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Afghan War Unwinnable Quagmire, Ex-CIA Man Says
THE war in Afghanistan is an unwinnable quagmire and poor US intelligence is leading to the deaths of Australian soldiers, a visiting former CIA officer says.
"They're all stuck behind the wire; they don't get out ... it's like the crusades where you're stuck on your castle imagining what the natives are doing," said Robert Baer, a decorated CIA field officer of two decades experience who had spent years in the Middle East. (AFP/Yuri Cortez) Robert Baer, a decorated CIA field officer of two decades experience who had spent years in the Middle East, said any chances the US and its allies had of defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan had already been squandered. The Coalition was fighting an unwinnable war, he said, and this was the case because victory required reliable intelligence.
''[US intelligence agencies] have the same problem they had before 9/11. It is a system that doesn't work.''
That system sees CIA operatives and allied intelligence officers unable to gather reliable information because security concerns do not allow them to travel widely. And most do not speak the local language. ''They're all stuck behind the wire; they don't get out ... it's like the crusades where you're stuck on your castle imagining what the natives are doing,'' he said.
Describing Washington DC as a ''blank spot on the map'', he said that despite the massive growth of the intelligence agencies post September 11, 2001, there remained systemic failings.
''American intelligence after 9/11 has been unable to co-ordinate ... the FBI will not share with the CIA. CIA has operational databases which they won't share with even others inside the CIA.''
All of this led to a dysfunctional intelligence community unable to provide reliable, contemporary intelligence that could allow the Coalition to win in Afghanistan.
''Twenty-two American soldiers have been killed since Friday, and Australia has lost 21 men ... Afghanistan is a quagmire and it can only be fought with an effective counter-insurgency. It cannot be fought with Abrams tanks and F16s,'' he said.
The author of four books and a film consultant, he has previously described how the CIA's role as a provider of human intelligence - on-the-ground intelligence gathering by field officers - has been steadily degraded under poor management.
Earlier this week Mr Baer said the Australian government should confront Washington with the poor intelligence on Afghanistan that was recently released by WikiLeaks.
''The Australians should take the WikiLeaks information to the US [administration] and say: please tell us you have better information than this,'' Mr Baer said.
Mr Baer is in Australia to speak at the Australian Security Industry Association Limited conference in Sydney.
54 Comments so far
Show AllJust another example of what a freaking mess this country has become.
I don't think the ruling elite want a winnable war. They want a perpetual war, for perpetually huge profits. Shame on the USA, the empire of shame!
"It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous [to last forever and to remain extremely profitable for a few extremely rich bastards]. Hierarchical society [where the rich get richer and the poor are pissed on] is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance... In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep [significant parts of] society on the brink of starvation [with many struggling & barely getting by]...
George Orwell 1984
"I don't think the ruling elite want a winnable war. They want a perpetual war, for perpetually huge profits."
BINGO!!
"The Power Elite" set up a "Never Ending War" given a title "War on Terror"!
Robert Baer should know! John Perkins should know! The Members of "Able Danger Group" should know!.......
The attacks of 9/11/2001 could not have happened without NORAD's assisstance. The Northeast United States was voided of all defenses! NORAD was ordered to have 5 practice exercises on 9/11 which prevented the interception of 4 hijacked planes. The man who ordered those exercises and the men who followed his orders should have been the first people interrogated in an investigation. However, "The Power Elite" created the "Official Version" and it was given the morning of 9/11/2001 and thus there was no need for an investigation.
Robert Baer described a total lack of coordination between Intelligence Agencies. That is "The Power Elite's Design". Compartmentalize every aspect of intelligence so that one group does not know what the other group is doing. For example: Congress approved 400 Million Dollars for the destabilization of Iran in July of 2008. Most of that money was to go to a group Jundallah. Jundallah claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 27 in an Iranian Mosque in July of this year. Jundallah is a Taliban Group,which is Sunni and aligned with Saudi Arabia, a U.S. Ally....Jundallah was once led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the same guy who confessed to planning the attacks of 9/11/2001 after 5 years of torture and brainwashing. (I guess the CIA's truth serums just wouldn't work!)
The U.S.State Department is over-loaded with CIA Operatives! (Just read "CIA en España" by Alfredo Grimaldos.) The Department of Defense, which has a habit of destroying evidence, had "Able Danger Group" either following Mohammed Atta or working with Mohammed Atta.......When three eyewitnesses were willing to testify before Congress, The Generals came out and muzzled them with "National Security" and those witnesses just disappeared.
