My Opposition to the War in Afghanistan Before It Began

Gary North - August 24, 2017

In September 2001, before the invasion of Afghanistan, I began writing columns against it in my eletter, Reality Check, which I still publish on my website. Lew Rockwell reprinted these issues. After the war escalated, he titled them: "The War Zone."

The invasion began on October 7, 2001.

Here is what I wrote on September 17. The title of the article was The Poster and the Map: Bin Laden vs. Congress. I wrote this:

A terrorist group needs recruits. A terrorist movement needs recruits. If your strategy of terror involves the extensive use of suicide missions, you need very dedicated recruits.

To get such recruits, you need the following: (1) a cause that is greater than any individual; (2) a sense of destiny associated with your cause; (3) the perception that a sacrificial act on behalf of your cause is never wasted or futile; (4) a vision of victory; (5) publicly visible events that demonstrate the power of your movement.

From what little I have read about Osama bin Laden, his movement possesses all five factors. He is especially skilled with respect to point five. He understands symbolism, and he understands Western media. This man is a formidable enemy of Western civilization. . . .

If Bin Laden did it, then he is recruiting. Even if he didn't do it, he is recruiting. He has taken the initiative. This is a classic terrorist operation. The model goes back at least to the Russian terrorists of the nineteenth century. We have seen it all before, or at least historians have. America is reacting predictably. Except for widespread public prayer, ours has been the classic response to classic terrorism.

It is the response which the terrorists work hard to achieve. The man who understood this best was the non-violent revolutionary, Saul Alinsky. He provided the slogan that encapsulates the revolutionary's strategy: "The action is in the reaction."

There are only two ways to fight terrorism with any hope of success: (1) implacable, unrelenting counter-terrorism through endless law-breaking; or (2) unrelenting, implacable justice and the rule of law and liberty. The first approach can bottle up terrorism for a time, but any perceived slackening of the campaign leads to defeat. This nation had better choose the second way.

Just for the record, the FBI never identified Bin Laden as the organizer of 9/11. The FBI identified him only as the organizer of the bombings on the American embassy in Kenya in 1998.

New War, Old Strategy (Sept. 24). I wrote:

We are doing what bin Laden has planned for us to do. We are threatening to invade an Islamic nation and threatening to invade more. We are actively driving a small segment of millions of resentful Islamic citizens into the arms of the terrorists. We are throwing away the best weapon we have, at least for the moment: a sense of embarrassment among Islamic political leaders regarding what was done in New York in the name of Islam.

And then some dunderhead in the Department of Defense selected "Infinite Justice" as the name of this operation. You know: infinite as in God. When asked by a member of the press to explain this bonehead decision, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld did sound embarrassed, saying that someone had mentioned this as a possible name. Give me a break! The Defense Department had handed the press release to the journalists. Now we must back down — not the way to begin a war.

The invasion begins: Oct. 7.

Origins of the Russian-American Anti-Taliban Alliance (Oct. 12). I reported on the pre-9/11 plans to invade Afghanistan.

On June 26, the following story appeared on India's Web news site, Indiareacts.

India in anti-Taliban military plan

India and Iran will "facilitate" the planned US-Russia hostilities against the Taliban.

By Our Correspondent

26 June 2001: India and Iran will "facilitate" US and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban if the contemplated tough new economic sanctions don't bend Afghanistan's fundamentalist regime.

The Taliban controls 90 per cent of Afghanistan and is advancing northward along the Salang highway and preparing for a rear attack on the opposition Northern Alliance from Tajikistan-Afghanistan border positions.

Indian foreign secretary Chokila Iyer attended a crucial session of the second Indo-Russian joint working group on Afghanistan in Moscow amidst increase of Taliban's military activity near the Tajikistan border. And, Russia's Federal Security Bureau (the former KGB) chief Nicolai Patroshev is visiting Teheran this week in connection with Taliban's military build-up.

Indian officials say that India and Iran will only play the role of "facilitator" while the US and Russia will combat the Taliban from the front with the help of two Central Asian countries, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to push Taliban lines back to the 1998 position 50 km away from Mazar-e-Sharief city in northern Afghanistan.

They Call This Intelligence (Nov. 5). I reported on a story that I knew would go down the memory hole. It did.

Bin Laden underwent treatment in July at Dubai American Hospital

Osama bin Laden underwent treatment in July at the American Hospital in Dubai where he met a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official, French daily Le Figaro and Radio France International reported.

Quoting "a witness, a professional partner of the administrative management of the hospital," they said the man suspected by the United States of being behind the September 11 terrorist attacks had arrived in Dubai on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan.

He was immediately taken to the hospital for kidney treatment. He left the establishment on July 14, Le Figaro said.

During his stay, the daily said, the local CIA representative was seen going into bin Laden's room and "a few days later, the CIA man boasted to some friends of having visited the Saudi-born millionaire."

Bait-And-Switch In Afghanistan (Nov. 16). I wrote:

The strategy for winning every war you get into is simple: redefine the enemy in mid-stream whenever you can't beat him — or, in this case, locate him.

Our original enemy was — way back when — Osama bin Laden. I don't mean last July, when he was a patient in the American-run hospital in Dubai for ten days. That's too far back. I mean on September 20, when President Bush gave his resounding speech to Congress. Back then, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were the targets.

Somehow, over the next few weeks, the enemy morphed into the Taliban, whose recalcitrant leaders refused to hand over bin Laden when told to by the Bush Administration. The media's news reports steadily moved from the horror of the hijackings to the horror of bearded men who do not let women go to college in a nation without any colleges. Then America started dropping bombs on cities where these women lived. As for killing bin Laden, that was put on hold until the cities were destroyed. Or, to coin a phrase, "We had to destroy Kabul in order to save it." . . .

Nation-building requires peace. This peace must be enforced. The warring tribes that today are called Afghanistan will be killing each other the day occupying Western forces leave the country. This is now our war, for it is now our peace to impose. We will have to supply most of the money, most of the weapons, and some of the troops — not just to get bin Laden but also to enforce the peace among our Afghan allies.

My prediction: Our troops won't be home by Christmas. Not by next Christmas, either.