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Afghanistan: ‘a strictly limited period’
'British forces would not be in the country on a long-term basis' claimed a nervous Tony Blair in 2001. How easily 'several months' becomes two decades once the wheels of war turn, says SOLOMON HUGHES

THE FATE of Afghanistan also shows how Western forces approached the September 11 attacks as a test of national virility rather than a crime. The hijackers of the aeroplanes largely came from Saudi Arabia, with a couple from the United Arab Emirates.

However, neither the US nor Britain took any significant action against Saudi Arabia, because they are an economic and military ally. They’ve got a lot of oil and money and their generally reactionary politics fit well enough with Western foreign policy.

Bin Laden, whose organisation had a role in the attacks which the Western powers said was crucial, was in Afghanistan in 2001. But he wasn’t there for any of the subsequent 20 years of occupation.

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