Was Lee Harvey Oswald working with DOD Mltary Intelligence? Was Lee Harvey Oswald working with The CIA? Was Lee Harvey Oswald an informant for The FBI? Did The CIA have operatives in The FBI? The answers are yes! ("JFK: The Unspeakable" by James W. Douglass).
It is too bad that we get to "The Truth" four decades too late! If you were to ask Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Who really controls The U.S. Government?"
Maybe, you would get an answer, but I doubt it because of "National Security"!
Welcome to "The Never Ending War" presented by "The National Security State U.S.A."
Brilliant post! And Intelligence has become as profitable as MIC-- lots of privatized contracting, more agencies than existed before. What a mess.
Sorry mister nice CIA MAN,
It is not Intell that is the problem. Better Intelligence would not win an unwinnable and needless war.
Better Intelligence would let us know that the war is unwinnable which those of us with real intelligence have known long before the post 9/11 war even started.
Good intell can't win a wrong war, they go on forever. At best it can only help end the war.
We have not won a real war since 1945.
End war now is the answer.
Agreed.
This quote really stuck out: "he has previously described how the CIA's role as a provider of human intelligence has been steadily degraded under poor management."
You see, it's really only poor management that is causing all of our problems. Fix that and getter better intelligence and we will "win". Yay.
Nevermind that anyone who works for the CIA should be considered ethically suspect, and most likely a murderer and a criminal. This is the institutionalized conspiracy-generating-factory that commits the most atrocious acts of human behavior:
torture
coups
drug running
spying domestically and internationally
false flag terrorist operations the world over (i.e. Gladio)
assassinations
character defamation
etc
But you see, all we really need is better management and intelligence, and the world of Hollywood, which our dear CIA agent is now working with, and they will continue to push propaganda the world over, spinning nightmarish imperial violence into a congestible pill full of heroic fairy tales.
"Good intell can't win a wrong war, they go on forever. At best it can only help end the war."
Good point. The British army and civil service had lots of men who spoke the local languages, but they got nowhere too. They were intruders, so even if some of the intelligence was better than ours because they did speak the languages, they eventually lost.
Better intelligence on Iraq and Iran have been ignored.Better intelligence on Isreal=Palestine in the possession of Gen Petraus been ignored.
So, I guess tearing the CIA (and the other impotent agencies) into a million pieces and throwing it to the wind is right out...
"Afghan War Unwinnable Quagmire, Ex-CIA Man Says"
Wow. No shit?
I suppose I should give the author the courtesy of reading his article...
The ego turf wars, i.e. the FBI not wanting to share data with the CIA is something straight out of an episode of "Law and Order."
It also reminds me of the time NASA lost a space craft because one group of scientists was using The Metric system while another group was using its rival. And never the twain shall meet.
Nothing like big boys pretending to be grown-up men equipped with endless budgets to buy bigger and "better" weapons... it still comes down to the same petty turf wars that under-developed egos play.
I doubt it is just ego in their not wanting to share.
If you start sharing info that could take down the empire,
your risk goes way up that a stool-pigeon will leak it.
Considering American intelligence agencies historic weakness has always been on the human side, it is not surprising that US spooks in Afghanistan can not speak the local languages, or can step outside their bubbles.
Additionally, as Baer pointed out, the brief window of opportunity for anything resembling a positive outcome has long passed (as it was pissed away by Dubya, Cheney, & Co. in favor of their Iraq debacle), so the best that the West can do is to leave their weapons and equipment with those communities who suffered under the Taliban regime; the Hazaras, Tadjiks, & Uzbeks.
Baer reminds me a bit of ex-Marine officer Matthew Hoh, insofar as his criticism focuses on what a mega-FUBAR the Imperial Amerikan/NATO hegemony makes of its military adventures.
Criticism on this level is laudable as far as it goes, but it suggests that the critic is OK with Crusades as long as they're done properly-- that if the Crusaders could learn to stop blindly tripping over each other in their badly-designed suits of armor, they might be able to "win", or at least claim a victory, with honor.
And now we join the fully-Christian Pastor Obama in singing hymn number five hundred and seventy-five, "Onward, Christian Soldiers!"
