#usa attacked Afghanistan because of 9/11

[loumandforyou]

When my grandpa was around 14 years old, he joined the Greek resistance against the German and Italian occupation (smuggling food, helping Jewish people hide). One of my mom's stronger first memories is going to a protest for the war in Vietnam. One of my own, is standing in a protest against the war in Afghanistan, with people screaming "φονιάδες των λαών, αμερικανοι!" ("Murderers of people/nations, [are the] Americans"). Now I go to protests about Azerbaijan with an Armenian friend.

People have always stood against wars, against the deaths of innocent people.

Why now, protesting against the war in Palestine, is wrong?

[mashriqiyyah]

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Unveiling the evil agenda

What seemed like the aftermath of 9/11 which happened around 22 years ago, was a well-planned conspiracy. Intended false propaganda. A successful attempt to draw a clear picture of a terrorist in the eyes of the world. Torturing Muslim nations, hiding it ever so subtly under the guise of various uneven blames, then filming their resistance in the most brutal visuals and labeling it as terrorism. Every Muslim man who wore a skull cap, or sported a sunnah beard, every Muslim woman who wore a burqa or hijab or niqab was now a terrorist for mere choice of their clothing. Saying Allahu Akbar made people terrorists. Practicing Islam in public places made people terrorists. Revealing the Muslim identity and in fact, just existing as a Muslim made a person terrorist. Just because the USA painted 9/11 with a lie, that it was done by Muslims. Which in reality, was an attack launched by Israel; According to the US Army report. Ironically enough.

Now the world has memorized one lesson like a child memorizes rhymes. Every terrorist comes from Islam, even when the nations have gone through brutal oppression for ages for their faith are Muslims. In Uyghur, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Palestine, Sri Lanka, France, Bosnia and the counting doesn't seem to cease. The world was made so Islamophobic by this propaganda so the real Terrorists would continue their assault and massacre smoothly while wearing "white" collars.

Today, with these videos surfacing we see, Jewish/Zionists/White supremacists/Racist people celebrating/chanting "Death to the Arabs" "Death to prophet Muhammad"

(NaudhuBiAllah) (ﷺ). All the while they continue to rain white phosphorus bombs over a huge population of civilians, including children, women, and elderly and unarmed men. The world calls it self-defense and not terrorism or genocide when it's as clear and broad as daylight.

Why?

Because the one being killed belongs to Islam. That child whose birth certificate was not issued, was he a terrorist?

That kid whose body could fit in a school bag of his brother, was he a terrorist?

They are conducting gatherings where they openly call for genocide, "kill them all!" "Wipe all Arabs!" But no one seems to take it as an extremist activity.

Why don't we ever call a jew a terrorist? Why don't Fox News, CNN, and BBC scream on television that "Judaism is the real cause of terrorism?"

These Jewish settlers are proudly announcing that they will turn the Gazza Strip into a cemetery, level it, and occupy it because they are good and "chosen" for that land. The prime minister on air says "children of darkness" to Palestinian children. The cold-blooded hate is ever so apparent on their faces, their demonic eyes show what viciousness they are harnessing against a population whose land they stole.

Yet, no one thinks to call Israel a terrorist state.

This was the agenda all over. A fire caused diversion, so the real terrorists could cross the borders. Now, it's the time when the oppressors and the oppressed both are before our eyes. It's the time we choose to see the truth we've been kept away from, for all these years. We remove that false flag, erase the fake image generated for terrorism, and see the flags with blue and white as flags of terrorism.

These two nations, the USA and Israel are two major terrorist states. They destroyed Afghanistan, they destroyed Syria, Iraq, Libya, and many more countries for their greed over oil, they have a known history of colonization, and occupation, and their divide-and-rule policy has created massive drifts between harmonious populations. And they are the ones who should be taken into international law courts for severe crimes, for the assassination of all those Muslim leaders who dared to expose their false propaganda and lies (King Faisal, Saddam Hussain) for example).

It's time the world unites against corrupt and greedy leaders who can kill their people to gain sympathy and catch attention. Just like they killed the people in World Trade Centre.

- Umm Taimiyyah 🕊️

[queenwendy]

It’s October 7th. I know I post a lot of pro Palestinian stuff and am vocally anti Zionist, but it seems wrong not to say something. A year ago, Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1200 people and took 251 more hostage. 97 are still in captivity, with the rest freed or rescued. Of the 97 remaining, 33 are thought to be dead. That’s horrible. It’s awful. Hamas’s attack has rightfully been called barbaric.

So has Israel’s response. 41,788 people in Gaza dead, including over 16,000 children, and other figures report most of that 41,788 are civilian women (I never see figures on civilian men. Which eerily echoes Obama saying “enemy combatants” in my mind). Over 60% of Gaza is just ash now. And Gaza isn’t that big; only 139 mi^2, and crammed full of over 590,000 people back in 2017 (Israel, by comparison, is made up of 9,900,000 people, though I think that includes the 21.1% of arabs). That’s a far cry from proportionate, and I fail to see how bombing civilians and reducing schools and hospitals to ash saves hostages. Unless the argument is that it will scare Hamas into surrendering, in which case at best that’s total war and at worst state sponsored terrorism.

Now Israel is engaged in escalations with Lebanon and Iran. I don’t pretend to know any of the history there, so all I’ll say on that matter is that it’s scary. Very scary. I imagine it’s scary for Israelis, who don’t know when their families will be saved and see enemies on all sides. I imagine it’s terrifying for Palestinians, who have to watch their entire community be destroyed because a terrorist organization claiming to represent them committed an act of terrorism.

The whole situation is, as I alluded earlier, disturbingly similar to the USA’s war on terror. On 9/11 Al Qaeda killed 2,977 people. In response, the United States and her allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and we didn’t leave until 2021. Fucking 20 years. And the Taliban still won. 46,319 civilians were killed, and the US committed innumerable war crimes. Plus, the US killed Bin Laden in 2011, so we went on for another fucking decade after we got the guy. And that’s not to mention the Iraq War (2003-2011) where anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people died, because Bush lied about WMDs and Saddam Hussein.

Keep in mind, in Afghanistan alone the US killed just a few thousand more civilians than Israel has in 20 years; Israel has had just 1 year. And remember that this conflict didn’t start in 2023; it started in the 1940s when Israel became a state*

9/11 and October 7th were both awful tragedies committed by terrorist organizations. Israel and the United States are also both colonialist states that are more than happy to bomb the shit out of civilians under the justification of counter terrorism. October 7th was awful. The Hostages should be brought home and Hamas has to be stopped. But don’t let anyone fool you today that the Israeli government is somehow in the right because of that. We’ve seen similar countries pull the same shit for the last twenty years. Don’t be fooled.

The war has to stop. Not because I love islam (I don’t) or I hate jews (I don’t), but because civilians shouldn’t fucking suffer like that. Hostages have to be returned, bombs have to stop, and someone more fucking capable than me or Netanyahu or Yahya Sinwar or fucking Biden needs to get a god damn peace agreement through that will actually last.

A lot of my numbers on the current war in Gaza are from this very good article ny NBC. My figures on the US war on terror are from Wikipedia.

*Yeah I know a Zionist Israel only was able to come about because of WWII and the holocaust, and yes I know that only happened because of WWI and antisemitism, and that only happened because of centuries of antisemitism in Europe because of Christianity and the Roman Empire, and yes I know that’s an oversimplification and the chain of events goes back further. My point is that this whole history is a bloody nightmare of a political knot, but that even then the mass death of 16,000 children is fucking inexcusable, even when in response to the also inexcusable capture of 251 people. This isn’t a matter of who’s in the wrong, it’s a matter of degree of wrongness.

