To Sword of Islam

Submitted by Sidda (United States), Jun 5, 2006 at 19:48

Sword, this my understanding of US involvement in the Afghan/Soviet conflict: the US funded the Pakistani ISI which in turn supplied the mujahideen with arms. After the Soviets left Afghanistan, the country fell into total chaos with wars between various factions loyal to individual warlords. The Taliban came to power with the promise that they would restore order to Afghanistan. At first they had support from the most of the people. However, after several years of draconian rule by the Taliban, the people became less than enthusiastic.

I have found myself wondering how things would have been different had the US handled the Soviet/Afghan situation differently. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. I would bet, though, that we had virtually NO IDEA what the core tenets of Islam were or anything else about that belief system other than it being one of the "world's great religions"! Back then Islam was seen as a bullwark against Communism. I still question whether our political elites really understand Islam.

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