The Afghan war has provided NATO with access to control the $200+ Billion opium trade. The war has given NATO a key toe-hold in a geostrategic region, bordering perennial US target Iran as well as providing access to the key Central Asian nations- a vital area in NATO’s ongoing quest to encircle China and Russia.
The occupation also affords the ISAF forces direct access to Afghanistan’s mineral resources, and the compliant Kabul regime is only too happy to allow multinational corporations access to those resources. Given that this mission has been such a success for NATO, one wonders how they can possibly live up to their promise to pull their forces out of the country by 2014.
That the NATO forces are going to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 is not in dispute. In order to sell this to the public, of course, the Big Lie is required. And until the Big Lie is exposed, the Afghan war will never be brought to an end.