Afghanistan is spun as a war we should be fighting.
In fact, a fact long forgotten by the Western media and others involved in the invasion of Afghanistan is that, on 14 October, 2001, the Taliban publicly offered to hand over Osama bin Laden to a third country, provided the U.S. halted the illegal bombing of Afghanistan and produced the necessary evidence about involvement of bin Laden or any of his associates in the 11 September attacks:
In Jalalabad, deputy prime minister Haji Abdul Kabir — the third most powerful figure in the ruling Taliban regime — told reporters that the Taliban would require evidence that bin Laden was behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, but added: “we would be ready to hand him over to a third country”.
But, in his usual pissing-in-the-wind style, Bush blew this opportunity off, vowing to continue the bombing, adding:
There’s no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he’s guilty.
Subsequently, Milton Bearden, a former CIA station chief who oversaw U.S. covert operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s, is reported to have this to say:
We never heard what they were trying to say. We had no common language. Ours was, ‘Give up bin Laden.’ They were saying, ‘Do something to help us give him up.’ … I have no doubts they wanted to get rid of him. He was a pain in the neck.’
The Bush regime’s decision to continue the bombing put an end to any possibility of a potentially peaceful, legal resolution to the events of 11 September 2001 and opened up the way for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and the threat of invasion of Iran, along with the millions who have lost their lives or had them destroyed as a result.
Not a war we should be fighting. Just business as usual.
Notes: