Well again, I, like most Americans at the time, thought fighting Soviet
expansionism by training and aiding Afghan rebels was a good idea.
Listen, it has become quite clear that one of America's biggest problems has
been a ban on so-called "human intelligence" practices. Human intelligence,
i.e., getting a double agent with a checkered past, is unsavory for ivory
tower types who think it untoward the US should soil itself with the
dendritis of the world.
Manuel Noriega, for instance, was not the kind of person you'd want over for
dinner. Likewise, for Americans to infiltrate Bin Laden's network, we'd need
a person who is basically willing to sell out his friends and country for
just a bit of cash.
Blaming the US for getting its hands dirty fighting communism is really
rather pointless, especially now. Quite frankly, I'm glad the Soviet Union
has imploded, and I'm glad the Afghan rebels were able to check the
imperialistic march of the Red Army.
What Osama Bin Laden (allegedly) wrought on Tuesday was a walk in the park
for Joseph Stalin, who, if you recall your history, was "used" by the US to
defeat Adolf Hitler. Is the US also to be blamed for helping out Stalin
during World War 2, when Stalin went on to become one of the great mass
murderers of the 20th century?
America is imperfect, and certainly not omniscient. But this does not negate
the fact that the US citizenry is almost completely united, as are most
nations of the world, in a war effort to root this plague and scourge from
the earth.
> By no means was Osama bin Laden the leader of Afghanistan’s
> mujahedeen. His money gave him undue prominence in the Afghan
> struggle, but the vast majority of those who fought and died for
> Afghanistan’s freedom - like the Taliban regime that now holds
> sway over most of that tortured nation - were Afghan nationals.
> Yet the CIA, concerned about the factionalism of
> Afghanistan made famous by Rudyard Kipling, found that Arab
> zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans were easier to “read” than
> the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab volunteers might well
> prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least were
> one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, along with a
> small group of Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon,
> Syria and Palestinian refugee camps all over the Middle East,
> became the “reliable” partners of the CIA in its war against
> Moscow.
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