Afghanistan: A War That Should Never Have Happened

As the anti-war movement predicted in 2001 the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan, led by the US and Britain, has been a complete catastrophe. The recent hasty withdrawal of Western forces represents a devastating defeat for the US and its allies and for the War on Terror as a whole.

It is a failure that has resulted in the tragic deaths of over 47,000 civilians, 2,312 US and 454 British troops. It has also been an extraordinarily expensive tragedy with cost to the British taxpayer estimated at £40 billion and the US over $1 trillion.

We cannot allow Western leaders to sweep this catastrophe under the carpet. As an anti-war movement we must continue to drive home the lessons of this devastation and do all we can ensure it never happens again.

Watch back this discussion as we assess the damage of the occupation, look at the future for Afghanistan and assess the West’s strategy in the region with…

Tariq Ali is a noted writer and filmmaker. A veteran of the movement against the war in Vietnam, he has for decades been one of the most prominent critics of Western militarism and imperialism. He has written over two-dozen books on world history and politics—the most recent of which are The Clash of Fundamentalisms, The Obama Syndrome and The Extreme Centre.

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC and has been a political commentator at CNN, PBS News Hour, Democracy Now etc. She is the author of numerous books on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine and US foreign policy, including Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer.