Origins Of The Afghan War

The Afghanistan War has been ongoing for thirteen years and today there was a ceremony to mark the end of the operation and remember the war dead but for many the beginning of the conflict has become hazy and when we hear of the sacrifice and the tribute to the military personnel who died we could be forgiven for thinking that they gave their lives in a noble cause.
One of the faces in the crowd at St Paul's Cathedral was Tony Blair, the man who sent the British troops into Afghanistan in 2001 and who today repeated his line that the decision to deploy British troops in Afghanistan: 'had been justified'.
Perhaps if we clear some of the haze and go back to the start we can get a clue of just how justified it was.
Bin Laden's group, Al Queada, masterminded the Twin Tower attacks in 2001 and as he was being sheltered by the Afghan rulers, the Taliban, American sights turned in that direction.
The President, George W Bush, gave the the Taliban an ultimatum to hand him over or face the wrath of the US military who would militarily force them from power. They refused, instead offering to hand him to a third party but Bush refused the offer and invoked the NATO charter and in October 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched.
So it seems that the entire adventure was to be back up for Americas removal of the Taliban as punishment for not handing over Osama Bin Laden. If they had 'coughed him up' as George W Bush said at the time, then America would step back and leave the Taliban in Government. We can assume that also meant turning a blind eye to the terrorist training camps, lack of human rights, female oppression and blooming poppy fields which all became a justification afterwards.
So our objective was to engage upon a war of choice with Afghanistan in order to remove the Taliban from power and catch Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice.
The Taliban were quickly removed from Government but are still today causing havoc in the country but we don't seem to have no problem with leaving the citizens of the country we invaded to it's fate in the face of murderous terrorists.
So, we that's why we went there and thirteen years later remain there and the families of 453 soldiers are grieving and may question Blair's justification and why when the politicians begin to try and re-write the history of the Afghan War as a just and righteous conflict, we will know otherwise.