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

With the ink not yet dry yet on the peace deal, and just hours after Trump's "very good talk" with Baradar, the U.S. struck the Taliban militarily. This was after the Taliban unleashed multiple attacks on the Afghan government. But, they said all along that their peace deal with us had no bearing on their war with the Afghan government, which would continue. They have not been ambiguous about that. 

The 1 1/2 years of negotiations with the Taliban have been a  colossal failure. The 19 years of war have been a colossal failure. And it's amazing that Esper would spin it into a success. He says the proof of success is that there have been no subsequent 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil. 

There's a joke that goes: an old man is riding on a London train, and he is crumpling up pieces of paper and throwing them out the window. Another rider sees him doing it and asks him why he's doing it, and the old man says "it's to keep the elephants away." The other rider points out, "But, there are no elephants," and the old man says, 'I know. It really works, doesn't it?"

Esper is like the old man. The Taliban has never admitted to having any involvement in 9/11, and they have always denied having any involvement. And it makes no sense that they would have had any involvement.  How would it have helped them? Do you really think they would have done that just for the satisfaction of killing Americans? Their interest has always been Afghanistan. Even in 2001, they were at war. They were fighting the "Northern Alliance." And no doubt, the Northern Alliance was getting help from us. But despite that, the Taliban had nothing to gain and everything to lose by attacking us. And they surely knew it. People do things out of self-interest, and it was not in their self-interest to attack us. And if Esper really thinks the Taliban was involved in 9/11, then it really is a disgrace what he and Trump have done. But of course, the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. The towers were imploded. 9/11 was an inside job. Both Esper and TIME and everyone else in government and media keep chanting the false and preposterous 9/11 narrative.  And, it does seem that 911 was done primarily to justify launching a war against the Taliban.  In the short term, that was the main objective. But, it was an atrocity built upon an atrocity. The magnitude of the evil involved in all this is unspeakable. And "unspeakable" is the right word because words can't describe the monstrousness of it all.