Darrell Castle talks about the United States' involvement in Afghanistan long after Osama bin Laden's death and questions the real reasons we are still in Afghanistan after 17 years of war.

Transcription / Notes:

AFGHANISTAN—17 YEARS AND COUNTING

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report.  Today is Friday, November 30th 2018, and on today’s Report I will spend my time talking about the United States presence in Afghanistan.  Sometimes we forget that our sons and daughters are still fighting there, and I don’t want that to happen, so periodically we take a look.

Since the United States entered Afghanistan in 2001, 2,313 members of the American military have been killed there.  You can raise that total by three, since three more were killed this week.  In addition, 1,720 civilian contractors have been killed, 20,320 Americans have been wounded, and once again raise that number by three as a result of the same attack this week.

Americans aren’t the only ones who have died in this war, however.  The coalition dead, in addition to the Americans, would raise the total by about 1200.  Just since 2015, 28,500 friendly Afghan military have died, and during the entire war an estimated 31,000 civilians have died.  In total the Afghan dead including enemy, friendly, and civilian is listed at 111,000.

That’s a lot of misery and suffering but Afghanistan, or land of the Afghans, has been fought over by one empire after another since 500 years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, so it is very well acquainted with misery and suffering.  In 500 B.C., Darius the 1st of Babylonia conquered what is now Afghanistan, and then Alexander the Great in 329 B.C., among many others.  Genghis Khan conquered there in the 13th century, but during the 1700’s it was united as a single country with Islam as the uniting force, having been invaded and fought over by a long series of Arab conquerors.

In the modern era, Great Britain invaded Afghanistan on two different occasions, losing about 15,000 soldiers total in both efforts.  The Russians came in 1979 and left in 1989, with 15,000 dead as well. The Americans entered Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, and are still there 17 years and counting.  Why did Washington invade Afghanistan, and why is Washington still there more than 17 years later, still dying and still killing?

We know that Osama bin Laden was the 911 mastermind and we know that he was hiding in some caves in Afghanistan and we know that demand was made upon the Taliban to turn him over or face the consequences.  The Taliban said first of all we do not have him, and second show us the evidence of his guilt.  As I recall, not much evidence of guilt was ever made public but a bombing campaign, followed by an invasion, was begun on October 7, 2001.

We were going to get bin Laden. President Bush said “we are going to get him dead or alive”  On May 2, 2011, President Obama sent a Seal Team into Pakistan, which then killed bin Laden.  We all remember the President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with the cabinet and staff, watching on live television.  That is the story we must believe because that is the official version, and if you believe anything else you will never be accepted as a rational person again.  You cannot and must not believe that bin Laden died of kidney disease in 2006, although you may find ample evidence of that.

Whenever he died, Osama bin Laden is dead, and if killing him was the reason America went to war, that reason ceased to exist more than 7 years ago.  We are still there and we have suffered many deaths since then so there must be some other reason.  Perhaps we are there to keep Muslim terrorists from using it as a training base; after all, there have been no more 911s since we invaded.  Of course, I have to remind you that Saudis did the 911 attacks, not Afghans.  Osama bin Laden was a Saudi apparently living in Afghanistan, but no matter whether he was killed by President Obama...