It seems some have confabulated the need to invade Afghanistan. [View all]

[WingDinger]

There was no need. the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden, and try him in Islamic court. He would have lost his head, we WOULDNT have lost any troops.

No need to Kowtow to Pakistan, nor ignore their nuke equipping the world, or at least our enemies. No trillions spent.

Bush wanted to revel in revenge and crow about PNAC thrust. He wasted all our good will engendered from 9/11. Conflated Saddam with Afghanistan, and 9/11, you know the rest.

Main point is, Afghanistan was NOT a righteous cause. And little girls going to school, or their war on women, is NOt in our charter. Nor was a proper act of war declared. We would NOT have patriot act likely. No torture. No PTSD. No need to rebuild the country. To prop up a crumb bum, nor his drug peddling brother. No promising everyone goodies, to look the other way, or donate soldiers. Maybe no economic collapse.





http://articles.cnn.com/2001-10-07/us/ret.us.taliban_1_abdul-salam-zaeef-surrender-bin-taliban-offer?_s=PM:US

The White House on Sunday rejected an offer from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to try suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan under Islamic law.

The offer came as the United States massed forces in southwest Asia for a possible strike against Afghanistan if the Taliban refuse to surrender bin Laden. A Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the Taliban offer and repeated U.S. demands that bin Laden be turned over unconditionally.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/03-6

WASHINGTON - When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden's terrorist career for the next nine years.

The al Qaeda leader was able to escape into Pakistan a few weeks later, because the Bush administration had no military plan to capture him.

The last Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, offered at a secret meeting in Islamabad Oct. 15, 2001 to put bin Laden in the custody of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to be tried for the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, Muttawakil told IPS in an interview in Kabul last year.