Simon Jenkins: What did 20 years of western intervention in Afghanistan achieve? Ruination

By Dilip -

Twenty years ago the United States decided to relieve its 9/11 agony not just by blasting Osama bin Laden’s base in the Afghan mountains, but by toppling the entire Afghan regime. This was despite young Taliban moderates declaring Bin Laden an “unwelcome guest” and the regime demanding he leave. The US then decided not just to blast Kabul but invited Nato to launder its action as a matter of global security. Britain had no dog in this fight and only joined because Tony Blair liked George W Bush.

American and British troops roamed the country, signing up warlords or setting up new governors. Visiting Kabul at the time, I was told of Nato’s ambition to wipe out terror, build a new democracy, liberate women and create a “friend in the region”. I had an eerie sense of Britain in 1839 embarking on the First Afghan War.

Most Americans at the time wanted to get out, and concentrate on nation-building in Iraq. It was the British who were eager to stay. Blair even sent a minister, Clare Short, to eliminate the poppy crop. Whatever she did, it increased production from six provinces to 28, and raised poppy revenue to a record $2.3bn (£1.7bn)….

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/16/20-years-western-intervention-afghanistan-terror

The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paris, 15-21 January 1998

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The Compass We Lost : THE RAZA FOUNDATION / GANDHI MATTERS: October 4, 2019

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