Phil > The U.S. has exaggerated threats before. Take the Taliban for example. It turned out to be a few thousand fighters at the most, not the great invincible Afghan Mujahadeen who drove the Russians out.
The Taliban was not at all a threat to the US but was, in fact, its covert ally.
rferl.org
>>>The charge of secret U.S. support for the militia was raised at the same hearing by Congressman Dana Rohrbacher, a Republican from California. He asserted the government was quietly supporting the Taliban as part of Washington's efforts to secure regional support for oil and gas pipeline links from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Rohrbacher testified: "I believe the administration has maintained this covert goal and kept Congress in the dark about its policy of supporting the Taliban, the most anti-Western, anti-female, anti-human rights regime in the world. It doesn't take a genius to understand that this policy would outrage the American people, especially America's women."
Rohrbacher -- who is a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee with oversight responsibility on Afghan policies -- also said that many times he officially requested from the State Department all diplomatic documents concerning U.S. policy toward the Taliban. He says he was even personally assured by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that the papers would soon be forthcoming. But nearly eight months later, Rohrbacher says he has yet to receive a single document.
During an interview with RFE/RL after the hearing, Rohrbacher said he is frustrated by the lack of cooperation from State Department officials and more convinced that the U.S. government is covertly trying to keep information from the American public about the true nature of its relationship with the Taliban.
"When I see the facts behind this case, and I've looked very closely at what's been going on in Afghanistan, I can determine nothing else but either the State Department is incompetent or that they have a covert policy of supporting the Taliban."<<<
But that was, apparently, Madeleine Albright's doing. In case you have forgotten, she was the lady who had no objection to US forces fighting side-by-side with Muslim, Albanian terrorists in Kosovo and who also said it was acceptable if half a million Iraqi children died of starvation because of US imposed sanctions. |
