Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

I am going to repeat something, because it's worth repeating, and it shows how utterly corrupt the War on Afghanistan was from the very beginning. 

Supposedly, George W. Bush attacked the Taliban government of Afghanistan because they knowingly harbored terrorists in the country, particularly, Osama bin laden. There isn't one iota of a chance that that is true. 

Osama bin laden went to Afghanistan in the 1980s and had been living there the whole time. He fought in the war against the Soviet occupation. He contributed weapons and money; he brought fighters; and, he was extolled as a hero when it was over. 

So naturally, the Taliban, whom he fought with, didn't kick him out. I'm sure they told him he could stay as long as he wanted. But, it had nothing to do with terrorism but rather, ending a foreign occupation. 

So, the Taliban settled into running the government in Kabul, and he settled into a cave in the Bora Bora mountains on the opposite side of the country. Even if you believe that he was responsible for 9/11, and I do not, there is no reason to think he called the Taliban up and said, "Guess what? We're crashing planes into the World Trade Center." 

There is no reason to think that the Taliban was involved in it in any way. There is no reason to think they would have been inclined to be involved in it. Then, as now, their interest was in Afghanistan and Afghans, and not in killing people half a world away. No benefit could possibly come to them or to Afghanistan by doing it. Only harm could come to them and Afghanistan from doing it. It is absolutely insane to think that they were "harboring terrorists."  

People commit crimes for personal gain. There was no potential gain to them from doing that They issued a very sincere condolences to the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks and said that they hoped that the culprits would be found and brought to justice.  There is no reason to doubt their sincerity. 

And they did offer to take Osama bin laden into custody and turn him over to a third country for prosecution and trial. I suspect that they went and talked to him, and I suspect that he agreed to do that- if only to prevent a war and save lives. 

Bin laden being detained in some neutral country that had diplomatic relations with both the US and Afghanistan would have neutralized him as effectively as if he was detained by us. Wasn't that the most important thing? And presumably, whatever evidence we had against him, we could have given to prosecutors in that country. So, from a practical standpoint, it was just about as good as us detaining him ourselves. 

But, Bush's response was to say that we don't negotiate with terrorists. It's too bad he didn't consult with Donald Trump. And why didn't Congress get involved in considering the Taliban offer? Why did they give Bush a blank check to reject it? Why didn't they consider it themselves? 

No matter who you are, even if you are one of my many enemies, knowing what you know about what has happened over the last 18 years, and what is still happening in Afghanistan today, and really with no end in sight, as Sheriff Joe says in My Stretch of Texas Ground, don't you wish to God that the U.S. had accepted the Taliban's offer? That is, if you actually believe that Osama bin laden was responsible for 9/11, which is absurd. But, if you want to believe it, go ahead. And even if you do believe it, you should be sober enough to realize that this disastrous war was totally and completely unnecessary. And the responsibility for it, the blame, if you will, rests entirely on us. We crossed an ocean to attack them. And do you realize what that means? It means that all of the deaths are on us. Our leaders are responsible for the deaths of all the Americans who died in Afghanistan and all the Afghans too. Every member of Congress who failed to do everything in his or her power to stop it bears some responsibility. The tragedy of this man-made catastrophe is really incalcuable and unspeakable.