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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (296409)	7/26/2006 1:34:41 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571169

At the time of the post from last year it was around the twentieth anniversary of the kidnappings. I agree with you that Hezbollah was probably much more influenced by Syria twenty years ago than they are today. IRan had not become as engaged in the Arab world as they are trying to be now. It is very interesting that Iran never got censured by the G-7 plus Russia due to the distraction from their clients, Hezbollah. "20 years ago the U.S. was one of the MAIN supporters and suppliers of the "jihadists" now known as Al Qaeda. When they were killing Russian troops, we were the guys supplying them with the means to do it." People sometimes regret the long term consequences of their exigencies. If not for the Mujahadeen Clinton would never have had the peace dividend to add to the deception of voluntary acceleration of tax payments inspired by the Roth IRA that made the illusion of a balanced budget possible. "it's a very fluid situation." I find myself agreeing with you more often. The reality now is that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization just like Hamas. Both expend considerable resources towards the destruction of a neighbor. Do you hate your neighbors that much? If you did, would you try to kill them? If you did, how long before you were in jail?

To: RMF who wrote (296409)	7/26/2006 10:50:30 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571169

20 years ago the U.S. was one of the MAIN supporters and suppliers of the "jihadists" now known as Al Qaeda. The US was funnelling money in to the area for people who fought the Soviets. Some of that money went to people who later had connections to, or even became members of Al Qaeda. Many of the fighter who got the money had no connection to Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and even fought against them. Its not like the money went to Al Qaeda, which didn't exist then, or even (at least directly) to some proto-Al Qaeda. Bin Laden was there but he was providing his own funding. Some very radical groups or individuals where favored by the Pakistani intelligence service who controlled the flow of a lot of the money and equipment. Throw billions around in a situation like that and some of it is going to get in to the hands of bad people, still more in to the hands of people who later act in ways we consider bad or who become our enemies. Islamic radicalism was on the rise and would have been on the rise if we didn't help the Afghanis fight off the Soviets. Might the attempt to fight off the Soviets have failed if we didn't help? Perhaps it would have but I don't think that would have been a good thing. The Soviet failure in Afghanistan helped end the Soviet empire. Also while it might have taken longer, its quite possible that the Soviet puppet government in Afghanistan would have fallen anyway, in which case the radical elements would have gained just as much or even more power and prestige, and bin Laden might have been considered even more important.