Another avenue of approach: In August 1998 it was McCarthy at the NSC that ordered General Zinni to prepare a plan to strike Afghanistan. Zinni and Albright did all in their power to stop any Afgan strike or support for the anti-Taleban Northern Alliance. The CIA legal department did all in its power to slow down that process. In the end, thanks to Berger, Zinni, Albright, the CIA and Cohen nothing was done.
GASPAR......I can't catch my breath with all your info...you are incredible!! Keep it coming!!
That's why your analysis is faulty.
It makes more sense for Zinni and the other running dogs to have held up on ALL US involvement, one way or the other, in Afghanistan, so the Soviets, should they survive the coming breakup of the Russian Empire, could move back into Afghanistan without our opposition.
Zinni and Albright guessed wrong. The Soviet Union crashed. The Taliban could not be kept in check (because AlQaida came to their rescue).
The Communist dialectic applied to prognostications concerning Central Asia turned out to be horribly wrong.
These guys are into the same thing when it comes to Iraq. Their opinion, using Communist dialectic, was that Saddam was not an immediate threat to anyone since he'd exhausted his country in the war against Iran. At the same time, they saw no need to stir up Iran because, in the long run, the Workers (Khalk) Party might have a chance to overthrow a weaking Ayatollah led dictatorship ~ e.g. once a madman rose to the top ~ as has just happened.
So, the Commies and their lackeys in America pursued a course of moderation with Iran, even to the extent of fostering an atomic power program in that country ~ but, they failed to count on the American client state, Pakistan, making a deal with the Chicoms to get nuclear weapons technology (secretly) to hold off the new Chicom commercial enemy, India.
Khan, in Pakistan, then "sold" Pakistan's weapons technology to Iran, and Libya.
Here's another problem with the Commies ~ they are remarkably stupid and fail to think more than a couple of steps ahead ~ an artifact of using Hegelian logic.
BTW, I am finding it exceedingly disturbing to find I am able to discuss this whole CIA/Clintonista gang as if they are merely a bunch of Commies.
Just where did their mothers go wrong.