POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
I can't believe, after all these years of the insane and pointless war on terror (war on an abstract noun), that any Canadian would accept what Bradan Matchett has written.
I know Americans are delusional and uninformed in these matters, their press works at keeping them so, but I expect better of Canadians.
Afghanistan attacked no one. The Taleban government of the day, attacked no one.
A small group of people - mostly from Saudi Arabia and holding legal American visas - attacked the United States.
They were perhaps - we don't know to any certainty - admirers or followers of Osama bin Laden who was living at the time in the remote mountains of Afghanistan.
America demanded bin Laden's extradition. The Taliban government said yes if some supporting evidence of guilt could be offered, something which any judge in Canada would also request before extraditing someone to the U.S. or anywhere else. Also, remember bin Laden was a hero from the war against the Soviet Union. Heroes anywhere aren't extradited on no evidence.
Bush refused even a polite diplomatic answer and prepared for a completely unjustified invasion. Thousands died needlessly. Thousands were mutilated. Thousands have been tortured. And thousands of American prisoners simply disappeared.
Yet the U.S. never even caught bin Laden. It killed a bunch of innocent people.
It has now made Afghanistan another terrorist training ground and it is in league with a bunch of cut-throat warlords who are every bit as nasty as the Taliban. There is no effective national government. Drugs are thriving.
What a glorious set of achievements! Only to be exceeded by the horrors of Iraq.
