Dropping the 21,600-pound Mother of all Bombs [MOAB] GBU-43 April 14 on the late Osama bin Laden’s CIA-built cave complexes in Afghanistan, 59-year-old former Afghanistan President Hamid Karsai called President Ashraf Ghani a traitor. Karzai left office Sept. 29, 2014 after 14 years as president, walking a tightrope backing the U.S. Oct.7, 2001 invasion that evicted the Taliban government for failing to turn over Bin Laden. Bin Laden was afforded safe haven in Afghanistan, planning his Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens. Former President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001 in the smoldering ruins of Bin Laden’s unthinkable attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Hailing from the same Pashtun tribe as the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Karzai knew he walked a tightrope backing the U.S. invasion.
Dropping the most powerful conventional bomb on cave complexes and tunnels housing remnants of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syra [ISIS], prompted Karzai to denounce Ghani as a traitor. “How could you permit the Americans to bomb your country with a devise equal to an atomic bomb?” asked Karzai, knowing that the Afghan government backs the 16-year-old U.S. war to keep the Taliban from regaining power. “If the government has permitted them to do this, that was wrong and it has committed national treason,” said Karzai, backing U.S. military operations while president from Dec. 22, 2001 to Sept. 29, 2014. Karzai always had one foot on the banana peel, knowing that he betrayed his Pastun tribe backing the U.S. war that persecuted the Taliban for the last 16 years. Now that he’s out of office, Karzai pretends to support a nationalist Taliban agenda.
Karzai knows full well Ghani’s Afghan government 100% backs U.S. military operations, especially to rid Afghanistan of what’s left of al-Qaeda and ISIS, currently camping out in Bin Laden’s old hideout in the mountains near the Eastern Afghan town of Jalalabad, close to Tora Boar’s Khybar Pass, stretching along the rugged Pakistan border. After reinforcing and modernizing the cave complexes in the 1980s for Bin Laden’s mujahedeen militia to fight Soviet occupation, the CIA knew precisely the coordinates to dial in to drop the GBU-43 bomb. Killing over 80 terrorists, the Army knew the MOAB yielded about 11-tons of TNT destructive force, not close to the destructive power of U.S. atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, estimated 15-20 tons of TNT. Karzai called Ghani’s actions a violation of Afghan sovereignty.
Playing to the Taliban, Karzai can’t have it both ways: Either supporting his U.S.-backed national government or backing the Taliban. Surviving over the years, Karzain knew how to thread a needle, supporting U.S. military operations while, at the same time, informing the Taliban about U.S. operations. During Karzai’s reign, the U.S. military worried that Karzai gave the Taliban classified information about military missions. Saying he planned to “stand against America,” Karzai showed he can’t be trusted by either side. Without U.S. presence in Afghanistan, Ghani’s government would fall quickly to the Taliban. “I decided to get America off my soil,” said Karzai, proving he’s now working for the Taliban. Watching his country occupied since 2001, Karzai’s now taken the role of nationalist, knowing that without the U.S. military, the Taliban would take over Kabul.
Dropping the MOAB on Bin Laden’s old cave complexes, the U.S. military hoped to rid what’s left of al-Qaeada and ISIS in Afghanistan. Admitting that President Donald Trump did not order the bombing, U.S. Afghan commander Gen. John Nicholson defended the strike as the right weapon to purge Tora Bora of terrorists camping out in Bin Laden’s old caves and tunnels. With sparse U.S. troops battling terrorists in the Kandahar region, Nicholson saw the GBU-43 as the most effective way to purge the region of lingering terrorists. Halfway across the globe, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un got Trump’s message, refraining from shooting off more ballistic missiles or detonated a nuke on the grandfather’s birthday fete. Trump’s actions in Syria and Afghanistan were heard loudly in Pyongyang, causing the 33-year-old Kim Jong-un to refrain from more provocation.
Watching Karzai’s reaction, Trump needs to reevaluate U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. After spending 16-years of U.S. blood-and-treasure, it’s high time to reconsider the Afghan War. “This bomb wasn’t the only violation of our sovereignty and a disrespect to our soil and environment, but will have bad effects for years,” said Karzai, showing that he no longer backs the U.S. military. Without admitting it, Karzai’s ready to have the Taliban return to power, he knows his days are numbered. When the Taliban pegs Karzai as a traitor, they’ll find a way to end his life, just like they did killing Northern Alliance chief Ahmed Shah Massoud Sept. 9, 2001. Massoud fought along side Bin Laden’s mujahedeen to end Soviet occupation in the 1980s, eventually killed by suicide bomber. Karzai should remind U.S. officials that they operate in Afghanistan at their own peril.
