reply to 'politics180'

we absolutely did not 'take over' afghanistan in the early 90's.  though we were in the country way before that. after covertly (cia) creating the mujahidin, and 'winning' the so-called 'war' with russia over control of afghanistan's poppy,and to a lesser extent, oil, interests, we ditched the country,in terms of all of the infrastructure that had been absolutely devastated from ten years+ of war. we then covertly (cia) worked with tribal factions to gain 'control' of as much of the poppies as we could without the world noticing. simple - just like in colombia, with farc. but the taliban were preventing us from getting our oil out to the sea, by not allowing a pipeline through the country. that's when we needed to somehow devise a justification to - legally, and with the world's support - invade, with full forces, and force the 'regime change' that allowed us to finally get our pipe to sea, (thanks,hamid!),as well as negate any bright ideas anyone else was maybe having about getting at those poppies(thanks,troops!) . . .