Under the pretext of chasing al-Qaeda operatives implicated in the 9/11 attacks on US soil, American forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001. The continued military operation has caused heavy casualties, but US officials claim they are fighting al-Qaeda, the Taliban and most recently Daesh terrorists in the Asian nation. Press TV has asked Jason Unruhe, a political commentator, to comment on what objectives the US is pursuing in Afghanistan.

Unruhe said the United States resorted to war to invade Afghanistan and push for its imperialistic agenda in the impoverished country.

Unruhe recalled Washington’s claims that its main objective to go to war in Afghanistan was to fight terrorists, adding, however, that Americans occupied the Asian country for “social and economic gains.”

“This has been a war to capture profits. This has been opening up access to new markets for US companies, particularly the vast mineral wealth that still exists within the country,” he told Press TV.

Pointing to an increase in opium cultivation and smuggling in the war-stricken country, he said that illegal drug production has been a direct result of the US invasion.

“Many of the poor farmers in the rural areas of Afghanistan frequently resort to growing opium for the Taliban because of the economic catastrophe,” which is the consequence of the US-led occupation, the analyst from Ontario explained.

In this photograph taken on April 19, 2016, an Afghan farmer harvests opium sap from a poppy field in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province. (Photo by AFP)

Elsewhere, Unruhe argued that the imperialist US does not care about the safety of Afghan people and that the civilian casualties from US attacks are due to the very “nature of the war” itself.

In the most recent incident, US forces killed 22 civilians, including 13 people from one family and nine from another, in Sangin district of Helmand on February 9.

Read More: US airstrikes have killed 22 civilians in Afghanistan's Helmand: Official

The commentator added that the goal is “not to help the Afghan people” and that “the actions of the soldiers and the militaries responsible for the attacks reflected the policies and the goals that have been put forward by the people that they take orders from."