Afghanistan Did Not Cause 9/11

Canadian's support of the war in Afghanistan is based on thruthiness. Here are some clarifications.

Many Canadians believe that if the Taliban retake control of Afghanistan, their religious radicalism will cause more attacks against us (ie NATO countries).

In fact, not one of the terrorists involved with the 9/11, 2001, attack against American civilians and the Pentagon were Afghan. Not one. The Taliban's mistake was to provide safe heaven to Ossama Bin Laden. The American's mistake was to provide safe heaven to all the 9/11 terrorist physically involved in the attack. All the hijackers were legally admitted to the United States. With the exception of a couple with recently expired visas, all were legal residents of the United States at the time of the murders.

The terrorists were from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Many were highly educated, including a city planning graduate from a Hamburg, Germany, university. He flew into the world trade centre. These weren't religious fanatics denied a balanced education, these were people like you and me. The Taliban system, as sexist and strange as it was (banning music!?), did not cause 9/11. (But you might want to avoid studying city planning in Germany.) 

As for the Taliban governing Afghanistan, as horrible and bizarre as they were, they were not genocidal maniacs. They did not drop chemical weapons against people who disagreed with them (Unlike Saddam Hussein). They didn't invade, or even threaten to, any of their neighbours. You could argue that Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive and adultery is punishable by death, is just as bad today as the Taliban ever were. And wasn't that the whole point of Bin Laden's attack, to punish the United States' support of Saudi Arabia's royal family? 

You could also reasonably argue that the Communist in China, over the years, are responsible for much more death and human suffering then the Taliban (20 million dead, mostly by starvation). North Korea isn't no pick nick either with 1 million dead thanks to the current regime.

The problem with Ossama Bin Ladden is not the number of people who died because of him, the problem is that those people were American, citizens of a NATO country. Unfortunately, we are compounding the problem with the war in Afghanistan. Because of the war in Afghanistan, more NATO member residents are dead. Not less.

The unfortunate truth is that is doesn't take years of religious indoctrination from a young age to generate a terrorist, they can be farmers in Michigan (Oklahoman bombing), residents of Vancouver (air India bombing), disgruntled youth in England (London bombings) and disenfranchised Moroccans in Spain (Madrid bombings).

And by the way, haven't the IRA killed just as many NATO citizen's as AlQuaeda. How come were aren't invading Ireland?