An American political commentator and journalist has warned that the United States has no plans to end the war in Afghanistan and might continue it for centuries. RNA - Stephen Lendman, a Chicago-based author and radio host, made the remarks in an interview while commenting on the Taliban’s warning to the United States.
The militant group on Thursday warned the United States it would face the same fate as the Soviet Union in the 1980s if it did not leave Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that US forces face "humiliation" and could "learn a great deal" from the experience of their Cold War foe.
"Take heed from the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and abandon thoughts of testing the mettle of the already proven Afghans," said the statement issued on the 39th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of the country.
The Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, ending a decade-long occupation and precipitating a bloody civil war and the emergence of the Taliban and other militant groups.
The United States -- under Republican George W. Bush’s presidency -- and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban regime from power, but after more than one and a half decades, the foreign troops are still deployed to the country.
After becoming the president in 2008, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, vowed to end the Afghan war -- one of the longest conflicts in US history – but he failed to keep his promise.
President Donald Trump, who has spoken against the Afghan war, has dubbed the 2001 invasion and following occupation of Afghanistan as "Obama's war".
But Trump has also announced to deploy thousands of more troops to the war-torn country, signaling a policy shift.
“America went to war on false pretenses against Afghanistan in October 2001, around four weeks after 9/11 that I called the mother of all state-sponsored false-flags, which it absolutely was, staged by the CIA probably along with Israel’s Mossad,” Lendman said.
“The war in Afghanistan is now in its 18th year. Astonishing. It’s not America’s longest war. It’s not even close to America’s longest war. It’s US longest war in modern times. America’s longest war longest war went on for centuries against the Native Americans literally annihilating maybe the 99 percent of them over three, four, five hundred years. And I felt the Afghan war is the one that would last four, five hundred years although who can tell,” he added.
“The [Afghan] war was lost very early in the game. America knew that. The Pentagon knew it. America keeps waging a war not to win it just to keep waging it,” he stated.
“The Taliban would be very happy to talk to America if it really leaves the country. The country does not belong to America. It belongs to the Afghan people. And there are millions of Afghan people. And I doubt that there are many who really want America to be there,” he noted.
“All of the turmoil, and war and chaos and killing and starvation and all the rift, it is mainly because of America’s presence. Afghanistan has been as the country in turmoil for many, many years, long before America showed up. And it’s known historically as the graveyard of empires. Russia could not conquer Afghanistan. Alexander the Great could not conquer Afghanistan. It looks like nobody can conquer Afghanistan. It certainly looks America is not doing it and won’t do it,” the analyst said.
“America will continue to be there [in Afghanistan]. Why? Well, a lot of reasons. Afghanistan is a land-based aircraft carrier against the countries in the region, including Russia, China, and Iran. So America uses the country for this reason,” he said.
“It’s the largest producer of opium supported by America, supported by the CIA, supported by America’s banks, because opium is made into heroine and is exported to huge profits. Western banks money-launder the profits which is why they wanted it. The Taliban – one of the reasons America went after Taliban – got rid of 95 percent of all the opium,” the journalist said.
“Another reason for Afghanistan, its importance, it is extremely rich, maybe trillions of dollars – not millions, not billions, trillions of dollars worth of minerals,” he pointed out.
Source: Press TV
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