We have been sequestered behind walls there since the 70s. I have a turquoise and silver bracelet that my "Army Corps of Engineers" relatives brought back for me from Afganistan when I was a little girl, here is a little of what they had to say:
" I lived behind a wall for the two years we were there. We had to have servants and from the same tribe or there would be war. I had to be covered with headscarf and etc. Had a silk raincoat I wore with it. Did not go anywhere except with *** and his driver and of course did not shop etc. No slacks . The kite flyer best seller book...up scale housing mentioned I think the neighborhood was ours. One year in Kabul in the house behind wall near Soviet embassy and we knew when vips came as parties were loud all night. Kandahar was life in the contractor's compound."
Obama's foreign policy resembles Nixon's more every day! Remember the troop drawdowns the same year carpet bombing increased in Hanoi? Pakistan and Iran are our Cambodia.Scary Barry better have a good look in the mirror. Think about his daughters future. Endless war is unsustainable and other problems need our allready overburdened attention. I support the troops, bring them home ,NOW!!!!
I generally have a very favorable opinion of Mr. Bear.
•Article FBI Documents Contradict 9/11 Commission Report 2/28/08: "There are enough discrepancies and unanswered questions in the 9/11 Commission Report that under a friendly administration, the 9/11 investigation should be re-opened."
•Audio Interview Thom Hartmann Show 6/9/06:
Thom Hartmann: Are you of the opinion there was an aspect of 'inside job' to 9/11 within the U.S. government?
Robert Baer: There is that possibility, the evidence points at it.
Thom Hartmann: And why is it not being investigated?
Robert Baer: Why isn't the WMD story being investigated? Why hasn't anybody been held accountable for 9/11? We held people accountable after Pearl Harbor. Why has there been no change in command? Why have there been no political repercussions? Why has there been no -- any sort of exposure on this? It really makes you wonder.
•Essay The Guardian 1/12/02: "Did bin Laden act alone, through his own al-Qaida network, in launching the attacks? About that I'm far more certain and emphatic: no."
Thanks for that, Orwell, and thanks for having the documentation ready. I think it is important to point out, at every opportunity, when someone given credibility by the MSM has actually, on the record, stated that the truth about 9/11 has been covered up, and that the evidence points to "inside" collusion. I was going to do the same, but you have done it for me, and better.
Robert Baer: "[US intelligence agencies] have the same problem they had before 9/11. It is a system that doesn't work."
I thought that was the whole reason that the Amerikkkan government created the Homeland Security behemoth was to eliminate the competition between the intelligence agencies. Billions upon billions of dollars later and they haven't made any improvements in intelligence gathering (other than spying on Amerikkkan citizens, of course).
Time for the bad boys to grow up. Men build their country. Men solve the nations problems. Men go after the bad guys only. Men save for a rainy day. Men take care of the weak. Men work together as a team. When one person fails the whole team loses. Men are brave. What we need are men leading us not spoiled brats.
So the Australian press perpetuates the same bullshit as the American press, that Afghanistan is a "war" that is "winnable" instead of an invasion and occupation that is interminable.
“Turkistan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia....are the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominance of the world.”
--- Lord Curzon, Russia in Central Asia 1889
"How America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources."
--- Zbigniew Brzezinski, "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives", page 31 (1997), member Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Advisor to President Carter and adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush
"We did not push the Russians into invading, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would. That secret operation was an excellent idea. The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap."
--- Zbigniew Brzezinski, cited in Agence France Presse, January 14, 1998
Another possibility is a proposed pipeline stretching from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan. In July 1997, officials from Turkmenistan and Pakistan and representatives from Unocal and Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil signed an agreement to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. The nearly 900 - mile pipeline is estimated to cost between $2 billion and $2.7 billion and will carry up to 700 bcf of gas from Turkmenistan's largest gas field at Daulatabad to Pakistan where local gas reserves are in short supply. The agreement calls for a consortium to be formed by October 1997 and construction to begin by December 1998. The work is to be completed by 2001. Unocal has also proposed to add a nearly 400 - mile spur to the Indian capital of New Delhi. Despite the agreement, significant obstacles for the pipeline remain. Bridas is poised to take legal action against Unocal and Delta for allegedly conspiring to undermine its efforts to build a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline from its Yashlar field. In addition, war-torn Afghanistan continues to experience new upheavals, and in the absence of a stable government in Afghanistan, it may be years before the project is feasible.
