We were given many justifications for the invasion and permanent occupation of Afghanistan:
- First of all, the US said that they invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban regime let al-Qaida, the terrorist organisation that planned and executed the September 11, 2001, attacks on the USA, built training camps in their countries. This was a reasonable excuse.
- But then, why did the US troops remain there after al-Qaida's camps were destroyed and its fighters killed or dispersed? After all, the Taliban government was the legitimate authority in the country and it did not attack, or threaten, the USA.
- We were then told that the world -that is the US- wanted a regime change because the Taliban were mistreating their own citizens. Why again did not they leave after letting the Afghans elect another regime?

What the USA did was exactly the opposite. They imposed a puppet government headed by a man, Hamid Karzai, whom they trust because he has been linked to them for many years. He was even a paid agent for the CIA while in exile. However, as he was chosen and imposed by the American occupiers, he never had any real authority in the country (even his election as president on October 9, 2004, did not change the fact that he needs the American support to survive politically and, perhaps, physically). He only controls the capital Kabul, and relies on the US troops and on UN Peace Keepers to keep a limited military presence in the rest of the country where the remnants of the Taliban and the warlords have the real power.

In fact the USA took the excuse of the September 11, 2001, attacks by terrorists operating from Afghanistan to occupy the country. And they want to occupy it permanently, not to make it free and democratic, but to preserve their own interests. How could a military occupied country be free and democratic?

Senator John McCain resumed quite well the situation when he called for permanent US military bases in Afghanistan on February 22, 2005. This, he said, would provide security and protects the interests of the two countries, above all the USA's. The former presidential candidate made the remark in Kabul, where he and four other senators held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

These days the main problem facing the USA is to guarantee the continuous supply of cheap oil and natural gas at the time when other countries -such as China, India, Japan,...- are competing with them for the limited supply available. The increase of the oil price is a clear indication of the huge demand on the world market and it will create a supply problem. And without oil the US economy, and the way of life of the American people, would be in a deep crisis.

Although Afghanistan has no huge reserve of oil or gas it is important from an energy point of view due to its geographic position as a potential transit route for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea. This potential includes proposed multi-billion dollar oil and gas export pipelines through Afghanistan. These plans have been put on ice by the Taliban regime.

The oil and gas from Central Asia could be exported two ways:
- Through Russia to Europe.
- Through Afghanistan to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan, and India.

The second solution serves the US interests better, and this explains why Afghanistan is important to them. In this case the pipelines would begin in the former Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan, which may have one of the largest gas deposits in the world. Turkmenistan's potential is enormous. Moreover just inland from the Caspian shore are some of the world's oldest oil fields. Soviet-era geological surveys indicate that the prospect for offshore finds was good. In the Garagum Desert, geologists had discovered one gas field after another. By 1990, Dauletabad, and the adjoining Sovietabad field, were producing 1.6 trillion cubic feet a year of gas, rivalling the gigantic gas fields of Siberia. Almost all of this gas was pumped north across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into a Russian pipeline and on to the European and the former Soviet republics market. The USA want to change this and it explains why they invaded Afghanistan to occupy it militarily indefinitely.

Already Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have agreed to accelerate work on a long-delayed pipeline intended to carry natural gas to India, Pakistan, and the Arabian Gulf. India is weighting whether to meet its expanding energy needs with pipelines from Turkmenistan or Iran, both of which would pass through Pakistan, or alternately from Myanmar in the east. The Turkmen-Afghan pipeline project's main sponsor is the Asian Development Bank. The 1,680-kilometer pipeline, on which construction could begin next year, is to run through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Multan, and on to the Indian border town of Fazilka. The $3.5 billion pipeline would tap into natural gas wells at Turkmenistan's huge Dauletabad-Donmez fields, which hold more than 2.83 trillion cubic meters in gas reserves. Since the US-led offensive that ousted the Taliban from power, the pipeline project has been revived. Now it draws strong US support since oil and gas could be exported to the USA from the Arabian Gulf terminals. It would also allow formerly Soviet Central Asian nations to export rich energy resources without relying on Russian routes.

Destroying the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan was a normal and expected revenge after September 11, 2001. Removing the Taliban regime was an excuse to occupy the country, while bringing democracy to the Afghans had nothing to do with it. The American authorities, and the American public in general, do not care about this country and its people. What the Americans care are the interests of their country and nothing else. And their interests there is to have access and control the oil and gas reserve in Central Asia.