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I don't know if it's really fair to say that after 9/11 we were playing world police when we invaded Afghanistan. They were harboring Al Qaeda who had been car
by dx87 7y ago
I don't know if it's really fair to say that after 9/11 we were playing world police when we invaded Afghanistan. They were harboring Al Qaeda who had been carrying out smaller scale attacks on US assets for a while, culminating with 9/11. At that point you can't just ignore them and hope they stop; they'd been escalating violence for years.
- craftinator 7y agoWe invaded Iraq because of 9/11, not Afghanistan. That came later.
- aibara 7y agoWhat? The U.S. invaded Afghanistan first, in 2001. Iraq came in 2003.
- krapp 7y agoWe were always going to invade Iraq, as soon as GWB and Dick Cheney were elected it was inevitable. 9/11 just provided a convenient opportunity to manufacture the pretext by implying links between Iraq Intelligence and the hijackers.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- boomboomsubban 7y agoWhat you describe sounds a lot like the police breaking into a house to arrest an alleged criminal. >At that point you can't just ignore them and hope they stop; they'd been escalating violence for years. If you can't ignore the problem, then drastically escalate the violence on your own?
- pjc50 7y agoVery much like this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/31/actor-steven-seagal-sued-for-driving-tank-into-arizona-home-killing-puppy/#ffc3b7474894 https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/31/actor-steve...
- mturmon 7y agoThe Bush administration did let the mission in Afghanistan creep from crippling al Qaeda, to reconstructing Afghan society so that al Qaeda could not return. This is what pulled us in to trying to dismantle the Taliban as well. Remember that Taliban and al Qaeda are distinct.