tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293152265787061341.post6329640167903619022..comments2024-03-03T05:11:57.603-05:00Comments on Wings Over Iraq: What else is newStarbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02013102906896853767noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293152265787061341.post-88212603867053034652010-02-17T09:46:46.277-05:002010-02-17T09:46:46.277-05:00Things seem so much more simple without knowing th...Things seem so much more simple without knowing these things. Then you can just focus on the bad-guy-of-the-day.<br /><br />One also shouldn't place that sort of hindsight-blame on one man, either. ISI had quite the influence over both the mujahidin and our support to them.<br /><br />But it still made an entertaining movie.badlieutenantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3293152265787061341.post-41891839865316830702010-02-16T21:45:04.105-05:002010-02-16T21:45:04.105-05:00Two nitpicks. First, Charlie Wilson was a Congress...Two nitpicks. First, Charlie Wilson was a Congressman, not a senator. <br /><br />Second, I think you overstate the degree of influence America had over the Afghan mujahedeen, and the importance of American aid. <br /><br />President Zia ul Haq had already begun the radical Islamization of Pakistan long before CIA aid was present in more than token amounts, and Saudi Arabian funds flowed freely in an attempt to be holier-than-thou compared with the expansionistic ayatollahs of Iran. As one prof I had in college commented, for respectable Saudi kids in the 1980s, the upper tier went to Western universities, and for the middle tier there was a "downmarket option in jihad." <br /><br />Sure, these nations enjoyed the tacit protection of America against the Soviet Union, but that's all they really needed, and they undertook these struggles for their own purposes. In fact, an argument could be made that it was the covert and limited nature of American assistance, that allowed the myth to arise that the mujahedin had won on their own, a myth that was fairly important to their recruiting and ideology in earlier years.Rayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647814660147382997noreply@blogger.com