Taliban History Lesson: Not Our Boys From the 80’s
The groups we supported were defeated by the Taliban in the civil war that followed Soviet withdrawal. The Taliban and Usama bin Laden were supported by the separate "Sayyaf" group of Mujahideen supported by Saudi Arabia and Deobandi fanatics in Pakistan.
I just heard Chuck Todd of the idiot MSNBC network assert as a predicate to a question that the Mujahid groups that the US supported against the USSR BECAME the Taliban and Al-Qa’ida.
NO! NO!
The groups we supported were defeated by the Taliban in the civil war that followed Soviet withdrawal. The Taliban and Usama bin Laden were supported by the separate “Sayyaf” group of Mujahideen supported by Saudi Arabia and Deobandi fanatics in Pakistan.
Thus endeth the lesson.
yup…
“The groups we supported were defeated by the Taliban in the civil war that followed Soviet withdrawal.”
So, none of the arms that Charlie Wilson secured for the Mujahideen were sent to Bin Laden’s group?
It looks like it might be a bit more complicated than Lang’s history lesson would have it (or the implication of my question, for that matter). See, Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’.
There’s an entire wiki page about this. It’s far from a settled issue.