October 7, 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by US-led NATO forces.

October 7, 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by US-led NATO forces.

15 years since the bombs began raining down on the country. 15 years of drone strikes and civilian massacres, detainees and prison torture, insurgency and bombings, warlords and druglords and CIA kickbacks.

15 years of death. 15 years of destruction.

And still, like a decades-long nightmare, it continues.

The world was told that the invasion, launched after the invocation of NATO's self-defense treaty, was a response to the false flag events of September 11, 2001.

But this explanation, like the official narrative of the events of 9/11 itself, was a carefully constructed lie. As Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization explains, the US government's demands for Osama Bin Laden's extradition were proven disingenuous when they repeatedly denied the Taliban's offers to extradite him, and the invasion itself, a major theatre operation, was launched impossibly quickly.

That the invasion of Afghanistan had been planned well before 9/11 was first revealed by Niaz Naik, the former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, who told BBC News that he "was told by senior American officials in mid-July [of 2001] that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October."

This story was confirmed by Donald Rumsfeld, who told the September 11th Commission Hearings in March of 2004, that the first major national security directive of the Bush administration was a plan to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan. Although it was not officially signed until October 25, 2001, nearly three weeks after the invasion began, it was in fact drafted in June of that year and was sitting on the president's desk waiting to be signed on September 4, 2001, one full week before 9/11.

"Dr. Rice has stated that she asked the National Security Council staff in her first week in office for a new presidential initiative on al Qaeda. In early March, the staff was directed to craft a more aggressive strategy aimed at eliminating the al Qaeda threat. The first draft of that approach, in the form of a presidential directive, was circulated by the NSC staff in June of 2001, and a number of meetings were held that summer at the deputy secretary level to address the policy questions involved, such as relating an aggressive strategy against Taliban to U.S.-Pakistan relations.

"By the first week of September, the process had arrived at a strategy that was presented to principals and later became NSPD-9, the President's first major substantive national security decision directive. It was presented for a decision by principals on September 4th, 2001, seven days before the 11th, and later signed by the President, with minor changes and a preamble to reflect the events of September 11th, in October."

SOURCE: RUMSFELD 9/11 COMMISSION TESTIMONY MARCH 23, 2004

So if the plan to invade Afghanistan was not about 9/11, then why were the neocons so eager to take over the country?

Like any major military operation, there are multiple strategic objectives to be achieved.

Securing a key transportation corridor from rich Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves has always been one important objective of the Afghanistan war.