In an interview with Amy Goodman in 2007, ex-NATO General, Wesley Clarke publicly disclosed how, in the days following 9/11, he was told by a colleague at the Pentagon that, as part of their “Global War on Terror” (or, as Borat called it, “War of Terror”), the US planned to “take out” seven countries in five years: Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
Since that revelation by Clarke, we can clearly see that the US/NATO/Israel axis may be way over schedule – and budget, but right on course. They just knocked out country number 6 on Clarke’s list, Syria. All that remains now, is Iran.
Let’s take a moment to review those countries targeted by the US; who fell, how and why…and who’s left. The first in the GWOT to be bombed or invaded was in fact not Iraq, it was a country not even on Clarke’s list.
And that country was…
ONE: AFGHANISTAN (2001 – 2021)
The invasion of Afghanistan (named “Operation Enduring Freedom”) in October 2001 was justified by the “terrorist attacks” on 9/11. By now, you’re probably familiar with the US government’s official explanation for the WTC attacks – including how those towers (violated the laws of physics) when they came down on that day.
Incidentally, according to various polls, more than 50% of the US (and probably the planet) today believe that 9/11 was a false-flag inside job…to justify the ensuing GWOT. If that’s true, then it makes the entire 20-year invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by the US (and every country since) illegal under international law.
THE 10-YEAR HUNT FOR BIN LADEN
Despite 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 being Saudis – including OBL himself – the US decided to invade Afghanistan, allegedly to find Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda who were apparently based there. After nearly a decade since 9/11, and an exhaustive search costing $3 trillion dollars, the US, under Obama’s presidency, finally found and “executed” Bin Laden on 2 May 2011, in an operation by Navy Seal Team 6.
The official “assassination” account by the US government was soon mired in controversy and conspiracy, which was further compounded when, a few months later, nearly 2 dozen members of Seal Team 6 were killed in Afghanistan, after Taliban forces shot down their Chinook helicopter.
A HUMILIATING WITHDRAWAL – AGAIN
Twenty years and trillions of dollars later, the US finally left Afghanistan – in ruins – under humiliating circumstances in August 2021, where thirteen troops and many Afghan civilians died. The disastrous exit from Kabul has been compared to the US’s other disastrous exit from (the fall of ) Saigon, back in April 1975. Former President Trump blamed the Kabul debacle squarely on President Biden and VP Harris.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: TORTURE AND SURVEILLANCE
One of the shameful spinoffs of the GWOT (in total violation of international law and human rights) was the US torture programme – particularly GITMO. Obama himself admitted it back in 2014, when he said; “We tortured some folks.”Another unfortunate by-product was the forced implementation of the Patriot Acts under GW Bush, and the NDAA under Obama; Orwellian “laws” which have gradually stripped US citizens of more and more of their privacy, rights and freedoms.
According to the Cost of War Project and the UCDP, the USA’s 2-decades long war in Afghanistan has killed at least 176 000 directly, and as many as 360 000, indirectly.
What say you, SA? Did the US have the right to bomb and destroy Afghanistan (and other, weaker countries) in response to 9/11?
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