It’s as if the Project for the New American Century never existed. The reason that the U.S. ever “entered” Afghanistan in the first place was that they were stunned at what happened on 9/11 and, quite understandably, like a dazed and confused giant, felt compelled to wage war on Al Qaeda and the tactic of “terrorism” based in Afghanistan. Of course, they did everything by the book and first asked the Afghan government to hand over Bin Laden for trial. The Taliban government, “as we all know”, flatly refused to do so. So the inevitable happened. No choice. And while they were at it, what could be better than restoring democracy and human rights to all the Afghan people!
But I recall so well the prominence at the time given to the manipulations and pressure of key political leaders to take the opportunity to implement the program of the New American Century. And I even recall that brief moment in the news when it was reported that the Afghan government (also doing everything by the book) asked the U.S. for the evidence that Bin Laden was the key suspect behind 9/11 so they could follow the normal practices of extradition. Maybe they were lying. But why would they want to give the U.S. an excuse to “enter” their country? And we’ll never know because we were told that they were “refusing” to hand over Bin Laden and therefore war had to be declared “immediately”.
So many of us shook our heads and thought, Sheesh, that is going to be a disaster! How can the U.S. succeed where no other power has managed to do so! Woe to Afghanistan. Another Vietnam.
And now we’re being told not to believe the online video clips and that Kabul is not at all like Saigon 1975.
Neil Godfrey
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Once Carter & Brzezinski decided to commit millions to making Afghanistan ungovernable the rest followed like falling off a log.
• A must see 2012 doco.
“Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart”. Wikipedia.
Will this finally make the Australians understand that the Americans are both untrustworthy and idiots?
Will the Australians produce a government that does not base its foreign policy on sucking up to the USA?
Will Australians stop following every damn fool economic or social idea that becomes fashionable in the US?
I would hope so.
But I don’t expect it.
Why are Australian governments so desperately committed to alliance with the US, and follow them into wars ? At the annual conference of the Australian Institute of International Affairs held in Canberra on 14 October 2019 one of the key speakers was Hon. Alex Hawke, then Federal Assistant Defence Minister. After his speech I asked him a question from the audience : “Given the US record of illegal wars, interventions in the sovereignty of other countries’ governments and the consequential millions of people who have died, been maimed, tortured, displaced and ended up in abject poverty, and the internal racial and economic divides within the US itself, is it time that the Australian government brainstormed a new foreign affairs policy towards the US and thought of becoming truly independent ?”.
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His answer was : No. We share too many values; Australians have too much in common in our way of life with the US.
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This is an an example of when I feel ashamed to be Australian. I believe that 911 was an inside job, and when our former prime minister said later that he felt “highly embarrassed” when he learned that the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq did not exist, making him a an accomplice to war crimes, with no apology, I felt it even more.