See, I would put that in the “why America stuck around for twenty years” category. Or put another way, that’s how the Dubya administration took advantage of the situation. But if Bin Laden had been in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia at the time of 9/11, I don’t think they would’ve bothered with Afghanistan.
Well probably because they didn’t do 9/11. The countries that actually involved in 9/11 were American allies (Saudis, Israel)
Also, Pakistan openly and knowingly harbored Bin Laden for years. Americans knew he was there too and didn’t go after him for quite some time. It’s pretty obvious that Bin Laden wasn’t the cause of the war when they knew where he was and couldn’t be arsed to do anything about it for years. They eventually went and got him, dragging their feet, like a lazy man forced to take out the trash by his spouse
I think they had their eyes on Iraq and Afghanistan because of previous US involvement in those places that didn’t result in total subjugation. They would have preferred Iran, but Iran would have been too difficult to invade or get the justification for to build the Coalition that helped invade both Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US had been fucking around in both countries prior to 9/11 about a decade before and never saw return on their investments. Plus, by choosing those as targets, they could go off existing intelligence and experience from previous adventurism.
See, I would put that in the “why America stuck around for twenty years” category. Or put another way, that’s how the Dubya administration took advantage of the situation. But if Bin Laden had been in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia at the time of 9/11, I don’t think they would’ve bothered with Afghanistan.
He was found in Pakistan…
Pakistan also bent the knee pretty much immediately whereas the Taliban was more resistant.
Well probably because they didn’t do 9/11. The countries that actually involved in 9/11 were American allies (Saudis, Israel)
Also, Pakistan openly and knowingly harbored Bin Laden for years. Americans knew he was there too and didn’t go after him for quite some time. It’s pretty obvious that Bin Laden wasn’t the cause of the war when they knew where he was and couldn’t be arsed to do anything about it for years. They eventually went and got him, dragging their feet, like a lazy man forced to take out the trash by his spouse
I think they had their eyes on Iraq and Afghanistan because of previous US involvement in those places that didn’t result in total subjugation. They would have preferred Iran, but Iran would have been too difficult to invade or get the justification for to build the Coalition that helped invade both Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US had been fucking around in both countries prior to 9/11 about a decade before and never saw return on their investments. Plus, by choosing those as targets, they could go off existing intelligence and experience from previous adventurism.