Any honest appraisal of the Afghan War will acknowledge that the US and Britain were deeply involved in Afghanistan long before the terrorist attacks of September 2001. In the late 1970s there was a socialist government in Afghanistan, which had good relations with Russia. The US and UK would not accept this state of affairs and decided to do all they could to bring down this government. Their means of doing so involved stoking up attacks on the Afghan government by the extreme Islamist fanatics opposed to it, including pouring in supplies of advanced weaponry. This started at least six months before Soviet troops first entered the country in 1979. From this arose the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Obviously, the US and UK would never have done this if they had foreseen 9/11. But they did know it would likely bring great suffering to the people of Afghanistan and they did not seem to care.
Brendan O’Brien
London N21
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