>>The U.S. is implementing a flawed strategy to fight terrorism because their intelligence people failed to do their job properly.<<
As your own posts, and countless other posts on SI, and countless other writers all over the world indicate, the US is hated because, because, because this, that, the other thing, a laundry list that seems to be several billion items long.
OK - let's assume that what you say is true. Now, what do you think Americans do when we hear billions of people say "we hate the US"?
We change our foreign policy to try to please them. We change our foreign policy to try to please everyone. We try to make India and Pakistan happy at the same time. We try to make Northern Ireland and Ireland happy at the same time. We try to make Israel and Palestine happy at the same time.
And we keep gutting our CIA because everyone keeps saying it's all the CIA's fault.
It's lunacy.
I wish I had a dollar for everyone who has said that the Taliban is the CIA's fault - I think I'd be a multi-billionaire.
But how is the Taliban the CIA's fault?
Correct me if I am wrong, but the logic goes like this:
1. In 1979, the United States started supplying the Afghani mujahideen with weapons to fight the Soviet invasion (this was during the Cold War, which you are probably too young to remember). Notice that the assistance was not only from the CIA, but the CIA was there, too, I suppose. At any rate, the operation was covert.
2. When the Soviets finally gave up, the Communist-backed government lasted for a while longer in Afghanistan, and finally collapsed in 1990.
3. There was a power vacuum in Afghanistan, and years of tribal warfare broke out.
4. The Taliban came into power in 1996. I believe that you are aware that the Taliban was backed by elements in Pakistan, and perhaps other countries as well.
Now, how does that make the CIA responsible for the Taliban?
BTW, a lot of the relevant documents have been declassified:
192.195.245.32
Excellent essay:
192.195.245.32
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It is undisputable that from 1979-1990, the United States engaged in a struggle against the Soviet Union through proxies, the mujahideen of Afghanistan.
It is also indisputable that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and was attempting to make it part of the Soviet Union, like the surrounding nations of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. It is no accident that this occured only a few months after the Shah of Iran was deposed and Iran was taken over by Islamic fundamentalists. Iran had been a base of power for the US, and the Soviets were eager to capitalize on the US's loss. But the ultimate goal wasn't Afghanistan, which is of value only due to the fact that it would get the Soviets that much closer to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean - and the countries in the region, which would also have become puppet states.
It is also indisputable that many, if not most, of the people of Afghanistan did not want to be part of the Soviet Union.
It is also indisputable that the failure of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan helped the process of ending the Cold War, and the breakup of the Soviet empire into a number of free nations, which has ultimately led to the unlikely event of the Russian Duma signing some kind of treaty with NATO yesterday, among other astonishing events.
I am not old enough to remember the beginning of the Cold War, but I remember the Berlin Wall being built, and I remember it coming down. The liberation of Eastern Europe from the Iron Curtain was wonderful, and I think we will all continue to benefit from the freedom which is still new to the former Soviet countries, for a very long time.
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Back to Afghanistan. It's a mess. 20-something years of war will do that to a country. We need to do something about it.
If you want to blame America, blame me. I voted for Reagan, and I gave money to the mujahideen - we called them freedom fighters - and I am glad that I did.
Blame Reagan, for supporting the freedom fighters. Blame Clinton, for not helping more afterwards.
But quit blaming the poor CIA. They are just bureaucrats, not a rogue agency, no matter what you see in the movies. And the damn Congress keeps weakening them because they watch the same movies you do.
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People who say that the Soviet government would have been better for the people of Afghanistan should read up on the Shah of Iran. He was, I believe, a better ruler for the people of Iran than the Ayatolla. Women were far better treated there when he was in charge, for example.
Why do people simultaneously castigate the US for supporting the Shah and for opposing the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan? Hint, hint - whose interests are involved? |