[cogbreath]

i would actually love to hear your facts and trivia about 9/11 especially anything like...... niche and not so known about it. the super uncommon stuff perhaps

OH MY GOODNESS YIPPEEE OKAY OKAY

so this is in no particular order but rather how i remember them

1. one of the hijackers (ziad jarrah) was actually having second thoughts about it. he was the only one who did not cut off contact with his loved ones, and the rest felt so strongly that he might back out, that they had what was described as an "emotional" confrontation with him to rope him back into it. Jarrah was the hijacker pilot for flight 93, the one that ended up crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. Also, the hijacking on this flight didnt start until about 40 minutes after it took off. Some people theorize that Jarrah delayed it on purpose for as long as he could so as to sabotage the mission, but obviously, this is only a theory, and it's ultimately unknown as to why it was delayed. OH also a few days before 9/11 he spontaneously went on a drive at like 4 am speeding, and got a speeding ticket. It is also theorized that he was attempting to get arrested in this circumstance so as to not have to participate in the attack. Again, a theory and unconfirmed.

2. Mohamed Atta (commonly considered the ringleader) was actually an architectural student in college. He wrote his thesis criticizing modern architecture and western style skyscrapers. I wouldnt say this was a direct inspiration or anything but its just a bit of irony imo. guy who hates skyscrapers ends up crashing a plane into one.

3. (might be known if u have more knowledge abt the investigation however imho not a whole lotta ppl especially younger folks know this) The majority of the planning and preparations for 9/11 took place in Germany and Afghanistan, with one known instance of some sort of meeting in Spain. In any case, the hijackers werent actually in the USA for more than a year, most of them arrived in 2000 for flight school lessons.

4. To date there has only been one successful trial regarding 9/11 in the USA. The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who is believed to been intended to be a 20th hijacker but this was not confirmed in the trial. There was a trial in Germany with Mounir el-Motassadeq who was sentenced to 15 yrs imprisonment and then deported to morocco in 2018 iirc. but yeah 22 years later only 2 ppl have been convicted for association with the attacks, and everyone else who is accused is detained STILL at Guantanamo Bay. As u may know the thing regarding the CIA black sites and the torture of these inmates was a thing that was found out. Because of this, basically all the evidence relating to these trials is pretty much inadmissible bc of being gained from torture. It is very very much a mess and it is not unknown that there were and still very likely are innocent people detained there. (also u have to wonder in the case of those who are not innocent, if all of it is worth it, especially if you are an abolitionist.)

5. it's generally assumed the intented target of flight 93 was to be the US Capitol (second theory is the White House). In any case this is something im actually surprised there arent many people theorizing about what an alternate history timeline would be like if this was successful. It would definitely have had even MORE impact if it was successful.

6. Another thing that imho is more of a situational irony type thing, but Ziad Jarrah used to want to be a pilot growing up, but his father disallowed it because he felt it was dangerous and didn't want to risk losing his only son if there were to be a plane crash.

7. Some of the hijackers were known by either the fbi or cia to be suspicious people who may have connections to a potential future attack. (i forget exactly which organization had discovered this, but miscommunication and petty rivalry between the two originizations lead to lack of action) Basically it wasn't unknown that Something Big was being planned and this is where blaming the USA for the attacks sort of stems from.

8. Flight 175 (crashed into the south tower) had 2 near misses almsot colliding with 2 other flights.

9. For reasons unclear, both Mohamed Atta's family and Ziad Jarrah's family vehemently denied that their sons had any involvement with the attacks, both families claiming that their sons were still alive and that they had been in contact with them after 9/11. Again it's unclear to me why they did this, but this circumstance also is used as "evidence" for multiple conspiracy theories.

[evelynstarshine]

9/11 US extremism ruined the lives of people around the world too. It was immediate terror about what America would do, who they would attack, how they would force us in, what'd they'd do to us if we said no to ANYTHING they asked. Around the world anti Islamic violence, antisemitic, antiasian violence too and it wasn't opposed because the fear US would embargo, attack, punish if we 'sided'.

US media domination skyrocketed too. If you want to know why so many countries politics, accents, slang, religious beliefs became americanised it's because post 9/11 no one could say no to US.

I remember the antiwar protests, everyone was terrified of US invading Afghanistan because they knew we would be sent to fight it that our government wouldn't be allowed to say no. And no one knew when it would end, US politicians were already talking about a global crusade, how once Afghanistan was defeated it'd be Iraq, Iran, Libya, on and on.

It was the end of the world, the fear americans felt up on top of the world that media reminds us of every year, that every TV show vindicates was nothing compared to the fear the rest of the world had of America, the nuclear armed superpower that was thrashing out and screaming vengeance.

The fear everyone felt after 9/11 of America is hard to explain, even people who remembered the cold war crises hadn't come close. And it never gets considered today let alone remembered, only the american perspective remains

And unlike US's fears, ours came true. More civilians died every hour of the first three days of the Iraq war than did in 9/11. In the antiMuslim riots in Gujrat, hate crimes in USA,UK,around the world, multitudes more. Afghanistan is in ruins. But what has memorials?

Death to America

Post 9/11 Trivia

Most folks on this site were either children on September 11, 2001, or weren’t even born yet.  But America went crazy for about a year afterwards.  Here’s some highlights that I remember that might not be in your history books:

There was national discussion on whether or not Halloween should be canceled because…fuck if I know why.  After planes crashed into buildings in NYC it follows that 6-year-olds in Iowa shouldn’t be allowed to dress up like Batman and ask their neighbors for candy, I guess.  (Halloween wasn’t canceled, by the way.)

On a similar note, people asked if comedy - any sort of comedy - was appropriate anymore, ever.

People sold shitty parachutes to suckers “in case your building gets attacked and you have to jump out the window.” There were honest-to-God news reports warning people not to jump out of the window with shitty mail-order parachutes because they wouldn't work.

As a follow-up to the attacks, someone mailed anthrax to some prominent politicians and news anchors - you know, famous people - along with some badly-written notes about “you cannot stop us, death to America, Allah is good” and after that every time some random dumbass found a package in the mail they didn’t recognize they thought that the terrorists were targeting them, too.

Everyone was similarly convinced that their town was going to be the next target, even if they were a little town in the middle of nowhere. "Our town of Bumblefuck, South Dakota (population 690) has the largest styrofoam pig statue west of the Mississippi! Terrorists might fly planes into that too! It's a prime target!"

People started taping up their windows and trying to make their houses or apartments airtight out of fear of chemical and biological attacks. There were news reports warning people that turning your house into an airtight box was a bad idea because, y'know, you need air to breathe.

"[X] supports terrorism!" and “if we do [X], the terrorists win!” were used as arguments for everything.  "Some rich Arab you never heard of donated to his organization that backs Hamas which backs al-Queda, and also owns stock in a holding company that has partial ownership of the Pringles company, so if you eat Pringles you're supporting terrorism!" "The terrorists want to tear down our freedoms and our way of life and rule us through fear! Eating what you want is one of our freedoms as Americans! If you're afraid to eat Pringles, the terrorists win!" (I promise you that this sort of argument is in no way hyperbole.) (This argument is how Halloween was saved, by the way.  “If we cancel Halloween, the terrorists win!”)

People worked 9/11 into everything, and I mean everything, whether it was appropriate or not.  If you went to the grocery store the tortilla chips would remind you to support the troops on the packaging. Used car sales would be dedicated to our brave first responders. You couldn't wipe your ass without the toilet paper rolls reminding you to never forget the fallen of 9/11, and again, this is not hyperbole. My uncle, who lived in Ohio and had never been to New York except to visit once in the 70′s, died of a stroke about 8 months after 9/11, and the priest brought up the attacks at the eulogy.

On a similar local note, on the day of 9/11, after the towers went down, gas stations in my home town immediately jacked up gas prices.  The mayor had the cops go around and force them to take them back down.  I doubt any of that was legal.

