By Kevin Barrett

Many Americans are wondering just what we have accomplished in this war on Afghanistan, which lasted 18 years, and now the so-called peace deal in Doha claims to be putting an end to it. So what was the purpose? And what are the accomplishments?

Well, from the American point of view, this has been a complete disaster. The United States has spent trillions of dollars, lost many service members and tarnished its reputation around the world by leading this futile war on the country that has a well-earned reputation as the graveyard of empires, killing hundreds of thousands if not millions of people and rendering millions more homeless refugees.

So what was the point of it? We were told in 2001 that the purpose of the US invasion of Afghanistan was to get revenge for the Taliban supposedly having been sponsors of the supposed al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. And of course, that was a lie. The war in Afghanistan was planned and set in stone in July of 2001. So, the September 11 false flag operation was simply an excuse for launching a pre-planned war.

Its purpose was twofold. First, and probably most importantly, Afghanistan is critically important geopolitical fulcrum for the Eurasian supercontinent. It's full of very valuable resources. And it's also a pipeline route or potential pipeline route for natural gas.

So, from a geostrategic perspective, and resource perspective, Afghanistan appeared to be a very valuable prize. Additionally Afghanistan was just like Iraq, right there on the border of Iran. And the United States has long been hostile to the Islamic Republic and dedicated to regime change there.

And the neoconservatives, who were responsible for the 9/11 false flag operation, wanted to put US bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, in large part to surround Iran as part of a regime change strategy that was revealed by General Wesley Clark, who said that the purpose of September 11 was to take out seven countries in five years, the seventh and most important country being Iran. And he heard this from a neoconservative Israel loyalist, and this was largely done in support of Zionist expansionism.

So has this been successful? Not at all. The Islamic Republic still stands. The vast wealth of Afghanistan is not being exploited. The minerals are not being mined. There's no pipeline. The only resource being exploited is heroin, opium production, which had been shut down by the Taliban was restored immediately by the US invaders who set free all the drug lords and told them to plant and sell to their heart's content.

So today, Afghanistan has resumed its position as the world's leading heroin producer. And that heroin is being flown to the United States, Europe, Central and South America and elsewhere on Global Hawk military vehicles.

It's grown in Afghanistan, refined in Pakistan and flown to the world on US military Global Hawks. And that's why the US has wanted to stay for all of these 18 years— because the people in charge are corrupt, drug-running mafia thugs, so those people may lose a little bit of their business. But if this proposed withdrawal does end up having an effect—and I do think that the pressure for American withdrawal has reached the point that they will have to leave, apparently—the American people will look back on this and say, what did we accomplish in 18 years, the longest war our country ever fought. Well, we protected the drug lords for two decades.

Kevin Barrett is an American academic, author, journalist and radio host with a Ph.D. in Islamic and Arabic Studies. Dr. Barrett, a founding member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11, has been studying the events of 9/11 since late 2003. He recorded this article for Press TV website.