reference guide given to all US military personnel serving in Afghanistan from February 2012. It provides advice on how to prevent so-called 'green-on-blue' attacks, where Afghan security forces turn their weapons on the coalition soldiers who have trained them. |
| File:Nato-master-narrative-2008.pdf | handbook | 6 October 2008 | NATO | |
| File:PSR Body Count.pdf | report | 15 March 2015 | IPPNW | Casualty figures for the 'War on Terror' after 10 years |
| File:UN-Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict-2010.pdf | report | 2010 | UN | |
| File:Understanding 911 and 911 wars.pdf | commentary | 30 May 2004 | John McMurtry | A guide to understanding the events of 9-11 and the resulting wars for which it became the casus belli |