Before 9/11, Christianity in America - and religion in general - was on a downward swing, with reddit-tier atheism on the upswing. Religion was outdated superstition from a bygone age. The day after 9/11? Every single church was PACKED.

Besides dumb shit like that…it’s really hard to overstate how completely the national mood and character changed in the span of a day, or how much of the current culture war is a result of the aftermath. (9/11 was the impetus for the sharp rise in power of the Evangelical Right, who made themselves utterly odious and the following backlash helped the rise of the current Progressive Left, for instance.)

[liberty1776]

A letter from Osama Bin Laden has been deleted after it caused an entire generation to have an existential crisis. The letter was published by The Guardian in 2002. They deleted in on Wednesday after it caused young people to question their own country's involvement in the war on terror. Are these budding peace activists in training?

Thoes who stand with Israel are actually pro genocide and for murdering civilians. Justin Trudeau seems to have gotten something right. Gen Z people seem to be seeking and finding truth. Government cencerorship is trying to continue to hide truth.

My belief is that Bin Laden's letter was him just trying to take credit for an attack he and his organization had nothing to do with, although most of what the letter says is very valid. It was Israel that did the 9/11 attacks as a false flag to get the USA to attack its enemies. It worked and the US attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. Iraq was attacked for having non existent WMDs while Israel really had WMDs a reason US can not legally aid Israel and should stand with Israel's enemies, because Israel is actually the USAs biggest enemy.

[deadpresidents]

We Remember: When 9/11 Forged a Genuinely United States of America

Today, we remember.

We remember that the weather was perfect throughout nearly the entire country on that Tuesday morning. We remember where we were when we heard about the first plane hitting the tower. We remember what we thought as the new just began to trickle in. We remember our horror as we watched the second plane hit the South tower. We remember the evacuations -- people running out of our monuments of freedom and democracy, our centers of government and finance, and spilling out on to the streets of our nation’s capital. We remember the dust and debris chasing thousands of New Yorkers through the streets of our most iconic city. We remember the smoke rising from the Pentagon. We remember that impact site in Pennsylvania -- a smoldering hole in an empty field instead of the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building because Americans decided to fight back. We remember watching the towers fall.

We remember the fear, the chaos, the sadness, and the feeling of not knowing what was happening or when it would end. We remember a feeling that Americans were not used to experiencing up to September 11, 2001: the helpless feeling of being attacked as went about our normal lives. We no longer remember what it felt like on September 10th.

Do you remember pointing fingers? Do remember placing blame? Do you remember partisanship? I remember patriotism. Not bumper sticker and window decals. Genuine patriotism. I remember flags and candles and donating water and giving blood and having a new appreciation for first responders. I remember that, for at least one week, we weren’t Democrats or Republicans. I remember that we were Americans. I remember that we cared a little bit more about each other for at least a couple of weeks.

When Democrat Lyndon Johnson was the Senate Majority Leader and Republican Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States, LBJ -- one of the most intense, passionate, partisan political animals in our history -- never attacked President Eisenhower. It wasn’t because LBJ agreed with Eisenhower’s policies. It wasn’t because LBJ was scared. It was because, as LBJ explained in 1953 in a comment that has an unfortunately haunting connection to 9/11, “If you’re in an airplane, and you’re flying somewhere, you don’t run up to the cockpit and attack the pilot. Mr. Eisenhower is the only President we’ve got.”

The only President we’ve got.

We all want to head in the same direction. We all want to move forward. We all want to progress and be happy and healthy and safe. But now, more than ever, our country’s prosperity is crippled by divisive partisanship. As World War I and World War II approached and the world realized that we are clearly connected on a global level, the people who seemed the most out-of-touch -- the people who were wrong -- were the isolationists. In both of those great wars, the isolationists were proven wrong. Yet, in the span of our grandparents’ lives we have regressed to the point where most Americans have become individual isolationists -- not isolationism on a national level, but on a personal level. We’ve tried to disconnect from the people in our own country -- especially if they look, love, or think differently than us. Don’t you remember how powerful it felt after 9/11 to be united? Don’t you remember how we helped each other in so many different ways?

I guess I could be cynical. I guess I could remember the look on President George W. Bush’s face when his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, whispered news of the attacks in the President’s ear as he sat in a Florida classroom. I guess I could remember The Pet Goat, and the fact that Bush didn’t immediately get up, sprint from the room, and change out of his Clark Kent clothes into the Superman suit. I guess I could remember Air Force One zig-zagging across the country, the only plane in the air besides military escorts and combat air patrols over our major cities. I guess I could remember the surveillance videos of the well-dressed hijackers walking through airport terminals that morning before they turned our planes into weapons. I guess I could remember that the passengers of Flight 93 didn’t actually get through the cockpit door and force the plane to crash into that Pennsylvania field. I guess I could remember our government’s alphabet agencies -- the FBI, CIA, NSA, and everyone else listening in on our world -- being unable to work together and stop the attacks from happening in the first place. I guess I could choose to remember those things, but that doesn’t make me feel better. It doesn’t make 9/11 anything but a success to those who tried to frighten and frustrate and intimidate us through terrorism.

This is what I choose to remember:

I remember that the passengers of Flight 93 tried to get into that cockpit. I remember that their plane didn’t make it to Washington, D.C., and even if they never actually breached the cockpit and physically forced the plane into that meadow in Pennsylvania themselves, they certainly fought back and forced the hijackers to abort the mission that they had planned. That plane didn’t crash into the White House or the Capitol, and that’s not because the hijackers got lost.

I remember driving to the wedding rehearsal for two of my best friends on the Friday after the attacks, feeling bad for them that they were getting married in the shadow of 9/11. I remember being amazed at thousands of people in the streets of Sacramento -- neighborhood after neighborhood, thousands of miles away from any of the attack sites -- holding a candlelight vigil. I remember that it was then, as I drove through the silence of these peaceful vigils, with flags and flames and tears all around me, that I thought, “We’re going to be okay.”

I remember George W. Bush -- a President I never voted for -- who, like all of us, was a bit unsteady with his words in the hours immediately following the attacks as he processed the magnitude of what we were living through. But I remember how he found his footing and found his voice quickly and began to speak for all of us. I remember him returning to Washington, D.C. that night, against the wishes of his government and his Secret Service protection. I remember how this President -- a President I didn’t agree with, a President I never cast a supportive ballot for or whose campaign I ever donated a cent to, a President whose beliefs were diametrically opposed to almost everything that I believe in -- went to Ground Zero and met with the families of those who were dead or missing, and gave them all the time they needed with him.

I remember how that President visited the rescue workers at Ground Zero. I remember, more than anything else, how President Bush climbed on to a pile of rubble from the fallen towers of the World Trade Center, grabbed a bullhorn and began to speak, but was interrupted by the workers yelling, “We can’t hear you!”

I remember that the President -- the only President we had at the time -- shouted to these exhausted, weary, grieving, heroic rescuers, “Well, I can hear you! And the people who knocked these buildings down are gonna hear from all of us soon!” I remember that it was genuine, that there was nothing manufactured about that moment, and that, despite all of his faults and deficiencies, George W. Bush said exactly what those people -- our people -- needed to hear. As the workers chanted, “USA! USA! USA!”, I remember thinking that I didn’t vote for him and I won’t vote for him in 2004, but at that moment he was my President and I was proud of him.

As we look back, we can’t help but think about everything else that has come out of 9/11 -- the interminable war in Afghanistan, the unjust and unnecessary war in Iraq, the humiliating and annoying experience that flying in an airplane became in this country -- but I think about that stuff pretty much every day, and I feel like this should always be a day where we think differently.

