By "the Afghans", Amos, I meant the general population of the country. It is the general population that suffers when a war happens, and that war was unnecessary. It was an inappropriate response to 9/11, because 9/11 was not an act of war...it was a criminal act. We've been through all this before, so I don't intend to rehash it all, just saying that to respond to something like 911 by invading an entire country is simply not sensible. You respond to criminal acts by small bands of conspirators with international police work and, if necessary, through covert military intelligence work by outfits like the Secret Service, the CIA, and so on....not by launching a conventional military invasion of an entire country.

I do not believe the USA invaded Afghanistan to get Osama Bin Laden. Not for a moment. I think they invaded Afghanistan to occupy and control Afghanistan and control the central Asian region. I'm by no means convinced that Bin Laden even had much, if anything, to do with 911...but if he did, he must be the ideal poster boy for the Project for a New American Century, because 9/11 gave them exactly what they wanted: a "Pearl Harbour Level event" sufficient to justify an open-ended series of American wars in the Middle East. Hell, maybe Bin Laden was even on their payroll. Maybe that's why they have never found him.