[Vision2020] Opps? Opps Indeed! Taliban Blow Back!

[Ted Moffett]

Pat et. al.

Pat wrote:

"All the BAD in the world is the fault of Christians and all the good is
Muslims."

Of course no one is saying this, Pat, at least no one I know.

I recall in the 1990s when the Taliban solidified their hold on power in
Afghanistan during the civil war after the Soviets were repelled, being
dismayed that this extreme Islamic religious group, the "mujahideen" that
the USA supported against the earlier Soviet occupation, were denying women
the opportunities to have careers, keeping them under de facto "house
arrest," only allowed in public in the burka, women who previously were
doctors, teachers, etc. holding public executions, enforcing a Medieval sort
of religious extremism on Afghanistan, etc. etc. etc.

Women's rights activists and other human rights activists were dismayed that
once the US helped to achieve the goal of handing the Soviet Union their
"Vietnam" (recall President Ronald Reagan calling them "freedom fighters!),
a prolonged draining war of occupation that was a factor in the dissolution
of the Soviet Union, the US appeared to abandon the people of Afghanistan to
this oppressive extreme regime...

Amazing, isn't it?  The US helped to bring to power the extreme Islamic
Taliban, left them to oppress the people of Afghanistan once our foreign
policy goals regarding the Soviet Union were attained, while the Taliban
went on to host US hating Islamic extremists, Osama Bin Laden among them.

What if the USA had taken responsibility for the fact it helped put
oppressive Islamic extremists in power in Afghanistan, and remained
forcefully engaged with Afghanistan after the Soviets were ousted, with the
goal of moderating or replacing this extreme regime?  Is it possible that
Osama Bin Laden, et. al. might not have had such a free reign to use
Afghanistan as a terrorist training base?  Need I point out that the 9/11
attacks might have been prevented?  The Clinton years are a critical part of
this period of time, so some blame for not engaging more aggressively with
Afghanistan is his, along with Clinton's role in not aggressively addressing
the Rwanda genocide.  Clinton has publicly admitted his regrets about
Rwanda.

In your attempt to paint those who oppose Bush's foolish war in Iraq with a
broad stereotyping brush, you seem to make the assumption that they are
apologists for Islamic extremism/terrorism.

I, for one, talked often in conversations about the terrible Taliban during
the 1990s, and how little was being done by the West to moderate the extreme
rule of this regime, that the US helped to rise to power.  And I also recall
the amazing oblivious "who cares" attitude that my comments induced...Well,
those oblivious to the implications of US foreign policy in Afghanistan
during the Soviet occupation and the resultant rise of the Taliban to power
are now a bit more concerned...

A few years late and billions of dollars short!

The Taliban's US assisted rise to power and their later role in supporting
US hating terrorists connected to the 9/11 attacks must be one of the most
clear cut examples of "blow back" in the history of US foreign policy...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahideen

Ronald Reagan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan> praised
them as freedom
fighters <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fighter>, and the
1988<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_in_film>
*Rambo III <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo_III>* portrayed them as
heroic. This connection is ironic, in light of the future turn of events in
which many of the same men would end up as a major threat to the United
States. This sort of
blowback<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowback_%28intelligence%29>,
in which a state helped to create a force to fight another state, only to
have that force turn against them, was seen earlier in the 20th century, e.g.,
the German support for the Bolshevik underground in Russia which led
to a Soviet
Union <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union> and the eventual
occupation of East Germany <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany> by
the Red Army <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army>.
------------

Ted Moffett



On 10/6/06, Pat Kraut <pkraut at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>  Opps! This is supposed to read: Ah! Yes! All the BAD in the world is the
> fault of Christians and all the good is Muslims.
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20061007/c280a6f5/attachment.htm