The new film by RT Documentary Afghanistan after the US dissects twenty years of American presence in the country following the troops’ withdrawal after the Taliban returned to power. After the 9/11 attack, the United States declared “war on terrorism” and sent troops to Afghanistan to track and kill Osama bin Laden, who the Afghan Taliban sheltered. But it took ten years for Americans to finally capture and execute bin Laden and ten more years before they eventually withdrew from Afghanistan.
Mawlawie Jelaluddin Shinwari, former head of Taliban court, says, “the Afghans, like other peoples of the world, believed the Americans would come, and our country would flourish. However, as soon as they arrived in Afghanistan, the people immediately understood their real essence and the cost of American democracy.” But the reality proved to be quite the contrary. There have been claims the entire US military campaign in Afghanistan was marked by torture, murder, and rape. Moreover, despite achieving the declared objectives, the western coalition continued to pursue the Taliban, seeming to ignore the resulting heavy collateral damage suffered by civilians. Very often the bombs, aimed at the Taliban hit schools, hospitals, and homes. During the US military presence in Afghanistan, the total number of civilian deaths is impossible to estimate, but it numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
Watch: Here