After tens of thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars wasted, the US departure from Afghanistan has left the Taliban in total control. How can we begin to measure the human and financial cost of the longest war in US history? And will the US ever atone for the death and destruction it helped wreak through decades of intervention?
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
and whats really sorry here , our forces were fighting against each other, the taiban were created our own presidents . it was Bush who instigated the go.
We should have left it there the moment Osama Bin Laden was dead that culture in that country is so FUBAR,ed it will never be right. For those of you that have been there you will know what I'm talking about.
For a defeat to happen in any type of warfare. There has to be a series of decisive defeats on the field of battle not just one. Never one time did any Taliban Force ever defeat US forces. The Afghan forces that were free did lose but the US didn't.
the year before invasion: Taliban, after years of effort, brought opium production to NEAR ZERO; the year after the invasion: opium production EXCEEDS world demand. just sayin
Iran has 3+ million refugees, so spot making 120k a big number.
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Big Oil
By Eric S. Margolis
June 24, 2008
PARIS — After a sea of lies and a tsunami of propaganda, the ugly truth behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally emerged into full view this week.
Four major western oil companies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are about to sign US-brokered no-bid contracts with the US-installed Baghdad regime to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields. Saddam Hussein had kicked these firms out three decades ago when he nationalized Iraq’s foreign-owned oil industry for the benefit of Iraq’s national development. The Baghdad regime is turning back the clock.
This agreement comes as talks are continuing between the Washington and its Baghdad client regime over future US basing rights in Iraq. After some face-saving Iraqi objections, it is expected that Baghdad will sign a compact with Washington giving US forces control of Iraq and its air space in a manner very similar to Great Britain’s colonial arrangement with Iraq.
Interestingly, the same oil companies that used to exploit Iraq when it was a British colony are now returning. As former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently admitted, the Iraq war was all about oil. VP Dick Cheney stated in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was about oil, and for the sake of Israel.
Meanwhile, according to Pakistani and Indian sources, Afghanistan just signed a major deal to launch a long-planned, 1680 km long pipeline project expected to cost $ 8 billion. If completed, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) will export gas and, later, oil from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan’s coast where tankers will transport it to the west.
The Caspian Basin located under the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakkstan, holds an estimated 300 trillion cubic feet of gas and 100—200 billion barrels of oil. Securing the world’s last remaining known energy Eldorado is strategic priority for the western powers. China can only look on with envy.
But there are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of landlocked Central Asia to the sea: through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. For Washington, Iran is tabu. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan, including the cities of Herat and Kandahar.
In 1998, the Afghan anti-Communist movement Taliban and a western oil consortium led by the US firm UNOCAL signed a major pipeline deal. UNOCAL lavished money and attention on Taliban, flew a senior delegation to Texas, and also hired an minor Afghan official, one Hamid Karzai.
Enter Osama bin Laden. He advised the unworldly Taliban leaders to reject the US deal and got them to accept a better offer from an Argentine consortium, Bridas. Washington was furious and, according to some accounts, threatened Taliban with war.
In early 2001, six or seven months before 9/11, Washington made the decision to invade Afghanistan, overthrow Taliban, and install a client regime that would build the energy pipelines. But Washington still kept up sending money to Taliban until four months before 9/11 in an effort to keep it "on side" for possible use in a war or strikes against Iran.
The 9/11 attacks, about which Taliban knew nothing, supplied the pretext to invade Afghanistan. The initial US operation had the legitimate objective of wiping out Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. But after its 300 members fled to Pakistan, the US stayed on, built bases — which just happened to be adjacent to the planned pipeline route — and installed former UNOCAL"consultant" Hamid Karzai as leader.
Washington disguised its energy geopolitics by claiming the Afghan occupation was to fight "Islamic terrorism," liberate women, build schools, and promote democracy. Ironically, the Soviets made exactly the same claims when they occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1989. The cover story for Iraq was weapons of mass destruction, Saddam’s supposed links to 9/11, and promoting democracy.
Work will begin on the TAPI once Taliban forces are cleared from the pipeline route by US, Canadian and NATO forces. As American analyst Kevin Phillips writes, the US military and its allies have become an "energy protection force."
From Washington’s viewpoint, the TAPI deal has the added benefit of scuttling another proposed pipeline project that would have delivered Iranian gas and oil to Pakistan and India.
India’s energy needs are expected to triple over the next decade to 8 billion barrels of oil and 80 million cubic meters of gas daily. Delhi, which has its own designs on Afghanistan and has been stirring the pot there, is cock-a-hoop over the new pipeline plan. Russia, by contrast, is grumpy, having hoped to monopolize Central Asian energy exports.
Energy is more important than blood in our modern world. The US is a great power with massive energy needs. Domination of oil is a pillar of America’s world power. Afghanistan and Iraq are all about control of oil.
Sounds like the UN should punish America for her decrepit role/involvement is the atrocity… just sayin…
Insane
This is terrible
It's just capitalism doing its thing….it always is. Change the economic system.
During a gold rush sell shovels.
During a war sell guns.
When there is a industry making money off wars.
It's no wonder they only push for more and more war.
The USA broke the Iran deal to follow it up with the murder of multiple diplomatic politicians.
For the mainstream media to follow it up with story's about how they had it coming.
This double standard is going to get us into trouble.
💩Cheney💩!!!!!!wAs the💩Culprit💩
Seems like it would be interesting if the subtitles were readable.
LoL, if you are seriously asking who won the war you must be American. Same as Vietnam. US left after 20 years without any accomplishment and the Taliban rule. Full stop. Sad but true.
You should have invaded Saudia Arabia (source of terrorism and the radical ideology) not Afghanistan and Iraq.
Why didn’t we just buy their oil and natural resources at a proper price instead of bombing them…? it would have cost less. Barb
Why didn’t Obama pull troops out?
Why did Obama invade Syria?
Why did Obama fund a genocide in Yemen?
Why did Obama deport more Mexicans than any other president?
Why do they call Obama the drone strike king?
stupid question, no one ever fucking wins a fucking war
The Afghan War built many new mansions in Dubai and McLean, Virginia.
Those friends who served ~ I wish there was a way we could make them understand how much we value them.
So many of them are absolutely heart broken right now.
They worked so hard to secure everything, and they gave up so much….All that money wasted could have gone to support them and their families when they came home.
Pisses me off