There's enough balme to go round.
Yes, and enough salve and blame as well.
Dont think we created the Taliban. They didn't take over until 1995, 8 years or more after the Ruskies left. What we did was arm just about everyone who was breathing to fight Ivan. The political structure of the Taliban is courtesy of Pakistan's ISI - an attempt to control their neighbor and keep out Iranian influence.
"So what. We helped create the Taliban during the Russian's Afghan adventure."
BS, there was no Taliban yet.
They didn't emerge until years after the Russians left.
A: Massoud.
Q: Who killed Massoud?
A: Al Qaeda, the buddies of the Taliban.
Funny how we're never credited with backing the future enemies of the Taliban. And funny how we're blamed for creating the Taliban, a group which only came about years after we left and which was not formed with CIA money or aid but rather gained popularity and hence power by acting as a curb to the lawlessness left by Russia's war and retreat. The Taliban were a creation of Pakistan's former elected government and an inadvertant side-effect of the Russian invasion years before. One thing they were not was a creation of ours.
The Taliban never would have existed but for the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, which created the refugee crisis which led to the setting up of camps in Pakistan for the survivors of the war. Yet, the Taliban would have existed whether or not the US had anything to do with opposing the Russians, since either way the camps from which they sprang in 1994 would have existed.
So what. We helped create the Taliban during the Russian's Afghan adventure.