For over 19 years, the United States has been occupying the nation of Afghanistan and waging war against its people. On October 7, 2001, the U.S. government invaded Afghanistan, claiming it was a so-called war on terror. This took place just a few weeks after the horrendous September 11 attacks across the East Coast, in which thousands of innocent people died. George W. Bush launched a military offensive against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Not only did this offensive kill innocent Afghans, including women and children. It has also festered into becoming an almost two-decade-long occupation and war.
The United States, the most powerful country on the planet, has been bombing, droning and occupying Afghanistan, one of the poorest nations on the planet. Thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed and injured. Furthermore, since the start of war in 2001 through mid-2019, nearly 2,400 U.S. servicemembers have died, according to The Washington Post. The total military expenditure in Afghanistan from October 2001 until September 2019 was $778 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. This is enough money to feed, clothe, house and educate all poor and low-income people in the United States, who are well over 140 million strong. Many veterans are also facing PTSD and other serious medical conditions while receiving little to no help from Washington. The war on Afghanistan has been brutal for people both at home and abroad.
Today, we bring you audio from a recent webinar entitled, Ending the War On Afghanistan. The webinar was hosted by World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, NYC Veterans For Peace, and Middle East Crisis Response. It was moderated by Ann Wright and features presentations by Kathy Kelly, Matthew Hoh, Rory Fanning, Danny Sjursen and Arash Azizzada. Kathy Kelly has been a founder of Voices in the Wilderness, coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and member of World BEYOND Wars Advisory Board.
Matthew Hoh has been a Senior Fellow with the Center For International Policy since 2010. Rory Fanning went through two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion, and became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror. Danny Sjursen is a retired U.S. Army officer, contributing editor at Antiwar.com, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and director of the Eisenhower Media Network. Arash Azizzada is a filmmaker, journalist, and community organizer currently living in Washington, D.C.
