The Graveyard of Empires: The real reason behind the $2.26 trillion U.S. war in Afghanistan that resulted in 2,372 U.S. military deaths and 801,000 deaths

Earlier today, 12 US service members including 11 marines and a Navy medic were killed in the Kabul, Afghanistan airport attack, according to a report from the BBC. So far, more than 60 people have died including civilians and 12 US military personnel. The attack came after warnings there could be militant attacks, as nations evacuate people ahead of a 31 August deadline.

The war started 20 years ago following the September 11 attacks in 2001. Former President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban, then-de facto ruling Afghanistan, hand over Osama bin Laden. However, contrary to the mainstream media reports, the Taliban agreed to hand Bin Laden over to the United States, but Bush rejected the Taliban offer.

In a piece titled, “Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over,” The Guardian wrote:

“President George Bush rejected as “non-negotiable” an offer by the Taliban to discuss turning over Osama bin Laden if the United States ended the bombing in Afghanistan.”

Guardian was not the only media outlet that reported the news. Baltimore Sun also reported the news saying, “President Bush sternly rejected a Taliban offer to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a third country” and be tried at the International Court Of Justice in the Hague Netherlands.

So if the search for Bin Laden was the basis for the war in Afghanistan, why did President Bush reject the Taliban’s offer to hand over Bin Laden to the United States? The answer to this question is very simple: The Industrial Military Complex and the Ruling Elites.

According to estimates from Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the United States has spent a total of at least $2.26 trillion in 20 years since September 11, 2001, to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. As of April 8, 2021, the U.S. national debt is $28.1 trillion and rising.

The $2.26 trillion spent in Afghanistan fighting war equates to $300 million dollars per day, every day, for two decades. Or $50,000 for each of Afghanistan’s 40 million people. And that figure does not include thousands of precious lives lost during the period. According to Forbes, there have been 2,500 U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan, and nearly 4,000 more U.S. civilian contractors killed.

In addition to the US deaths, at least 69,000 Afghan military police, 47,000 civilians, plus 51,000 dead opposition fighters died during the decade-old war. The cost so far to care for 20,000 U.S. casualties has been $300 billion, with another half-trillion or so expected to come, according to Forbes.

But that’s not all. According to a 2019 study from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, America has spent $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia since 2001. Brown University report also finds that “over 801,000 people have died in the post-9/11 wars due to direct war violence, and several times as many due to the reverberating effects of war.”

So, what is the true reason behind the US war in Afghanistan? Below is a 10-minute video analysis of why the US went to war.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1428693161887641611

Here is another video from our friend Jake Tran on what $2 trillion buy us in Afghanistan