smiddy3:"Isn`t it true that the Americans were training and supplying the Afghans with weapons,technology etc. in their war with the Russians ?
Wasn`t their a movie about it ? "Charlies War? I think it was called"
Yup! And here's a pik of Charlie himself in Afghanistan, with one of his Afghan mates!
(from wikipedia entry on Charlie Wilson)
Willson was an interesting character, in my judgement an excellent example of that great American concept of, "Somebody do something quick." Not always with a great deal of forethought.
Here's another of the Mujahideen's buddies.
Anyone recognise the guy in the black suit? In this pik, (also from a Wikipedia entry, this one on the Taliban). We see "President Reagan meeting with Afghan Freedom Fighters to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan. 2/2/83.” — Ronald Reagan Library.
But why did the USA get involved in Afghanistan? I suggest the reason was ideological. Going back further in time, a left wing government had overthrown the King and his government. The former USSR eventually invaded Afghanistan to support that government. The USA became involved to defeat the Russians.
Unintended Consequences: Short term thinking, that is doing something immediately, to fix a problem, without consideration of the long term possible consequences can have disastrous results. Did that happen in Afghanistan? Think about this view expressed in The Guardian
Quote: "When Clement Rodney Hampton-el, a hospital technician from Brooklyn, New Jersey, returned home from the war in Afghanistan in 1989, he told friends his only desire was to return. Though he had been wounded in the arm and leg by a Russian shell, he said he had failed. He had not achieved martyrdom in the name of Islam.
So he found a different theatre for his holy war and achieved a different sort of martyrdom. Three years ago, he was convicted of planning a series of massive explosions in Manhattan and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Hampton-el was described by prosecutors as a skilled bomb-maker. It was hardly surprising. In Afghanistan he fought with the Hezb-i-Islami group of mujahideen, whose training and weaponry were mainly supplied by the CIA.
He was not alone. American officials estimate that, from 1985 to 1992, 12,500 foreigners were trained in bomb-making, sabotage and urban guerrilla warfare in Afghan camps the CIA helped to set up.
Since the fall of the Soviet puppet government in 1992, another 2,500 are believed to have passed through the camps. They are now run by an assortment of Islamic extremists,... ."
Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/17/yemen.islam ( Guardian Jan. 17, 1999)
Can we conclude that Charlie Wilson helped to start Islamic terrorism that so worries us today? What do you think?
Central and West Asian Muslims may have reasoned ' "If we can drive the Russians out, who else can we defeat?"