So, even if it’s just for this day, I’m going to think about those flags and candles and President Bush on top of the rubble of the World Trade Center with a bullhorn. I’m going to think about being an American -- just like I was in the weeks following 9/11 -- rather than who I voted for or what team I like or any of the millions of things that divide us and can get back to tearing us apart tomorrow like they did yesterday.

I’m going to remember thinking, “That’s my President,” as President Bush spoke to the rescue workers, just as I did a few weeks later when he went to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the World Series, strapped on a bulky bulletproof vest under his FDNY jacket, walked to the pitcher’s mound, and with millions of Americans watching on television, with thousands of rabid New Yorkers watching in the stands, and with Derek Jeter’s words of warning (”Don’t bounce it or they’ll boo you”) rattling around in his head, threw a perfect strike.

I’ll remember thinking, “That’s my President,” about a guy I never voted for and didn’t agree with, and I’ll hope that you do that when the guy you didn’t vote for and didn’t agree with says the right words, does the right things, and throws a strike when our nation needs it -- not because you’re a Democrat or a Republican, but because you’re an American and that’s the only President we’ve got. We don’t have to disagree about everything just because we don’t agree about most things, and we don’t have to like everything about one another to understand that, sometimes, we need each other.

What do you remember?

[blackcross-3]

CW: Terrorism, War crimes, mentioned suicide bombing, death

Ok, so I saw a YT short about MSFS banning you if you try to go to 9/11.

And, because I am an Idiot, I decided to take a look at the comment, in which people discussed (suprisingly not argueing) about the attack on the twin towers justifying the 'global war on terror'. And while I wasn't yet born in September 2001, I do have an Opinion on it:

No

Not. In. Any. Fucking. Way.

Because, after the war started, a new terrorist organization rose up and wreaked havoc in the middle east, going from country to country...

Its name?

The U.S. military

By this I do not mean soldiers put a bomb west on and blew themselves up.

But imagine for a second you would have to live in fear of being hit by a 30mm auto cannon of a helicopter, that is so far away you cannot even hear it, unless you listen closely. You could die just because some guy 'mistook' your camera for a weapon.

This actually happened by the way. In 2007 (4 years after the end of the Iraq war) in Iraq a small group of people, and a bystander with two children trying to help the survivors got shot by an Apache attack helicopter from a distance of about 400m(1200ft) away while using armor piercing ammunition.

And do you know why we know that?

Because a journalist found the recording of the optical system that was involved in the incident (link at the bottom). And he found out that this was no exception.

Over the course of the Iraqi an Afghanistan war and beyond about 15 000 civilians were killed by U.S. troops and no one responsible has been punished for it.

Julian Paul Assange, the above mentioned journalist, however is in danger of a 175 year prison sentence.

Why?

Well, according to the U.S. he is being accused of treason and leaking of classified information.

But you know that is utter bullshit.

No matter how you bend the circumstances: publishing a video is no possible way worse than commiting literal fucking war crimes

The terrifying thing is that this was not only able to happen, but that it is also just swept under the rug so easily.

But to know why this is possible, we just have to go back to August 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the USA dropped two nuclear weapons of mass destruction on civilian non militarised cities, the justification was a 'quick' end to the war, which would otherwise have been a hard and bloody battle for the Japanese mainland.

Even though Japan surrendered only an entire month after the bombs were dropped.

Even though the U.S.A had the most advanced military technology of the time.

Even though there might be indication of this literally being test explosions to see the size of the damage.

'But, hey, ',some of you may say,

'that doesn't matter, because back in the day bombing civilians was not yet a warcrime!'

So was the systemetic trackdown and industrial efficient murder on 6 million innocent jewish people not a warcrime yet.

I mean listen to Hiroshima and Nagasaki put this way: The USA bombed two cities instead of military targets at a time when their reconaissance bombers could fly so high, that the Japanese had no chance of shooting them down and had no ressources left to even fight with.

Now this is not to say, that the Japanese had not commited war crimes, but that is off topic.

What I am saying, however, is that while in Germany you are opening a school book about WW2 and learn about Propaganda and war crimes through analysis of propaganda posters and seeing pictures of piled up bodies, in the USA you learn that the two nuclear weapons dropped on civilian cities were neccesary.

According to Wikipedia about 230 000 people died because of the detonation and after effects, while in the entire pacific war 130 000 U.S. soldiers lost their lives.

They killed almost twice as many people in two days, as the Japanese did in almost four years

Think about that for a moment...

Because as far as I know that is not really taught in U.S. schools, which means that someone reading this might have just now found out about it.

I think you can learn a lot about a countries politics by looking at how they handle the crimes they have commited in war.

Germany is teaching every student, not only that ignorance can lead to horrible things, but that Germany has commited atrocities which it can never forget and will never forget as the debt to all the victims of the holocaust is infinite.

Meanwhile America is teaching students, that killing about twice the amount of people that have died as soldiers in war is justifyable. Even if those people are civilians and include children.

This is why this happens.

Because the topic of the U.S.A commiting war crimes has continuesly been swept under the rug.

Do you think the death of 3000 innocent people is enough to justify the killing of 15 000 people, who are just as innocent?

If you do, then you have no problem with collateral murder.

If you do than you support the death of the 12 innocent people and two children, who are being killed in this video

[crazyintheeast]

Remember they Afghanistan only happened because we showed sympathy towards USA after 9/11. And now the Gaza genocide is only happening because we showed sympathy to Israel after the Hamas attack . And they are by far the only ones who have reacted like this . We need to stop letting out sympathy turn into tolerance of atrocities

People seem to think this is fake because it's written in English. Apart from the racism in believing that Arab doctors and nurses aren't fluent in English (a second or official language for half of Asia), Palestinians have deliberately been addressing their audience in English on every social media, from journalists to children, because they know speaking English to Westerners immediately makes people more human in their eyes. Because language is one of the ways the imperial cultural hegemony conditions us (yes, everyone in the world) to see who qualifies as "people" and who are simply a mass of bodies who were always made to suffer and die. Gazans know this deeply, which is why they have been using English to beg and plead through social media, "We're not numbers! We're not numbers! We're people like you, we speak your language, we deserve to live!" all the while they're systematically slaughtered.

Israeli forces also encircled Al Shifa Hospital yesterday and bombed it for several hours while shooting dead anyone trying to flee including medical staff moving between buildings. Not sure whether it's still continuing because WHO lost all communications with its staff there a few hours after. The last new report said that thirty-nine babies had been removed from the incubators before the power went out. It's extremely unlikely they will survive.

Please understand that these atrocities depend on the war of attrition between governments and public attention. The momentum of public outcry is difficult to sustain through repeated stonewalling and bureaucratic intractability. When we're flooded with these reports and a sense of futility and despair replaces the anger, it allows compassion fatigue to set in and the violence to become normalized. Massacring hospitals, killing sick children and openly targeting humanitarian aid workers (Netanyahu just declared the UNRWA is in league with Hamas) will become simply more news article that fades into the background, and open genocides will soon become part of the "lesser evil".

Take care of yourselves how you can, take distance where needed, but please never tune out and give up on the two million people for whom we are the only witness and hope. Never stop boosting and sharing the news and posts you find, never stop getting out there and joining every protest you can, however small. Anger burns out, which is why activism must depend on an immovable sense of justice and uncompromising value for human life. It's not just about Gaza, it's about the kind of evil our generation will be coerced into accepting as unchangeable and inevitable hereafter.

[craigtowens]

Perspective on persecution

Around the world we hear of Christians being persecuted for their faith in Jesus: Afghanistan … N. Korea … China … even in the USA, Christians like Jack Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman are being persecuted for standing up for what they believe.

Here’s an important principle to keep in mind: In times like these, we need to remember there have always been times like these. Especially because the psalmist Asaph, Jesus, and the apostle Paul all forewarned us about persecution (Psalm 83; Mark 13:9, 12-13; 2 Timothy 3:12-13).

