http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/asia/22militias.html?_r=1&hp
The United States never seems to learn from its foreign policy mistakes, especially when it comes to backing militias. I read this article this morning and couldn't help but see a pattern. Apparently local anti-Taliban militias have begun to form "independently" in Afghanistan to take up arms and fight. The US and Afghan governments feel they could offer these militias support in order to enlist their help. From all accounts, Taliban aggression has reached levels not seen since immediately post 9/11, while paradoxically Uncle Sam is looking for a way to bow out of this mess he got himself tangled up in. Americans really don't want to send more troops, so it would make sense to use these emerging militias as a way to supplement our forces. This seems like a sensible idea, and the article stresses the fact that these militias have taken up arms on their own. But anyone who remembers the Soviet-Afghan War and Operation Cyclone knows how horribly wrong this strategy can go.
Its a long story but basically in late 1979 during the height of the cold war the CIA under President Carter started a covert operation to arm the Afghan mujahideen in order to create a "Vietnam war like" situation with the USSR. This included funding resistance leaders like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who worked closely with future Al-Queda leaders like Osama Bin Laden. The operation went well enough but lacked foresight. As soon as the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan we lost interest and cut all of our funding, including money going to Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan to escape the conflict. Alienating the growing Islamist movement had far reaching implications. Among other things Hekmatyar would go on to bomb Kabul with his American supplied weapons killing thousands, and everybody knows what happened with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queda. The US denies that any of our funding knowingly went to these people but clearly we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.
I can appreciate the fact that we don't have a lot of options right now, but I hope we've learned something about tying up loose ends, or at the very least, knowing who we're giving weapons to.
Pee on Face
6 hours ago


