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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (12107)	11/30/2001 12:50:08 PM
From: MSI	Respond to of 281500

Hi hawk, >"What is the US responsibility for providing foreign aid, when little is being offered in return to the US by the recipient?" The answer: zip The billions in charitable contributions for the WTC shows the American people can fund their own contributions quite nicely, without being told by Beltway politicians what's good for us. Officially-generated sympathy - an oxymoron if there ever was one - just generates more corruption and opportunism. Even the paragon of virtue, the Red Cross, decided to keep a few hundred million for their own purposes, until they got caught with their pants down. I guess that means all politicians should have their pants down, at all times. Metaphorically speaking of course.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (12107)	11/30/2001 3:06:03 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The way I remember it is that the US was supporting EVERY GROUP willing to fight the Russians, including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks..., also known collectively as "muhadjedin"... etc. These groups include some of those currently known as the "Northern Alliance", who have opposed the Taliban. Hawk, I recommend you read Robert Kaplan's book which covers that period, just newly re-released, Soldiers of War. Reporting at the time, he argues that the US funneled the large majority of its money through the Pakistan government and it, in turn, funded the fundamentalists of the time, some of whom are still around. You are right, though, the Taliban did not exist at the time. And, interestingly enough, bin Laden does not appear in Kaplan's book at all, originally published in 90 or 91 Since we didn't create the Afghan resistance, what obligation did the US have in "nation-building" in Afghanistan after the Russian's withdrew? The verb "create" is a tough one in that sentence but it's clear, again from Kaplan's reporting, that we funded groups which were opposed to our longer term goals in the interests of our alliance with Pakistan. John