President George W. Bush Announces Military Action In Afghanistan (2001)

 

As a result of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the US went to war with Afghanistan. President Bush announced the military action to the US public in October of 2001. The Taliban did not declare war on the US. Al-Qaeda did not have political control over the country, but was present there. The US demanded that Osama Bin Laden be extradited. The Taliban only would do this if the US provided evidence of his involvement in the attacks. The Bush administration did not do this and embarked on airstrikes and a ground invasion. The Afghan War was not about freedom or fighting terrorism. The country has vast mineral wealth, which has not been fully extracted. Afghanistan contains iron, lithium, copper, cobalt, chromium,   and uranium . The Bush administration's agenda was to advance the military industrial complex and expand the arms industry. The invasion of Iraq was the next logical step in the neoconservative vision. Afghanistan was the first  experiment in nation building and imposing  liberal democracy by military force. The US  entered into a country with two factions fighting each other. The Northern Alliance was fighting the Taliban prior to US invasion. The war was fought for 20 years and drew parallels to the US defeat in Vietnam.