Jean Moretti

Afghanistan: Aftermath of 9/11 Jean Moretti

War in Afghanistan was inevitable since the rigid Islamic government of Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar insured safe harbor to Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaida terrorists who killed 2,978 innocent people September 11, 2001, in Manhattan, the Pentagon and a Shanksville, Pennsylvania, pasture. Bin Laden said the U. S. was targeted in retaliation for: 1] its support of Israel, 2] building a military base in Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holy sites Mecca and Medina and 3] its "decadent" popular culture. There was an additional human factor that encompassed U. S. troops in a strange land. Thus, the story wound itself around feuding warlords, poppy fields, political clout of the Northern Alliance Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara clans who supported the U. S.-led war and the larger Pashtun clan that allowed the terror. The Taliban government was overthrown in a month, al-Qaida's power was greatly diminished. Afghanistan held a Loya Jirga, adopted a constitution and the people elected a president for the first time in the nation's 5,000-year history. The collective "we" (U. S., Great Britain, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Italy et al.) did that with the will of the Afghan people!