Jesus said that our persecution should only come “on account of Me.” And Asaph notices the same thing in his prayer, using phrases like “Your enemies,” “Your foes,” “they conspire against Your people,” and “they form an alliance against You.”

Asaph also recognized that times like these call for a Selah pause—a pause to calmly consider.

I think the first thing we need to consider is our part in bringing on the persecution. I need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if I may have been the trigger to the anger of these wicked people. If I have done something, I need to repent, ask forgiveness, and see what I can do to make restitution.

Next, we need to Selah to consider this: It might look desperate, but God has handled these kinds of evil people before. Asaph mentions several enemies of God’s people whom God decisively defeated in the past. Our Selah pause will help us recall that God is the same today as He was yesterday—He is more than able to handle these persecutors.

With all of these bullies ganging up on Israel, you can understand why Asaph cries out for God’s strong action against them. But I want you to notice that the call for judgment is NOT vindictive but redemptive. Asaph asks for punishment “so that men will seek Your name, O LORD” and that they may “know that You, whose name is the LORD—that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.”

In other words, this isn’t a “Get ‘em, God” prayer, but a “Save ‘em, God” prayer!

We’re not looking for relief for ourselves—that’s only temporary—but we’re looking for glory for God—that’s eternal!

Jesus and the apostle Peter both tell us that God’s desire is for no one to perish apart from a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 2 Peter 3:9).

The reason we need to Selah and ask that introspective question about our words or actions triggering our persecutor’s anger is because God will use our righteous response to persecution as a testimony.

Jesus said our persecution should be because of Him, but He also told us that there would be a blessing in it (Matthew 5:11-12; Mark 13:13; Luke 21:17-19). And Paul tells us that this reward isn’t just a silver lining to a dark cloud, but a reward beyond compare (Romans 8:18).

Asaph went to prayer when Israel was attacked, and that should be our first response too.

But let’s Selah in that prayer to make sure we’re not the trigger, and then may our prayer be more for God’s eternal glory than it is for our temporary relief.

[nawalieee]

Okay so Afghanistan, the summary as promised!!

Afghanistan sits on the border of Pakistan and Russia. In the 1800s it was seen as a wasteland. Mountainous and barren. Nobody was interested in it until the British Empire driven by the paranoia of the Soviet Union decided to send a spy there to see what this land and place has to offer.

The spy reported that it's a religious land full of thousands of tribes of people living peacefully with very little to no interest in politics.

The British decided to pursue activity in Afghanistan around the 1840s simply because they wanted to be in a good position to attack the Soviet Union and felt Afghanistan would be safe for them.

This led to the first Afghan-Anglo war, it was expected that the British would crush the Afghans but this didn't happen. The British were humiliated and in 1842 they accepted defeat and left.

In the late 1850s through British ruled India Britain decided to have a second go at Afghanistan. They were successful and appointed a chosen representative to lead Afghanistan to impose their will. This led to decades of conflict and eventually by 1919 the Afghans secured their country again.

The British were no longer interested as the world war and their crumbling empire was more pressing to them.

Afghanistan prospered in this time. It was seen as progressive and they were seen as a "hipster's dream" in the 1960s. Drugs were easily obtainable (heroin in particular as 90% of the world's opium comes from Afghanistan).

This had caused divisions in Afghanistan and they were upset at how they had deviated from the religion. Rules and laws were tightened to ensure Afghanistan remained an Islamic state.

In the late 1970s with the Soviet Union struggling they decided to invade Afghanistan to impose their might over the world.. they failed spectacularly. The Afghans were successful and by the 1980s the Soviet Union were embarrassingly defeated. Similarly to what had happened to the British over a 100 years ago.

The Soviet Union crumbling decided to go back in with full force and it was at this stage the USA decided to bankroll the mujahideen (the majority of whom formed taliban) to defeat the Soviet Union. The USA provided military arms and millions of dollars to ensure the Afghans would defeat the Soviet Union meaning the USA would win the Cold War elsewhere. This is exactly what happened.

The Soviet Union left Afghanistan by 1989 defeated and eventually crumbled formally 5 years later. Afghanistan was free and reforming again.

This is where the Taliban come in, there were endless factions and tribes in Afghanistan causing civil unrest and wars and the Taliban (using the USA funding that they earlier received) decided to recruit heavily and fix Afghanistan and end the civil war. They were successful in doing this and by 1996 the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan was created.

The Taliban had their state, the Afghanistani people were at large satisfied and grateful to the Taliban but members of the Taliban had decided that they wanted to declare a jihad on the USA for it's actions in Muslim countries. They became the Al Qaeda.

Leading these was Osama Bin Laden, he was the son of a Saudi Multi Millionaire and he funded the whole operation. Attacking USA embassies in Riyadh, Sudan and Nairobi. Oh and 9/11..

9/11 was the final straw and the USA decided to take revenge and occupied Afghanistan to number 1 destroy Al Qaeda and number 2 kill Osama.

They had succeeded in this by 2011 killing the majority of the Al Qaeeda significant members and destroying the cells and the King pin osama.

The USA had planned to continue and reform Afghanistan since 2011.. but the Afghans didn't want that. These are tribal people. There is no one Afghani identity there are 20,000. Afghanistan is unique and the west failed to appreciate that.

Eventually as we have seen recently the USA left after 20 years and they see their mission as a success but the Taliban reclaimed their state.

The Mujahideen, Al Qaeeda, Taliban are all synonymous with one another. The people of Afghanistan on the whole just want their land back. They were used as a pawn back in 1840 by the British and then the Russians in the 1970s and then the Americans in 2000s.

Afghanistan is simply the unluckiest place on earth neighbouring Russia which makes it an unnecessary target and neighbouring China making it a threat for the future.

The graveyards of empires it was dubbed as in the late 1800s, I think it's fair to say that is true.. British Empire/Soviet Union/USA all failed.. who is next? China?

whoa omg okayy so the fact that you've taken the time to write out this very informative + detailed post on Afghanistan is making me a little emtional rn, ngl. thank you so much for this, it's such a helpful starting point i vaguely knew about parts of this but it's so nice to have a succinct summary of everything that happened and everything that has led to this disaster, i can only pray for the people of Afghanistan and raise awareness in whatever little ways i'm able to, they deserve so much more than what's been done to them

[randomrainman]

why the american campaign in afghanistan was destined for failure, and other strange stuff.

Our campaign in Afghanistan which began on October 7, 2001, dubbed “Operation Enduring Freedom” for some peculiar and uniquely American reason, was doomed from the very beginning, and most of the blame for the failure is ours.

Pictured: A group of Afghans rest near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (Photo: me)

So why did this happen in the first place?

Detailing the entirety of Afghanistan’s tumultuous 19th- and 20th-century history here would an arduous (and, ultimately, pointless) task, but, put succinctly, the USA and Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour, Pakistan, were instrumental in the initial development of the Taliban as a viable militant organisation and major player in Afghanistan.

Pictured: a Soviet soldier takes cover near Herat, Afghanistan. (Photo: AP/Jacques Langevin)

The Soviet Union embroiled itself in a bitter conflict in Afghanistan from 24 December 1979 until 15 February 1989. Through Pakistani intelligence services, the CIA, in its anti-commie fervour, armed and funded anti-Soviet resistance groups, collectively known as mujahideen (which is Swedish for “turboprop plane”, or maybe just Arabic for “those engaged in jihad”).  Spirited resistance and brilliant guerrilla-style tactics by the mujahideen, which included future prominent Taliban figures such as Haibatullah Akhundzada and Mohammad Omar, led to the eventual departure of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in what has been termed (perhaps ironically, considering our current situation) “Russia’s Vietnam”.  At least 562,000 Afghans perished in the Soviet-Afghan War, and millions more either fled the country or were internally displaced.  This conflict also likely directly contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Pictured: Former Representative Charlie Wilson (D-TX) with a group of mujahideen. Wilson championed a veritable Cyclone of bullshit. (Photo: Wikipedia/unknown author)

As a civil war further ravaged Afghanistan, the Taliban, founded in 1994 by Islamic cleric (mullah) Mohammad Omar, emerged as the preeminent force amongst the mujahideen.  Backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, the Deobandi Islamist group quickly made territorial gains and captured Kabul in 1996, brutally murdering former President Najibullah to punctuate their conquest.