--- United States Energy Information Administration, September 1997
“I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.”
--- Dick Cheney, Chief Executive of Halliburton (1998)
“To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11.”
--- Tony Blair comments to the Commons liaison committee, (London) Times, July 17, 2002
“The US ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain paid a courtesy call on the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Usman Aminuddin, here Tuesday and discussed with him matters pertaining to Pak-US cooperation in the oil and gas sector… Usman Aminuddin also briefed the Ambassador on the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project and said that this project opens up new avenues of multi-dimensional regional cooperation particularly in view of the recent geo-political developments in the region”
--- Pakistan’s Frontier Post newspaper, October 10, 2001
“If one looks at the map of the big American bases created, one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean.... If I were a believer in conspiracy theory, I would think that bin Laden is an American agent.”
--- This Statement from the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv was quoted in the Chicago Tribune, February 18, 2002
“This whole damn thing was about oil, wasn't it?”
--- Robert Redford's character "Condor," to the CIA Deputy Director of Operations, Mideast Division, in "Three Days of the Condor" (1975).
“[W]e oftentimes find ourselves operating in some very difficult places. The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is.”
---Richard B. Cheney, CEO Halliburton, Defending Liberty in a Global Economy, speech delivered at the Collateral Damage Conference, Cato Institute , June 23, 1998
Don't forget the security of the CIA's supply of heroin.
SSSSHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................that's a secret............
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions
By Rajeev Syal
gardian.co.uk/The Observer
December 13, 2009
Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.
"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.
Fantastic and informative posts.
I second that. CD often has some posts that are better than the article, and this was one of them.
ORWELL: Thank you for taking the time to amass this information. Much of it I've read before, but not put into such a cogent package. It's quite helpful.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.
--- George Orwell
Ties in nicely with the Crusades motif. The muddle age crusades were all about younger sons of the aristocracy heading off to the Holy Land to secure loot. Different loot than today, but nothing much else has changed including the complete hopelessness of the endeavour. Why keep attempting to steal from people what you can buy from them if you deal with integrity?
We are not in Afghanistan to win anything. We are in Afghanistan to increase the profits for the Military Industrial Complex.
They're "Confounded" I tell ya, "Confounded"!!!!
Officials puzzle over millions of dollars leaving Afghanistan by plane for Dubai
By Andrew Higgins
The Washington Post
February 25, 2010
KABUL -- A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan -- often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport -- as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404914.html
Our empire changes Presidents.Our Presidents cannot change our empires' policies.
it's been going on for nine years now. always the same. funny you just now noticed
CIA -- CREATE ILLUSION AGENCY
(1) Afghan Civil War has the upper class dictators barricaded in the cities, the lower class freedom fighters in full control of all but the cities, and so hated are the rulers and us invaders that usable intelligence is near impossible to obtain.
(2) We won two world wars without the CIA, worthless for anything but destroying democratic governments is the CIA, and this ex-agent is trying to get top dollar for his services by the illusion that the CIA has some impact on the outcome of our terrorist invasions and dictator occupations.
(3) Since we A-bombed Japan, all of our wars have been for the purpose of loosing profitably. To maximize profit by trading war materials for oil perpetually.
Call it paranoia or conspiracy delusions...but, this:
"he said that despite the massive growth of the intelligence agencies post September 11, 2001, there remained systemic failings."
reinforces the theory that all the people who the 911 perps had to keep quiet were set up in their own cloak and dagger fronts, on the dole and with secret clearances.
Answers the often asked ?: "911 took a lot of people on the inside...how do you keep that many people quiet?"
Just connecting the dots.
Better intelligence assumes there was intelligence to begin with.
Commenting on this article is too easy.
But here goes, just for fun!
"Military intelligence" is the ultimate oxymoron.
The situation in Afghanistan is more like "FUBR".
Fucked up beyond recognition !
They dont want to win the war, they dont want to end the war, they want a never ending war.
If they have to pay for both sides of the war , hint , hint,
they will.
The no End.
Better intelligence, intelligence is what we say it is, billions of dollars did not disappear, it went into the pockets of all the Bush/Cheney cronies and rich elite military industrial complex corporate pals pockets, as they jumped up and down and said war and money is like taking candy from baby's.
And they laughed all the way to the swiss banks, and exclaimed that whistle blowers go to jail ,and no will ever know how these billions got here.
