Agreed. We should have started a massive humanitarian aid program as soon as the Soviets left. A great many Afghans fought and died as our proxy warriors during the cold war and we left them flapping in the wind once they won. Had we come in with a Marshall style plan Afghanistan would likely be a very different place today.
I would say we made much the same mistake in leaving Saddam in power post Desert Storm, allowing him to crush dissent and leading to much of the insurgency we saw after Iraqi Freedom. Simply put the Iraqis not longer trusted us after Bush the 1st failed to follow through on his promises to protect the Kurds and other minorities. Also, Bremer disbanding their military instead of integrating and co-opting it was a huge mistake. Lessons learned? Probably not. I mean, if we could go back to the 50's and maintain a more neutral policy of self interest rather than a near imperialistic policy of intervention, then we likely wouldn't be one of the most hated nations in the world or have many of the economic problems we're facing today. On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 4:19 PM, Eric Roberts < [email protected]> wrote: > > That was a HUGE missed opportunity. If we would have gone in then and > helped them rebuild, we would be looking at an entirely different scenario > today. I would hazard to guess that 9/11 would have never happened. > > -----Original Message----- > From: LRS Scout [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 1:37 PM > To: cf-community > Subject: Re: Indefinite detainment in NDAA ruled unconstitutional > > > Neither the Taliban nor the Northern Alliance existed as organized forces > until after the Soviets had left, so no. > > Now members of both groups were financed by the CIA while the Soviets were > there. The Northern Alliance got some support from the CIA, but not much. > We pretty much gave up on our muj once the Soviets left allowing for the > extremists to gain a lot of control. Most of the post Soviet support came > from the Pakistani ISI and the Saudis. > > On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 2:33 PM, Dana <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > ah? My bad then. But the CIA did underwrite them though, right? > > > > On 5/19/12, LRS Scout <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > The Taliban and the Northern Alliance were enemies in the post > > > soviet Afghan civil war. The Taliban wasn't part of the Northern > Alliance. > > > > > > On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Dana <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > >> > > >> er. Those are not all the same jerkoffs. I don't think Ronald > > >> Reagan supported bin Laden, for one thing, and the Taliban was the > > >> Northern Alliance at the time... > > >> > > >> /me flees > > >> > > >> On 5/19/12, PT <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> > > > >> > On 5/19/2012 12:28 PM, Dana wrote: > > >> >> > > >> >> Justin Amash has been posting about this on Facebook. The people > > >> >> who voted against his amendment said he was coddling terrorists, > > >> >> according to him. > > >> > > > >> > Well, we can't have that. We need to be tough on terrorist > > supporters. > > >> > We can start with the jerkoffs who propped up Saddam, bin > > >> > Laden, the Taliban, etc. to begin with. > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350922 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