Under the newly established Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban regime went right to work in establishing stringent shari’a law over the territories they subdued, barring women from education and work, suppressing ethnic and religious minorities, and outlawing music and TV (which, with the exception of the last thing, should sound familiar to anyone familiar with our own history).

A certain Usama bin Laden (UBL), who founded the terrorist organisation al-Qa’ida (literally “the base”) in 1988 during the Soviet-Afghan War, funnelled resources, to include arms and foreign fighters, into the mujahideen resistance effort in Afghanistan through his Maktab al-Khidamat.  Though the organisation provided little in terms of overall impact on the war, it boasted a backing of both Pakistan’s ISI and Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency, and was later absorbed into al-Qa’ida.

Having had his Saudi citizenship stripped and amid mounting pressure from Saudi Arabia, the US, and Sudan, bin Laden opted to return to Afghanistan in 1996, where he would forge an alliance with Mullah Omar.  Omar’s Taliban regime provided a suitable, ahem, base of operations for bin Laden’s burgeoning global terrorism aspirations, and Pakistan provided continued funding and manpower for the Taliban and its al-Qa’ida allies up until 2001.

Pictured: Ahmad Shah Massoud and a group of mujahideen in the Panjshir Valley, 1984. (Photo: Jean-Luc Bremont/AP)

Ahmad Shah Massoud, a guerrilla commander who famously repelled Soviet occupying forces from the Panjshir Valley, became a leading figure in anti-Taliban efforts.  Massoud, along with Abdul Rashid Dostum, a polarising yet powerful ethnic Uzbek warlord, formed the United Front (commonly referred to as the Northern Alliance).  Instead of the Pashtun-centric approach utilised by the Taliban, Massoud sought to incorporate Afghanistan’s numerous ethnicities under the United Front’s umbrella.

Despite the Northern Alliance’s clear opposition to the Taliban and ostensibly having prior knowledge that radical elements were at play, the United States provided zero backing to the resistance efforts.  Massoud himself addressed the European Parliament and warned of an imminent attack, and also expressed the need for US aid in combatting Taliban belligerents.

Two days prior to the September 11 attacks, the highly revered Massoud prepared to give an interview to a pair of Arab TV journalists, and it would be the last thing he did, as the “journalists” detonated a suicide bomb fashioned out of a TV camera, which was apparently stolen in France.  The "Lion of Panjshir” was buried in his home village of Bazarak, Panjshir Valley, with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance.

Pictured: The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers erupt in flames after airliners hijacked by al-Qaeda operatives crash into the buildings. According to conspiracy nutjobs, these planes and their passengers never existed, and instead flew into a wormhole and into a parallel universe. (Photo: Silva/Reuters)

Following 9/11, then-President George W. Bush threatened the Taliban regime and demanded that they deliver al-Qa’ida leaders in Afghanistan to American authorities, an undertaking they promptly decided to never do.  Naturally, Bush came to shove, and a joint resolution that somehow declared war on the very concept of terror was issued.

The United States also finally decided to team up with the Northern Alliance at the onset of OEF in October 2001.  Fortunately, it paid off; the Taliban regime rapidly disintegrated after being bombed into the Bronze Age.  Despite having effectively vanquished the Taliban, the US failure to capture or kill UBL at Tora Bora likely protracted the conflict into the behemoth bumblefuck we currently recognise.

We did manage to finally kill UBL on May 2, 2011, but stayed in Afghanistan for another 10 years, because stuff.  In 2018, then-President Trump ordered a drawdown of approximately 7,000 troops, and in February 2020, US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban vice emir Abdul Ghani Baradar signed a peace agreement.  In July of this year, we abandoned Bagram Airfield, our biggest base, virtually overnight, and did not bother informing the Afghans, which I’m sure made them extremely happy.

Pictured: The mountains near Bagram, Parwan province, Afghanistan.  (Photo: me)

The Taliban resurgence into power was equally swift and met surprisingly little resistance: on August 15, 2021, the Taliban took Kabul and cemented its authority.  This version of the militant group the NATO coalition and pro-Western Afghan forces soundly defeated in 2001 made promises to uphold women’s rights and to maintain an inclusive government, though the killing of at least three at a protest in Jalalabad, amongst other things, probably does little to reassure critics that their takeover is a positive turn of events.  That said, far-right and neo-Nazi elements are, in fact, celebrating the Taliban’s seizure of power for some depraved Nazi-exclusive reason.  It must also be noted that, on multiple levels, the evangelical brand of Christianity possesses significant overlap with the Deobandi Islamist stylings of the Taliban credo.

Pictured: President Joseph Biden discusses Afghanistan at the White House, Aug. 16, 2021 (Photo: AP/Vucci)

As of late, we have frequently underestimated the capabilities of enemy combatants, and the conclusion of our campaign in Afghanistan is no different: President Biden hugely miscalculated the Taliban’s competence in retaking the nation, citing the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces’ (ANDSF) strength in numbers and superiority in armaments and materiel.  Following the takeover, he even went on to blame the ANDSF’s lack of resolve as a reason for the US-backed regime’s collapse.  While technically true, it also fails to take into account Afghanistan’s nature itself.  In reality, Afghanistan, in contrast to a central federal government such as that of the United States, is very splintered, factional, corruption-ridden, and largely fiercely independent and self-governing, especially amongst Pashtun tribes.  It’s as if Piru and Crip sets spread out over an entire country ... and over several centuries.

Pictured: “NAYBAHOOOOD!” ... now take away the colours, replace every clothing article with shalwar kameez, and turn it up to a cosmic scale, and you have Afghanistan. (Photo: unitedgangs.com)

An additional blunder was approaching the campaign as one would a conventional conflict, something which clearly does not apply to a place as plagued by lawlessness as Afghanistan.  There are largely no clear enemies (or friends, for that matter), and trying to distinguish friend from foe is akin to stabbing a warbling mass of sentient Silly Putty or the weird black goo from Prometheus.  The United States will almost always win in terms of sheer might and overall warfighting acumen, as we are skilled in both conventional and asymmetric warfare, but what can you do when you have no idea who the enemy is?  When the enemy is willing to “wait it out” indefinitely?  Sure, we could literally blow everyone up, but, last I heard, wholesale genocide is a generally frowned-upon activity.

Calling Afghanistan even a Pyrrhic victory seems like an overstatement when you examine the initial mission, our successes, and the final result.  Sure, we got UBL, which was supposedly the entire point of the invasion, but if so, why did we choose to remain for another ten years, wasting a metric asston of resources in the process?  To build a nation?  To soothe our collective ego?

Pictured: Workers construct a road in Afghanistan (Photo: AP/Rahmat Gul)

If one is to build a nation, it requires a decent understanding of and a rapport with the people groups with whom you are dealing.  It is not enough to simply install people who share your particular leanings and instruct them to do what you would do.  It is certainly inadequate to provide arms, training, and funding to people and expect them to do your bidding when shit hits the fan.  This sort of thinking also indirectly implies that we possess some kind of moral authority over the nations we invade.  While our post-war influence has proved positive in some places (Japan, South Korea, Germany, etc.), it does not mean that we should be building nations in every place in which we set foot, especially in a place so volatile and tribalistic as Afghanistan.

