Posted on 12/25/2005 6:11:24 PM PST by ncountylee
After we had talked about all manner of jihadists for an hour — jihadists in Kashmir attacking India, jihadists in Afghanistan attacking America and today jihadists in Pakistan attempting to kill President Pervez Musharraf — I asked the high American official, “don’t you feel that you spend all your time just picking up the pieces for the wrongheaded policies when the West supported the jihadists as a tool against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan?” He sighed, nodded and replied, “That’s right”.
Driving away from that conversation I was convinced more than ever that the various terrorist movements unleashed in this corner of the world over the last twenty years have their origins in the policies of Jimmy Carter, that most pacific of all postwar American presidents who, prodded by his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, decided to undermine and repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of Christmas Day, 1979, by any means necessary, including the funding, training and arming of militants who burned with anti-communist zealotry much as they burn against the Western or Indian “infidel” today.
Indeed, later evidence provided by Brzezinski seems to demonstrate that the US actually wanted the Soviet Army to invade Afghanistan. “We did not push the Russians into invading”, he is quoted as saying in recent article in Lahore’s Daily Times, “we knowingly increased the probability that they would. The secret operation was an excellent idea. The effect was to draw the Russians into the Afghan trap.”
(Excerpt) Read more at arabnews.com ...
If I help someone, I expect some form of returned gratitude for my help. I may never get it, but just being a normal, caring human being would invigorate some sort of 'thank you' from the person I helped.
If this person whom I helped, then turns on me and seeks to hurt of kill me, am I really responsible for his repulsive behavior? It may be my actions that saved his life, but I am in now way responsible for his future actions. 100% of the responsibility is on his shoulders.
If Islam is such an evil motivator that it would have its followers turn on their benefactors, then Islam needs to be questioned, not my original charitable actions.
Wrongheaded policies?
As long as the Soviet Union existed, it was the biggest threat to the West. The United States had to dealt with that threat, even if that meant supporting jihadists. Likewise, the United States previously supported the Soviets against the Nazis, judging the latter to be the greater threat at the time.
As the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Nazi Germany was defeated. The USSR was defeated. The Islamofascists will be defeated too.
Muslims have been violent aggressors against their neighbors ever since the time of Muhammed. It's the basic nature of their religion, which Muhammed seems to have consciously designed as a weapon for control and conquest.
There was a temporary respite when Europe shot ahead of the Muslim world with scientific advances, but it's evident that the present wave of Muslim terrorism has been building up since the Second World War.
It may be that Carter and the elder Bush miscalculated, not by arming the Muslims in Afghanistan, but by letting the Saudis and Pakistanis persuade them to arm the wrong groups. We should have backed Massoud, not Hekmatyar.
But we still would be much where we are now in any case. The worst failures were not Carter's activities in Afghanistan but his stupid interference in Iran, bringing the Mullahs to power, followed by clinton's failure to react to a whole string of Muslim attacks on us, and his assistance to the Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Our worst failure was weakness in the face of the Muslim threat. And it still is, on the part of liberal politicians, opinion leaders, and media.
Yeah, sure. It would be so much better if Russians held Afghanistan up until now. /sarcasm/ Anyone who believes this sort of Islamists' psychological warfare propaganda must be totally nuts.
In the Cold War context, it made perfect sense to support the mujahideen in Afghanistan at the time. I think it is mite too partisan to blame Carter for our doing it then. Conservatives at the time, I believe, supported a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Let's not rewrite history for partisan purposes to suit our current circumstances. That is more a trick of the Left.
Yep, this modern Jihad is the work of ol' Jimmah more than anyone. Projecting weakness while arming Islamists and leaving Afghanistan to the dogs was not a recipe for peace.
Although our military was still eviscerated at the time, when Reagan ran from Lebanon it didn't help. I hate to speak ill of the Gipper, but....
We should have finished Saddam in 1991 and eliminated the Syrian army while it was handy if they objected. Although we didn't have the stomach at the time for nation building, it would have saved a bit of trouble in the future.
Then there's Clinton with his air war is Bosnia and chicken poop pullout from Somalia.
Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, but the root of the modern problem is on Jimmy.
I think Carter's main error in that region at that time was allowing the Shah of Iran to be overthrown. Maybe the Shah's downfall was inevitable but Carter did nothing to help. As the Shah fled Iran he said, "This is the beginning of the decline of the West." Iran has turned into a world terror factory.
Too right. The US supported the mujahidin via the Pakistani intelligence service. The Taliban emerged after the Soviets left Afghanistan. I repeat, the Taliban emerged after the Soviets withdrew.
The blame America crowd continues to suggest that we gave money and arms directly to Mullah Omar and Bin Laden which is a distortion of history.
Charlie Wilson had more to do with funding the Afghanis against the Soviets, than Jimmy Carter.
“don’t you feel that you spend all your time just picking up the pieces for the wrongheaded policies"
So true - I mean, if we hadn't allied with Stalin to defeat Hitler...
/s
The chaos after the war, and the rise of the Taliban, should be blamed on Pakistan--not the US.
I would maybe go so far as to say we didn't help to fill the void left behind by the soviets withdrawal in the most
helpful manner we could. But to say we created terror is a stretch.
Though blaming Carter is always fun.
Ping....you might be intrested in this article.
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