Michael Steiner, a senior German diplomat revealed that a nuclear strike against Afghanistan was on the table in Washington, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Mr. Steiner, the current German ambassador to India, served as foreign and security policy aide to then-German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, at the time of the 9/11 attacks.
Mr. Steiner told in an interview that the US administration under President George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney “played through all possibilities”, including a nuclear option, Russia’s state-run online portal reported.
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“The papers were written,” Mr. Steiner was quoted as saying.
“They had really played through all possibilities,” he said, confirming that a nuclear strike was also on the cards after the Al Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York and Washington.
The 9/11 attacks were a turning point for the post-Cold War world, sending the US on a global war against Islamist terrorism.
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The invasion of Afghanistan and the ousting of the Taliban from power was the most direct consequence of the attack. It was globally welcomed as a just move, unlike Washington’s later war with Iraq, in which several European allies of the US, including Germany, refused to take part.