I have communicated with a few individuals who insist that President Biden’s withdrawal was too hasty, or that we should just remain in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.  As much as I am typically revolted by former President Trump and his frequently incoherent word salads, he was right about this particular matter: “The only way they last is if we’re there. What are we going to say? We’ll stay for another 21 years, then we’ll stay for another 50. The whole thing is ridiculous."  Yes ... yes, it is ridiculous to prop up an institution that will collapse instantaneously in our absence.

I am no fan of former Senator Ron Paul, and especially Alex Jones and InfoWars, but Paul is almost completely correct in making this statement.  Ultimately, a militaristic approach to dominance does not pave the way for longevity.  While it is virtually impossible (and infeasible) to return to a 1930s-era isolationist policy, repeated and extended global conflicts only serve to deplete American resources, even if war profiteers have much to gain from it.

Pictured: barbed wire fencing at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. (Photo: me)

Ultimately, rather than rushing pell-mell into unknown and dangerous situations, it is important, especially in this time period, to examine why things went wrong to avoid embroiling ourselves in additional catastrophic and unwinnable debacles such as our Afghanistan conflict.  This is a time for self-reflection, rather than outrage.

|the kid|

[cnidarianfutility]

Complicated geopolitical landscape aside for a second. In fairness, it was a song written about and shortly after 9-11, which _was_ definitely an attack on the USA.

That's not to say it wasn't *also* extremely heavy-handed, pro-war propaganda, which catapulted a middling country singer into stardom; that was kinda the whole vibe of the early 2000s. There's a lot of nuanced conversations that can and should be had about that time period and the lead up to the war in Afghanistan, but Toby Keith was definitely not the one to have them.

Now, if, instead, the original post was about people rallying behind it _now_ (which I now really suspect it was) then I have wasted both of our time (sorry) because that's objectively a dumb thing to do; the biggest threat the US is facing is itself, particularly in the form of undereducated, white dudes who think the Bible story would have gone a lot differently if Jesus had been packing heat.

"Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack."

- Courtesy of the Red White and Blue

Exactly what fantasy world are they living in where the USA is under attack?

[nicklloydnow]

“In orchestrating the attacks on September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden had wanted to end the global reign of the decadent West, inflict a staggering blow to American democracy, and entangle every Muslim in the conflict. Bin Laden may be dead, but it is hard not to conclude that he got what he wanted.

(…)

Three wars were launched in the aftermath of 9/11, two officially: the war in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, which later became a nation-building effort to replace the Taliban; the war in Iraq, based on the big lie that Saddam Hussein was tied to Al Qaeda, which also became a nation-building effort; and the informal, clandestine war of illegal surveillance, enhanced interrogation, indefinite detention, and extraordinary rendition — the war that would be led by America against itself. A war on the very ideals that bin Laden had promised to end.

(…)

The Western intellectuals who wrote book after book about the threat from Islam were working within a ripe tradition. Ten years before 9/11, the Princeton historian Bernard Lewis had coined an important phrase in The Atlantic to describe the coming conflict. “This is no less than a clash of civilizations,” Lewis wrote, “the perhaps irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of both.” By defining the battle in such grandiose terms, we accepted the same narrative as the jihadis — that this was a war over civilization, for the very soul of humanity. The war on terror, we were told, wasn’t a counterterrorism operation or a law-enforcement matter, but a battle of good versus evil.

Twenty years later, it feels like evil won. Osama bin Laden had laid a trap, even if that wasn’t his original intention. Only by getting the West drawn into endless wars abroad, and into plots against enemies at home, could he bankrupt the American behemoth. In the decade since his death, the results have been plain to see: conflict and instability across the greater Middle East; more refugee flows into the West, combined with anti-immigrant violence in response; the rise in America of terrorist attacks carried out by white extremists, goaded on by an authoritarian leader who made a name for himself demonizing Muslims. The surveillance state now has extensive access to every facet of our lives. Trust in political institutions is decaying. Democracy itself is in peril.

In many ways, Donald Trump was the singular creature of the forever wars, elevated to national office in a country that had become exhausted and angry at outsiders. All of Trump’s signature policies — from banning Muslims to building the Wall — found a receptive audience in an America that saw its way of life threatened by foreign enemies. It was only a matter of time before contempt for the Other turned inward.

Here lay the great tragedy of the 9/11 era: that something much worse than terror wounded our society over the last two decades. An essential faith in the future was lost. Perhaps this is true for the end of all empires, and despair always precedes the fall.”

“Within 24 hours, the US government was doing what it does best. It demanded more power, and set to work coming up with schemes for using its enormous military and national security apparatus — a group of agencies which had received more than half-a-trillion dollars during that fiscal year.

When the US national security state failed on 9/11, not a single person with any significant level of responsibility lost his job.

Notably, the very same people who failed utterly to provide national security on September 11th were the same people who were entrusted with providing security on September 12. Except now, those people, and their government agencies, were granted more power, bigger budgets, and were held to less legal and public scrutiny than ever before.

By November, the federal government had already rewarded itself lavishly for its incompetence. Congress passed, and the President signed, the USA Patriot Act a measure that transformed American jurisprudence and made every American a suspected terrorist, open to surveillance by government agents. DC politicians had also created yet another federal department, the department of Homeland Security, because apparently the Defense Department is concerned with things other than the defense of the US "homeland."

(…)

Meanwhile, the feds themselves didn't sacrifice anything. For the feds, it was just more of what they'd always wanted. More taxpayer money. More power. More untrammeled authority to imprison, spy, tax, search, and control. Their abysmal failures on 9/11 led to no changes, no reforms, and no accountability. For them, everything got better.

If the destruction of American liberties was something the terrorists wanted, then they got what they wanted, too.”

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 5/11/21

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

Overdose deaths in Washington State were up 30% in 2020. [Link]

The FDA gives Pfizer emergency approval to give its vaccine to patients as young as 12. [Link]

Susan Hennessey was named to the National Security Division of the Justice Department. Hennessey was a promoter of the Russiagate conspiracy theory. [Link]

NATO

Romania’s President asked for more NATO troops near Russia’s border. [Link]

Afghanistan

The Afghan government and the US urged the Taliban to make a three-day ceasefire in observation of the Eid holiday into a permanent ceasefire. [Link]

The US is destroying thousands of pieces of equipment it does not plan on removing from Afghanistan or transferring to the Afghan government. [Link]

Israel

Over three days, 43 Palestinian children were injured because Israeli forces blocked Palestinians from going to cultural and religious sites. [Link]

In response to Israeli injuring Palestinians in Jerusalem, Hamas fired rockets into Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza. Twenty people, including nine children, were killed by the Israeli strikes. [Link]

Two Israelis were reported killed by Hamas rockets. [Link]

Ilhan Omar called the Israeli strikes in Gaza an act of terrorism. [Link]

Israeli officials reportedly told the US to stay out of the situation in Jerusalem. Israel plans to evict several Palestinians from their homes to give to Israeli settlers. [Link]

The US blocked a UN Security Council resolution that condemned the violence in Jerusalem and called on Israel to stop the planned evictions. [Link]

Israeli helicopters attacked a Syrian border town during the daytime. [Link]

Iran

A US Coast Guard ship fired warning shots at Iranian ships near the coast of Iran. [Link]

Iran says it is open to extending an agreement with the IAEA that allows access to Iranian nuclear data past May if talks with the US are on the right track. [Link]

Libya

Twenty-four migrants drowned attempted to cross from Libya to Europe. [Link]

Read More

[irradiate-space]

You make a lot of good points about how deescalation is a mutual thing, and I agree with you that the current post-2022-invasion and post-Crimean-invasion sanctions regimes should have clearer removal triggers, along the lines of "when Russia withdraws beyond this line".

