Home | About | Donate

The Taliban Surrendered in 2001

It is good to see this written down again. I have seen it written and heard it only a handful of times since the Bushy-Cheney folks launched this particular neoliberal bloodbath twenty years ago.

It 's good that Biden withdrew the troops, to the extent that he has actually done so, to any extent to which he has not just shipped them or their replacements to the Congo, to the extent that this was not an excuse for one last orgy of bombing–which, of course, it has been.

The we that criticizes Biden for pulling out is not so much of the population, not the antiwar left, not a progressive element, but the radical right-wing, mostly Democrat but some Republican false news industry, still drumming up the blood lust and bad conceptions for more war.

The rest of us criticize and ridicule Biden for bombing on his way out, for not pulling out earlier, for participating in more bloodshed, for his ongoing participation in pointless war.

It is good that Biden pulled out. But this is as yet no sign at all of a reduced-violence presidency. It’s more like your schoolyard bully kicking you in the nuts one last time before going off to molest his cousin or something. You are probably mostly glad he’s gone.

My congratulations to the Taliban, the somewhat cooler heads who have in the limited sense accorded to political and military enterprise prevailed.

1 Like

So while we are again rightfully condemning Bush, let us not forget the role VP Cheney played in this debacle. Shortly after Bush took office, Cheney held a confab in the old Executive Office Building with the major oil companies. While Cheney refused to reveal what was discussed, I was and remain convinced that it in that meeting that the invasion of Iraq was planned.
Regarding the necessity to maintain an enemy, I seem to recall that at one point Bin Laden was trapped in a cave in a mountainous region of Afghanistan. The CIA commander on the ground asked for reinforcements in the form of Army Rangers to finish the job. He was denied. I remember thinking at the time that Bin Laden was the face of evil because of 9/11, and if he was killed or captured our reason for being there would evaporate. Bin Laden was allowed to escape.

Bush & Cheney remain free while Snowden and Assange remain marked men.

1 Like

Right on. Just before covid, I was in a college class room, where up not one of the students knew that there was any opposition over Vietnam and about Shell oils’ role. Amazing how many people now all ready forgotten the 1st bogus/lie reason why went to the Middle East — 9/11. However, people who got sick from 9/11 still go without medical care.

1 Like

Why is a nearly 30 years - war just now getting on the front pages of the news? Glad to see Common Dreams, after all these years, bring up the oil companies’ as the real reason behind support the troops. Because the oil companies own the troops.

2 Likes

It important to remember that the lies told around the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan were not outliers. This is how the US Government operates and IS operating. Keep that in mind when they claim a need to contain China or Russia or the need for an Africom or a US presence in South Korea and Japan.

They create all these frictions between nations based on lies and then use those lies to justify more Militarism and more fascism. The Democrats do it just as much as the Republicans.

2 Likes

The Criminally Insane Assassins couldn’t get Castro, so they did the next best thing…they took out JFK.

2 Likes

Don’t worry about what to do with our troops. Biden started bombing Somalia last month, just not publicized widely. Who is he bombing? The terrorists we trained maybe? Not again!

1 Like

Disagree with the center of who is criticizing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The entire mainstream media is united in spinning our withdrawal as a disaster. And a lot of dissing Biden is in process–he didn’t consult Britain, he doesn’t know we have troops in Syria,…

Yes mainstream media does influence the way people think. It is all most people hear.

ALL of that happened under the control of the DP. And it always will.

Third Party

Why would we drop a single bomb in Afghanistan as we try to fly people out, and expect the Taliban to play nice?
Didn’t matter that the Taliban surrendered in 2001. We needed the continuation to invade Iraq.
We didn’t have to get Saddam or Bin Laden for that matter, in order to keep the bogus war footing we were to continue for the next twenty years.

2 Likes

The connections are there for us all to see if we are willing to look.
JFK---- Chicago union bosses-tied to Mafia-tied to C.I.A.-tied to Warren commission coverup.

Vietnam. Conspiracies galore from assassinations to secret war in Laos and Cambodia. False flag beginning. They didn’t tell us they had no intention of winning a shooting war, only a war of negotiation.

9-11 has so many ties it’s ridiculous to think it was set up by Saudi’s. And then the 9-11 commission coverup.

Afghanistan. Follow the stepping stones once again. Orchestrate 9-11 then move on to Iraq, then enrich the administrations money wonks.

Us baby boomers have lived a conspiracy run life span.
Kind of sucks to be an American.

1 Like

Hi herb B;
Does Biden even know who is bombing what?
It seems that the military —since Bush and Cheney---- has been getting richer and more soul less every year. : (

You’re right. He knows little about the world or even what goes on inside his own office. Has real trouble when he tries to adlib.
But I would expand my request to his handlers.

1 Like

Here is one more expert historian ignoring the fact that Pakistan is the taliban.
Provides supplies, paki officers leading the afghan cannon fodder and providing 15,000 replacements when we kill 5,000.

The good news is that this is drive bye news and forgotten when the Cleveland Browns are 6-0. Americans have not cared about afghan for 12 years.

Maybe I should have been more specific. I see that as pretty synonymous with what I wrote, but I suppose not everyone does.

Yeah but the Progressives and Democratic hoiploi seem to go after the Clintons more than Bush and the GOP. There will never be accountability for the GOP as long as the “Left” isn’t united.

Could you provide some sources related to the Taliban/Saddam Hussein surrenders? The article doesn’t provide any

1 Like

Obama just wanted to look forward. The day he said that regarding Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, I knew that his administration would be a disaster, not that I had any hope for him before he got elected…

1 Like

We do, and have had for decades - but we don’t vote for them, having been told they “can’t win” or are “spoilers”

Frankly I am really tired of this “we have no choice” bit - our real problem is we have no guts …

That’s just one of the reasons why we are stuck with one party, and its two right wings.