A must read on the Afghanistan War from a Commentary by Mr Jacob G Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation. His is a very persuasive argument starting from how President Bush got the US into the war and why the US should close shop and withdraw from Afghanistan after almost ten years of invasion started by Bush.
Now President Obama has the opportunity to stop this insanity, where remote controlled drones are increasingly being used to kill and wreck mayhem on innocent Afganistan and Pakistan civillians alike just to kill a few so called terrorists and its not about capturing Bin Laden anymore, the whole reason why the Afghanistan invasion started.
Time to Admit It: It Was Wrong to Invade Afghanistan
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Excerpts:
As the killing and destruction in Afghanistan have mounted over the past 10 years, and as they have expanded into Pakistan during the Obama administration, interventionists have tried to justify the massive death and destruction by claiming that the reason the U.S. government went to war against the Taliban was because the Taliban had supposedly been complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
Unfortunately for the interventionists, however, nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. government went to war against Afghanistan for one reason and one reason alone: The Afghan government (i.e., the Taliban regime) refused to comply with President Bush’s unconditional demand for bin Laden’s extradition.
After receiving President Bush’s extradition demand, the Taliban asked to see the evidence establishing that bin Laden had in fact been involved in the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban also offered to deliver bin Laden to an independent third party for trial rather than to the United States.
The Bush administration refused. Its demand for bin Laden’s extradition was unconditional: Give us bin Laden or else suffer the consequences.
Was the Taliban’s refusal to comply with Bush’s unconditional demand unreasonable?.....
......Thus, two separate questions arise with respect to Afghanistan: (1) Was it right for the United States to go to war against the Taliban based on its refusal to comply with Bush’s extradition demand? And (2) Was it right to use military means to bring bin Laden to justice?
..........Using military means to bring bin Laden to justice has been a disaster. Not only has the military failed to capture bin Laden, it has become the biggest terrorist-producing machine in history. Every time it has killed or maimed people — people who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks — it has added more people to ranks of those who hate the United States and seek vengeance.
........Contrast how the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was handled. Some three years after the attack, Ramzi Yousef was captured by the police in Pakistan. He was extradited to the United States, stood trial in federal district court, and given a life sentence.
Wasn’t that a better way to handle things than to invade, bomb, and occupy Pakistan and assassinate Pakistanis?
Another example: Mir Aimal Kasi, the man who shot CIA employees near CIA headquarters in Virginia. He too was a Pakistani. Four years after the attack, he was taken into custody in Pakistan, sent back to the United States, stood trial in federal district court, and given the death penalty.
Again, no invasions, occupations, or assassinations. Just patient police work and judicial processes.
After 10 years of invasion, occupation, torture, killings, incarcerations, renditions, assassinations, death, destruction, anger, hatred, and the constant threat of terrorist retaliation, it’s time to admit that the military invasion of Afghanistan, like that of Iraq, was horribly wrong. Not only did it fail to capture bin Laden, it killed and maimed countless innocent people in the process, placing Americans in constant jeopardy of retaliation.
There is also the possible financial bankruptcy of the U.S. government to consider as well.
It’s time to admit wrong and bring the troops home, immediately.
Read the full article here.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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