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

Today is the anniversary of 9/11, the sole justification for us having crossed an ocean and two seas to attack and invade Afghanistan. 

Now, 18 years later, the war is still raging, the horrific death toll is still mounting, and there is no end in sight. The great hoopla that existed over the peace talks was never realistic; it was always just spin.  

I'm sure George Bush never dreamed that the war could go as badly as it has. To let Osama bin laden be tried in another country, as the Taliban offered, looks awfully attractive now, looking back at it. Wouldn't it have been better than this God-awful war we got? 

But, Bush couldn't accept that offer because the whole case against bin laden was a canard.  They could no more try Osama bin laden than they could try Lee Harvey Oswald. I don't know the extent to which Bush realized that, but, the people who were playing him like an instrument- they realized it- and they couldn't allow bin laden to be tried- anywhere.  

So, the tragedy of this war was baked in the cake. From the moment, George Bush was given the disputed 2000 election, 9/11 and the disastrous wars that followed were a fait accompli.  

I just heard Trump on tv say that talks with the Taliban are dead, and he said it bitterly. Then he said that we've hit the Taliban harder in recent days than in 10 years. Doesn't he know that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Does he really think he can break their resolve by hitting them hard? And as far as killing them goes, they're content to kill themselves in suicide attacks. They have a whole "martyr division." They celebrate dying for Jihad.  

We are sinking further into the abyss. Escalation can only make things worse. Independent of the Taliban, Trump wanted to reduce troop levels there. He should go through with it, if only to reduce the number of American targets. He should just systematically withdraw; get out of there. And the same goes for the other countries who have soldiers there who are in danger. Leave Afghanistan to the Afghans. Having occupation forces there only makes it worse- for everybody.