Al Jazeera Special Series – 2013-06-12 01:30:09

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/2013531103439130667.html

Afghanistan: The Price of Revenge
Al Jazeera Special Series

More than a decade ago the US launched a war against Afghanistan, but was it a justified battle?
“They did not participate in 9/11. Not a single Afghan, not a single Taliban, was in that terrorist act.”
— Arturo Munoz, a former CIA officer

(May 31, 2013) — More than a decade ago — without consultation, without any debate — the United States launched the war against Afghanistan. The whole world was by its side, as soldiers rolled into the country in an act of self-defence after the attacks of 9/11. Today, the troops of the coalition are gradually packing up.

After years of violence and bloodshed, the lives of more than 3,000 soldiers have been lost, and the US leaves behind a country on the brink of civil war.

The official rhetoric has not stood up to the stark reality on the ground: Osama bin Laden was found and killed elsewhere — in neighboring Pakistan; al-Qaeda and the Taliban may have been an ideological combination conveniently cooked up by the hawks in Washington; and the fate of Afghan women was just used as an excuse to sell the war to a Western public.

In this film, all parties to the conflict — members of the US secret service, commanders of the US armed forces, Taliban officials, Afghan warlords and tribal leaders, UN negotiators, Pakistani leaders and secret service, and NGO officials — give their view, unraveling the tangled web of a war that had no other motive than America’s thirst for revenge.

Western democracies promised Afghanistan a better future. But they will leave the country in a state of widespread corruption and disillusion, with thousands of lives lost, and the Taliban more powerful than ever.

Afghanistan, which was once the ideal target, has today become a volcano.

Afghanistan, The price of Revenge can be seen each week at the following GMT: Thursday: 2000; Friday: 1200; Saturday: 0100; Sunday: 0600