They dont want to win the war, they dont want to end the war, they want a never ending war.
If they have to pay for both sides of the war , hint , hint,
they will.
The no End.
Better intelligence is not the issue here - - it's more like an oxymoron, especially with regard to the demionic CIA. Get our boys out of there ASAP - - that's the only way to reduce the bloodshed and the wounded and permanently disabled vets who come back and have to beg for help from the VA.
''[US intelligence agencies] have the same problem they had before 9/11. It is a system that doesn't work.''
Then why are they called "intelligence" agencies? Shouldn't they be called "stupidity" agencies or public relations firms or those fly-by-night schools that supposedly teach you to write professional fiction?
""911 took a lot of people on the inside...how do you keep that many people quiet?"
How many people does it take to detonate a building.. make it ready for demolition. from outside that building? Happening all over the place. Have a look and see what a 'demolition' LOOKS like.
This is now "did we land on the moon stuff"... that DID have a problem concerning : how many people were 'in on the act' if it WERE an act.
~
BLAIR :
SADDAM CAN DEPLOY HIS WMD.... WITHIN THE SPACE OF ANY
45 MINUTES...
No, no, that is NOT what we said.. Brit. Intell.
His delicate little hands are covered in blood, the blood of his own 'Boys and Girls'.. and that of many americans aznd others... he this '45 minutes' talk enabled Saddam to be seen as an IMMEDIATE threat, which Bush had to attack IMMEDIATELY... on his own say-so.
~
Love your posts Orwell, nice selection of quotes from some of
the great scumbags of our times, like Brzezinski and Cheney.
Telling the truth in times of deceit is revolutionary, as your namesake said, but what if the dimwitted Electorate just
can't wrap their tiny little minds around the truth? It does
ease the pain of being a member of a race morons, somewhat,
but I hate paying for other peoples mistakes and La Quenta is
now due. Reminds me of something Marshall McCluhan said in
the '50s: "Only the little secrets need protecting. The big
secrets are protected by public incredulity." Read stupidity!
Kids just don't play with Erector Sets or learn Physics any-
more! Steel-frame buildings don't just collapse! I torched
and blasted toy towers all day, but even at red-heat they
only sagged or jack-knifed. Bush had to call off the FBI or
they would have found out his "Reichstag Fire" was a false-
flag operation to jumpstart the "New World Order". Worked for
Hitler, and ditto Dubya. It's like a runaway train now, and
I expect it'll end with a crash. Hope your genes survive as
we desperately need 'em in the Gene Pool amigo.
In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, ’just to keep people frightened’. This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him.
--- George Orwell, 1984
It is good to see, is it not, patriotic Afghans defending their ancestral homelands against the mercenary thugs of the "West"?
If they did not, it would be "un-american."
"KNOWLEDGE (intelligence) IS POWER" Power, power, power, greed, greed, greed. These evil addictions most often exist together, and are hardly new in the dark side of the history of mankind.
The alcoholic usually has to "hit bottom" before there is any hope that the addiction can be overcome. The "hitting bottom" varies. For some, it is the end of a job, end of a marriage, incarceration, etc. For others, interventions sometimes work, with everyone of importance in the life of the addict coming together, and stripping off the addict's denial and refusal to even consider CHANGE!
Today, our villianaire rulers, in order to keep in place and insure the safety of their addictions, have overloaded us with enforcers, i.e. C.I.A., and many other 'spooks' - over 80,000 according to Dana Priest, two time Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, in a recent article in the Washington Post. Some spooks are more evil and criminal than others, some more effective in enabling their greed and power addicted villianaire bosses.
Do we have any HOPE whatsoever, of freeing ourselves and the world from the the evil, addicted rulers and their enforcers, the greed and power addicted few who have mastered the military/industrial/corporate/terrorism takeover? Is it logical that the first step is an international intervention that forces reality and strips away the denial?
Ego is only a perception in the mind of the egoist; please curb your egos.
It is a crazy world. The USA's security services attack the USA on Sept. 11, 2001, and therefore Australians, Canadians, Brits, French, Germans, Dutch, Norwegians, Poles, Romanians, etc. are obligated to go to Afghanistan to kill the local people and to be killed. If US politicians and media refuse to look at the facts of the 9-11 events, there is no reason that the politicians and media of other nations have to also pretend ignorance.