Afghanistan—A Nightmare of Failure

Afghanistan—A Nightmare of Failure » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

There was no Taliban worth mentioning by 2002, a year after the invasion, but the machinery of war was on a roll and it needed justification to continue. So, the US employed tribes and leaders to fight its war, allowing those elements’ enemies to become Washington’s enemies, too. This scenario was made worse by the fact that the war against the Soviets and the ascension of the Taliban ruined many of the traditional tribal and village mechanisms of authority, leaving warlords and religious zealots to take their places. As even the US media will admit, this process was often quite bloody and often created a regimen of blood feuds."