Brzezinski : US lured Soviets into Afghanistan trap!

Le Nouvel Observateur

[BlackJack]

Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser 

Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998 

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? 

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. 

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it? 

B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would. 

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today? 

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire. 

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists? 

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? 

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today. 

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries. 

Translated from the French by Bill Blum 

[BlackJack]

Hmmm

[Pontiac]

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

To me this looks like the Dimmycrats are trying to take credit for the end of Soviet Communism. Just another attack on Reagan’s legacy.

[swilhelm73]

So wait, does this mean the next time so clueless leftie claims the US created Osama in Afghanistan that we can ask them to take it up with their favorite Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter?

For the record Iwould say the odds of this "interview" being true are remote. Brzezinski just does not sound like this at all.

[BlackVeil]

It is hmmmm stuff, isn't it?

There have been a number of rumours about how the Soviets were suckered into invading Afghanistan.

That is one reason why - when wondering about who was behind the events of Sept 11 (for I have always believed that the operation had the support of a state, rather than just a remote camp in the mountains) - I never leave Russia out of my speculations. I used to think Iraq might have been behind Sept 11, but I don't think so any more, as even George Bush says so. But I wonder about Russia, and also Pakistan, Iran (I hope not), even China.

[tbpiper]

For the record Iwould say the odds of this "interview" being true are remote.

Translated from the French....

Odds are, you're right.

[adam_az]

In other words -

It wasn't Reagan that created bin Ladin...

it was CARTER!!!

(to put to rest a well worn leftist angle)

[fso301]

Link anyone?

[gaspar]

The headline contradicts the statement that "We didn't push the Russians to intervene...." I wish someone would ask Brzezinski and Gates why, according to US embassy personnel, there was no CIA presence in Kabul at the time of the Russian invasion in December 1979. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if you were going to play games in Afghanistan you would have someone there to play a hand?

[Aquinasfan]

But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries. 

Hmmm... And on the other hand the perimeter of the Mohammedan world is marked by wars with non-Mohammedans.

[scannell]

Or just wanted to clear out your people to avoid the fray of the battle.