It seems some have confabulated the need to invade Afghanistan.

[WingDinger]

There was no need. the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden, and try him in Islamic court. He would have lost his head, we WOULDNT have lost any troops.

No need to Kowtow to Pakistan, nor ignore their nuke equipping the world, or at least our enemies. No trillions spent.

Bush wanted to revel in revenge and crow about PNAC thrust. He wasted all our good will engendered from 9/11. Conflated Saddam with Afghanistan, and 9/11, you know the rest.

Main point is, Afghanistan was NOT a righteous cause. And little girls going to school, or their war on women, is NOt in our charter. Nor was a proper act of war declared. We would NOT have patriot act likely. No torture. No PTSD. No need to rebuild the country. To prop up a crumb bum, nor his drug peddling brother. No promising everyone goodies, to look the other way, or donate soldiers. Maybe no economic collapse.





http://articles.cnn.com/2001-10-07/us/ret.us.taliban_1_abdul-salam-zaeef-surrender-bin-taliban-offer?_s=PM:US

The White House on Sunday rejected an offer from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to try suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan under Islamic law.

The offer came as the United States massed forces in southwest Asia for a possible strike against Afghanistan if the Taliban refuse to surrender bin Laden. A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the Taliban offer and repeated U.S. demands that bin Laden be turned over unconditionally.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/03-6

WASHINGTON - When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden's terrorist career for the next nine years.

The al Qaeda leader was able to escape into Pakistan a few weeks later, because the Bush administration had no military plan to capture him.

The last Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, offered at a secret meeting in Islamabad Oct. 15, 2001 to put bin Laden in the custody of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to be tried for the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, Muttawakil told IPS in an interview in Kabul last year.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Pakistan was always about electoral politics.

Always was. Still is.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[tblue37]

10. Also about war profiteering by well-connected corporations

like Halliburton and Blackwater/Xe.

[WingDinger]

11. Add to that, the Taliban reneged on Pipeline deal after sensing being used/lied to.

That is why they blew up the Buddhas. To punish us for bad dealings. We wanted to teach them, and anyone that might make up their own minds, what happens.

[WingDinger]

2. In fact, check this out!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/al-jazeera-report-taliban-offered-to-give-up-bin-laden-for-trial-before-911/1


Al-Jazeera: Taliban offered to give up bin Laden before 9/11

The Taliban government in Afghanistan offered to present Osama bin Laden for a trial long before the 9/11 attacks, but the U.S. government showed no interest, Al-Jazeera TV reports, quoting a senior aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Update at 11:25 a.m. ET: Al-Jazeera says Robert Grenier, the CIA station chief in Pakistan at the time of 9/11, confirms that such proposals were made to U.S. officials.

[The Magistrate]

3. People Talk All Kinds Of Smack When They Are Under the Gun, Sir

None of these was a serious offer to bring the man to justice for mass murder.

[WingDinger]

5. No, they dont. When you let up, they talk smack.

What you must do, is up the ante, till you can claim that they are just talking smack. Like the end of WW2.

Lesser powers do NOT make empty promises to the last superpower on earth, and certainly not one that is just itching for revenge.

You are letting your mind be co-opted.

[The Magistrate]

8. Whatever, Sir....

None of these was a statement of serious intent to see the man brought to justice for mass murder. They were exercises in delay, and posturing to maintain and gain support in the Islamic world in the coming confrontation.

[WingDinger]

9. How righteous it would have been, to agree to the terms, supply the evidence, and have them renege!

We would now be golden. Call their bluff. All the while maintaining your pressure/threats. Have Congress issue a war act with teeth, should they renege. That is how you gather political capital, and power.

[MoreGOPoop]

4. K & R

The oily crux of the biscuit, this.

[white_wolf]

6. I've heard some people say that an Islamic Court would have declared him innocent...

but I don't think so. Even if they wanted to let him go, he had already openly admitted to organizing the attacks so he wouldn't have had a leg to stand on and the Quran is fairly clear on the penalty for murder. So, yeah, Bush fucked up, but really is anyone surprised? It's Bush, I'll be surprised if it turns out he ever did anything right.

[WingDinger]

7. Bush was afraid that they didnt respect him, and would make him a laughing stock.

Bush didnt really trust the evidence he had on Bin Boy. Same reason why they would NOT have allowed Bin Laden face court, of any kind. Dead men tell no tales.

[Gregorian]

12. They had a great dream that America would once again be like post WW2.

Oops. All of the houses have been built. No more millions of subdivisions can go up. We didn't even have the massive manufacturing infrastructure. The steel mills had all long been dismantled.

Big joke. People are now dead and suffering.

[bvar22]

13. President Obama has PROVED that the Invasion of Afghanistan was unnecessary.

All we needed was Seal Team 6.
Case CLOSED!

Now WHY the FUCK are we STILL there?

[bluestate10]

14. Drones too. nt

[WingDinger]

15. True, and, the Biden solution, is JUST THAT.

Rapid react forces, in small, forward locations, even on leased locations. Make less mess, achieve only clear objectives.

I think, but do not know, that Obama in his second term, will off MANY military bases. Reduce the standing army. Increase drones. Massively reduce nukes, replacing them with some much fewer DUZZY's.

Foreign entanglements are FAR easier to avoid, than win or exit.