But let's go back to the beginning. Why didn't Russia join NATO in the early 2000s? This timeline is assembled from several sources:

1994: NATO creates the "Partnership for Peace" program to facilitate coordination with non-NATO neighbor states. Russia, Czechia, Hungary and Poland are among the joining states.

1997: Russia and NATO sign a "Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security", and create the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council. This is allegedly the condition for billions of dollars of IMF loans.

1998: Russia and NATO cooperate in the Kosovo conflict, where Albanian separatists in Kosovo were being genocided by Yugoslavia's Serbian military forces. (In 2003, Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro, which lasted until Montenego broke off in 2006.)

1999: Russia condemns NATO bombings in Yugoslavia, which continued until Yugoslavia withdrew from Kosovo.

11 June 1999: Kosovo War ends. NATO and Russia establish a joint peacekeeping force, but NATO doesn't divvy up territory. Russia wanted its own separate peacekeeping sector. NATO wanted to avoid partition of Kosovo.

12-26 June 1999: Standoff between NATO and Russian forces at Pristina airport in Kosovo. Russia demands an exclusive territory of peacekeeping in Kosovo and blocks the airport. NATO blockades the airport, and neighboring nations refuse to allow Russian planes access to supply or reinforce the Russian troops at the airport. The situation is resolved diplomatically when Russian peacekeepers are given an independent chain of command in Kosovo, but no independent territory. The American officer commanding the NATO forces was later removed from his post; peace occurred because his subordinates disobeyed his orders to escalate.

7 August 1999: Start of the Second Chechen War with the War of Dagestan, where 2,000 Chechen separatists enter neighboring Dagestan. (Both provinces border Georgia.)

9 August 1999: Putin appointed deputy prime minister; same day promotion to prime minister of Russia; Yeltsin announces that he hopes Putin will be his successor as president. Putin announces his candidacy.

4 September 1999: An apartment building explodes in Dagestan. Putin blames Chechen militants. There is widespread suspicion that this was a false-flag attack by the Russian FSB to build support for a pro-war government.

September 1999: Creation of the Unity Party in Russia, backed by Yeltsin, Putin, and 39 regional governors.

1 October 1999: Putin declares the Chechen presidency and parliament illegitimate, announces land invasion of Chechnya.

19 December 1999: Unity Party wins 72/441 seats in Russian Parliamentary elections, riding popularity of Putin's war on Chechnya.

1999: NATO publishes a new Strategic Concept that gives it a more world-police role.

31 December 1999: Yeltsin unexpectedly resigns; Putin becomes acting president of Russia.

7 May 2000: Putin becomes president of Russia.

May 2000: Russia reestablishes direct rule over Chechnya, which it had not had since the end of the First Chechen War in 1996.

post-9/11: Russia provides intelligence to US forces in Afghanistan, and indirectly to NATO.

April 2001: Unity Party and the Fatherland - All Russia party unite to form the United Russia party.

May 2002: Russia and USA sign the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which reduced the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1700 per country by 2012.

May 2002: Formation of the NATO-Russia Council.

13 June 2002: USA withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which limited development and deployment of defensive countermissile systems, citing the risk of nuclear missile attack by rogue states (North Korea, Iran). Many countries object to this, because it would better enable the US to shrug off a retaliation strike if the US engaged in a nuclear first strike.

14 June 2002: In response, Russia withdraws from START II, which wasn't yet in effect. START II banned MIRVs.

"early" 2003: Russia withdraws from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

September 2003: Russia gains a military base in Kyrgyzstan.

7 December 2003: United Russia party claims 223/450 seats in the State Duma

March 2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO

March 2004: Putin wins his second term as president.

April 2004: NATO signs agreements establishing Russian military liaison offices at NATO HQ

August 2004: Russian government retaliates against Yukos for its boss' Khodorkovsky's opposition to Putin. The Russian government seizes and purchases a major part of Yukos, Yuganskneftegaz.

September 2004: Putin ends direct election of regional governors.

November 2004: Start of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, after substantiated allegations of vote rigging favoring Yanukovich in the 21 November runoff presidential election.

I think it is obvious that tensions existed between NATO and Russia before the Orange Revolution, and indeed before Putin became president. But this also shows the story that Putin has made for himself: he came to power on the promise to reunite Russia and retake separatist lands, starting with the territorial claims in Kosovo. Chechnya in 1999, South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk in following years: these are part of a pattern of territorial aggression by Russia towards independent former Soviet republics.

But was Russia actually rejected by NATO?

September 2005: Germany and Russia sign agreement to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which comes into service in 2011.

November 2006: Russian critic Alexander Litvinenko dies of polonium poisoning in London.

August 2007: Russia plants flag on North Pole seabed, claims Arctic oil.

November 2007: In response to international criticism of the Litvinenko poisoning, Putin suspends Russian participation in the 1990 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty.

January 2008: Russian naval fleet exercises in the Bay of Biscay, off France.

February 2008: Kosovo formally declares independence; Russia objects to Kosovo's recognition by other countries.

April 2008: NATO publishes the Bucharest Summit Declaration, which welcomes the candidacy of Georgia and Ukraine through MAP, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro through IPAP, and Serbia through Partnership for Peace and eventually an IPAP. NATO offers a linked US-NATO-Russian missile defense network.

August 2008: The aforementioned war in Georgia. NATO says there can be no "business as usual" with Russia until Russia withdraws from Georgia. Russia declares South Ossetia and Abkhazia independent, using the Kosovo precedent.

April 2009: Albania and Croatia enter NATO.

May 2009: NATO military exercises in Georgia; Russia says it's too soon after the Georgian War.

September 2009: US withdraws plans for missile defense bases in Poland and Czech Republic, after Russian threats of military and nuclear force.

April 2010: Russian President Medvedev signs the New START treaty with the US.

June 2010: US backs Russian accession to the World Trade Organization.

June 2011: NATO-Russia joint fighter jet exercise.

Summer 2011: NATO intervention in Libya, which Medvedev and Putin objected to.

March 2012: Putin begins third term as President.

August 2012: Russia joins WTO.

Then we enter the time of Euromaidan, and the conquering of Crimea, after which NATO withdrew from cooperation with Russia. Then there were the Russian actions in Syria and Turkey, and more recently, Ukraine.

There's a lot of little thing which add up, but with the exception of the US withdrawing from the ABM treaty, it looks like there's a couple of patterns:

Russia is denied a potential future territorial claim by NATO, and throws a fit (Kosovo, Georgia, Ukraine)

Russia does something unilateral and stupid (Litvinenko, Bay of Biscay, Arctic claims, other assassinations) and receives pushback, so it does something to retaliate to the pushback (CFE treaty withdrawal, saber-rattling)

Putin may not trust the West, but the reasons he cites for not trusting the West are self-inflicted. Russia keeps making territorial claims, the West keeps making defensive preparations, and then Russia claims that the defensive preparations are scary and Russia is the victim. It's DARVO, plain and simple.

Sources used:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17840446

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18023381

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO%E2%80%93Russia_relations#NATO-Russia_Council

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_139339.htm

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50090.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/nato-clinton-ukraine-russia/

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm

So the thing which I think puzzles me most about the whole Crimea situation is this: Russia allegedly invaded Crimea in order to gain control of the deepwater port of Sevastopol.

Russia has many miles of coastline on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Why doesn't Russia simply build its own deepwater port on its own territory, instead of paying leases to Ukraine (before 2014) or provoking international outrage (after 2014)? Surely it is cheaper to dredge and build a new port and associated infrastructure than to — checks notes — receive punishing international sanctions, deplete post-Cold-War military materiel reserves, destroy a whole generation of AMAB citizens, and become a Chinese client state?