But then the British and the Americans had to face up to the fact that they might not be as good and innocent as they thought they were. ibid.
The largest money laundering operation in human history: ‘A 2021 SIGAR report found that the United States has spent nearly $7.8 billion on capital assets in Afghanistan, including buildings, transmission lines and substations, roads and bridges, motor vehicles, and aircraft. Of that total, nearly 31% – $2.4 billion – was spent on assets that were not being used as intended, remain unused, or had been abandoned or destroyed’ … The Taliban now controls more of the country than it did before the US invaded. RT news report 11th September 2021
Every tribesman has a blood feud with his neighbour. Every man’s hand is against another. And all against the stranger. Winston Churchill
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier. Rudyard Kipling, The Young British Soldier, 1892
The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them against our adversaries worked marvellously well in Afghanistan against the Red Army. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia. Graham Fuller, former Deputy Director of the CIA’s National Council on Intelligence
The purpose was not to defend Afghanistan, which could have been a legitimate purpose … it was to bleed the Russians; that’s not legitimate; in fact they were carrying out terrorist acts inside Russia in the 1980s. Noam Chomsky, lecture Manchester 2004, ‘Imperial War Strategy II’, Youtube
According to The New York Times there are seven to eight million people in Afghanistan on the verge of starvation. Noam Chomsky, lecture MIT October 2001, ‘The War on Terror’, Youtube 1.17.13
Mr President, we have an opportunity here to create a Soviet Vietnam. Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1979 memo to Jimmy Carter
We started to provide weapons to the Mujahideen. Zbigniew Brzezinski
An enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region. Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard
How Jimmy Carter And I Started The Mujahideen. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur January 1998
Your cause is right and God is on your side. Zbigniew Brzezinski to Mujahideen warriors
US National Security advisor Brzezinski flew to Pakistan to set about rallying resistance. He wanted to arm the Mujahideen without revealing America’s role. CNN news
This is a callous violation of international law. It is a deliberate effort of a powerful atheistic government to subjugate an independent Islamic people. Jimmy Carter
We waged a proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Hillary Rodham Clinton
The context is the desire of the United States to control these strategically crucial regions. Professor Robert Jensen
In December [1979] the Soviets invaded. The Americans feared losing control of a potentially lucrative and strategically useful part of Eurasia. 7/7 The Big Picture
Their [Russians] overriding fear was that ... the chaos would be exploited by their enemies, the Americans. Robert Braithwaite, author, interview BBC News March 2011
In 1980 Ronald Reagan sent the CIA into Afghanistan. Their secret mission was to fund, train and arm the Mujahideen, a band of Islamic Afghani fighters. They were at war with the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. The CIA was told to crush the Soviet fighting force by any means possible. Secrets of the CIA, Sky One 2006
The Soviet Union went to war: sending tanks and troops thundering into their southern neighbour Afghanistan. Dominic Sandbrook, Strange Days – Cold War Britain III, BBC 2013
1979: in June that year the United States commenced covert operations in Afghanistan to exploit the potential for social conflict. According to Brzezinski, US involvement, he said, was designed to foster unrest and bog down the USSR into a costly and bloody invasion, and indeed to provoke the USSR into an invasion. This was just the beginning. Nafeez Ahmed
The United States ... Britain and various Western powers as well have been to this day connecting themselves in some way to the Majahideen, to Al Qaeda, in various different regions ... We are told that we disconnected ourselves from the Mujahideen completely when the Soviet Union collapsed – this is just not true. It’s well documented now. Nafeez Ahmed
In the future we may well see a kind of three-way competition between Russian, China and the United States for the resources of central Asia. Ahmed Rashid, author Taliban
The American CIA supported the Mujahideen at the behest of the Pakistani Intelligence Service. Ahmed Rashid
1991 to present: US planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. UN estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions. 2000-2001: US gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in ‘aid’. Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, 2002
In 1997 while George W Bush was governor of Texas a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian sea. Who got a Caspian sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney. Halliburton ... and who else stood to benefit from the pipeline? Bush’s number one campaign contributor, Kenneth Lay, and the good people of Enron. Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004
The Bush administration welcomed a special Taliban convoy to tour the United States to help improve the image of the Taliban government. ibid.
It’s estimated that Afghanistan has already cost the British Taxpayer £18,000,000,000. Professor Saul David, Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War III: Raising Arms, BBC 2012
Americans flatly accepted following New York the invasion of Afghanistan that had already been planned to the smallest detail. New American Century, PSTV
On September 10th [2001] a detailed plan to attack Afghanistan was put on George Bush’s desk for him to be signed on his return from Florida. The following morning, the twin towers were turned into rubble. ibid.
The Western media however had already made up their minds bin Laden was the bad guy. And from him anything could be expected at that point. On the eve of September 10th 2001 a full plan to attack Afghanistan with strong support to the Northern Alliance was placed on Bush’s table, to be signed by the President upon his return from Florida. The New American Century
After removing the Taliban from power a temporary government was put in place. It was headed by Hamid Karzai, an Afghan living in America who had previously worked as a consultant for Unocal. In the meantime the world media spread the mythology of the rebel hidden in sophisticated self-powered caves with air conditioning and ammunition stacks. But in reality bin Laden was nowhere to be found. ibid.
For a while the flag-draped coffins from Iraq and Afghanistan were hidden from the American people. The American Future: A History by Simon Schama, BBC 2008
They had no plan. None for Afghanistan. Lieutenant General Michael deLong, Deputy Commander CENTCOM 2000-2003
Afghanistan was a distraction to Bush; his attention was focused on toppling his father’s old adversary Saddam Hussein. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States X: Bush & Obama: Age of Terror, Showtime 2013
As we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies and freedom. George W Bush, State of the Union address January 2003
The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and her allies as we strike military targets ... America is a friend of the Afghanistan people. George W Bush