I’m reading "Taliban" by Ahmed Rashid a Pakistani journalist with 21 years of experience in Afghanistan. He actually wrote the book in 2000 (a year before Sept. 11) and is one of the few people who understand the brutal history of Afghanistan. He explains how the Taliban came to power and how they were originally received enthusiastically before they started implementing their crazy policies. You probably know the rest of the sick history so I won’t go into the gory details.
Anyway, on a side note I thought I would give an interesting piece of history (not in the book). In 1979 the CIA thought it would be funny to watch the Soviets fall into what is now called the Afghan trap. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, created a plan to propel the Soviets into attacking Afghanistan. He succeeded! Once they attacked the CIA trained and armed the Mujahadeen (Islamic Fundamentalist) including Bin Laden and his associates. The CIA flew jihadist fighters from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to the heart of Afghanistan. After 1.5 million Afghans were dead and the country devastated the Soviets withdrew in defeat. The United States pretty much abandoned the country leaving control to the Mujahadeen. After a couple of years they were kicked out of power by the druglords who traumatized the population and ran the drug trade. The country was in chaos until the Taliban, who are pretty much second generation Mujahadeen, took back the country. The rest is history. The following is a transcript of Brzezinski from a 1998 interview with the French publication Le Nouvel Observateur.
Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
Brzezinski: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth.
Q: You don't regret anything today?
Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet Empire.
Check out the Declassified Documents from the National Security Archive. First check out the overview of all the documents and then read the following.
First Link
