Can someone explain to me in very simple terms why we're sending troops to Afghanistan?

[Pennies]

Why, exactly, are we at war?

Saudi Gazette

Kuwait Times

Because the middle east has all the oil.

yes, and the world needs oil. That's a good enough reason to fight the people who would cut it off without even getting into the moral arguments.

9/11 was taken as a declaration of war by al Quaeda. After 9/11 a decision was taken to destroy al-Quaeda, which was supported and fostered by the Taliban. One of the aims was to establish a stable government in Afghanistan to prevent the same happening again. al Quaeda has not been destroyed and there is no stable government in Afghanistan. This is the bare bones.

There is no oil in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is entirely dependent on outside sources for its energy. It gets it's electricity for example from Tajikistan.

its

by golly

If allied troops left Afghanistan now there would still almost certainly be anarchy.

I assume there will also be a belief, not without grounds, that those plotting car bomb, rocket and sniper attacks in Afghanistan will not stop if there is withdrawal, but will redirect their efforts towards Western targets.

I said in eariler post - Afghanistan (the Taleban) has opium, Iraq has oil.

Afghanuistan is dependent on outside sources becasue the Taleban inforce a standard of living equivalent to medieval times - as a point of ideology not because they haven't the money to have a wonderful egalitarian society with fab energy infastructure.

Riven, it's a newspaper article which gives you a flavour of what the media think, it's not fact, more a mix of fact and fiction. You need more reliable sources to discern which is which.

The terror plots were al-q, whereever they were 'hatched', and I would like to see the evidence that they were indeed hatched in the UK. Pakistan yes - (hint) read all the article not just the bits you like - the UK? 'Hatched'? I very much doubt it.

Tora Bora is long ago. Special forces cleaned those cave out before we saw anything on the news. Just goes to show how much journos know really.

Stuffit, the people carrying out car bombs/suicde bombs want the western forces out so they can unleash hell on these people. That's part of the reason why we are there. Don't you get it?

You seem to think we are provoking these people. We aren't. Our destruction has been their stated intent. They mean to take the world back to a purer time, i.e. the Dark Ages.

It is nothing to do with Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

It is all about a strategic conflict called The Great Game which originated in a conflict between the British Empire and the Rusians for the Central Asian Region.

This carries on even today and is the reason Russia invaded Afghanistan and why US funded the Taliban originally. Control of this strategically important region has huge geopolitical implications. Now China as an emerging superpower and has added a new dimension as it is also interested in influencing the region.

That and is the real reason the US and UK are now there - to stop the CHINESE gaining influence. The fear is that if Chinese troops were stationed in that region they would be able to sweep down and take over Pakistan and India as well as move into Iran and control the Arab Gulf and Caspian Sea region with its oil reserves.

MT, I have given only facts. I do indeed "get" the facts.

You are mixing up the Taliban with al-Quaeda. The Taliban may want to "unleash hell" as you put it, on the Afghani people, but the targets of al-Qaeda are western interests.

There is no doubt that a great deal of fundamentalist manpower and firepower is now focussed on and attracted to western forces in the Aghanistan and Iraq -- which said would otherwise be directed towards not the Afghani people, but the west.

ABD is partly right. If I can use a metaphor: sensitivity and control issues surrounding the north-west frontier are the "chronic" condition: 9/11 is the "acute" illness. It's wrong to say it has nothing at all to do with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Actually probably not wrong to say it had nothing originally to do with the Taliban, who were operating in a way that was reported almost comically before 9/11. The "amusing" way barbers' shops would be raided and customers arrested, and so on. The Taliban were then simply the enablers, and became the target because of that. But wrong to say it had nothing to do with al-Qaeda.

"Frankly, I don't remember who your government declared an enemy at the time, and don't feel it matters terribly to the debate"

How can what the clearly stated objectives of the invasion not matter to any discussion about why we are still there?

When you're walking around doing your shopping and ask "what am I here for?" how can the shopping list you made when you left home not matter?

"Btw if you are not going to answer anything I say, I think I will take my leave from this thread."

Once we've agreed the facts of the matter, that the Taliban were one of the original enemies and that their destruction was one of the objects of the invasion, then I'm happy to take the discussion on from there. While you just ignore a fact of history and see it as being unimportant it's really hard to have any discussion about that consequences of that piece of history.

Whether they should have been an enemy is a very good question.

Whether we should change our goals is a very good question.

Why we haven't met our goals after so many years is a very good question.

Ignoring why we went to Afghanistan when asking why we are still there makes for a very bad question.

China has bought huge swathes of land in the middle east Betadad

Also in Africa too it has bought a lot of land and resources. There are also large numbers of Chinese traders and merchants cross the border into southern Siberia. Russia cannot defend that border and much of it is now de facto settled by a Chinese populus.

It all tallies with the resource based mercantilist policy that China has pursued. Similar to the British Empire in the 19th Century.

Its all about opium. Since British and American forces went in - opium production has soared in Afghanistan. This means big money for the high up british and american families who control multinationals.

Exactly same policy when Britain ruled India - earned billions from opium.