There are geostrategic reasons why everybody has been invading Afghanistan since Alexander the Great...
The country is in a highly strategic position relative to Central Asian, South Asia, and the Middle East...
There are specific reasons in the last few decades, having to do with pipeline projects...
Since the 1990s the United States has been trying hard to establish the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAPI) from Turkmenistan, which has a huge amount of natural gas, to India.
It has to go through Kandahar...
So Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (TAPI) are all involved....
The United States wants the pipeline for two reasons.
One reason is to try to prevent Russia from having control of natural gas.
That's the new "great game": Who controls Central Asian resources?
The other reason has to do with isolating Iran.
For these reasons the Bush White House stepped up negotiations with the Taliban in 2001....
When those talks stalled in July, a Bush administration representative threatened the Taliban with military reprisals if the government did not go along with American demands....
Taliban's choice was clear: either accept a "carpet of gold" riches from the pipeline or "a carpet of bombs," meaning a military strike.
This threat was passed to al-Qaida that was monitoring the U.S.-Taliban negotiations the U.S. military threat to the Taliban was made in July 2001 and caused al-Qaida's Sept. 11 attack, according to an Al Qaeda American senior operative:
“The Americans had informed their allies, during a meeting, in Germany of their plan to invade Afghanistan on the autumn...
So we knew what was coming, the question was do we sit back and wait or do we surprise them with a pre-emotive strike?”
~ Adam Pearlman aka Adam Gadahn aka Azzam the American
~ Born September 1, 1978 Oregon, U.S.
~ Died January 19, 2015 (aged 36) Waziristan, Pakistan
~ Cause of death Drone strike
~ Nationality American
~ Occupation Al Qaeda American senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman and media advisor