Did the US arm bin Laden/Taliban?

[FriendRob]

I keep reading/hearing references to the US having supplied arms or money to our new enemies back in the 80’s. These are from such esteemed sources as The Onion and the comic strip Boondocks. What about in real life? Of course, we did supply support to the anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan, but to what extent did this go directly or indirectly to the Taliban? Does anyone have any hard facts on this?

[Boxcar]

I love the net, although I did not come across much analysis on this topic. Two links that seem reasonably credible…

A New Republic article on the creation of Osama bin Laden.

So the doves are wrong: There was no blowback. America’s involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s didn’t help create Osama bin Laden; Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s helped create Osama bin Laden, in large part because the United States was too timid to direct the war itself. Similarly, it wasn’t America’s intervention in Afghanistan in the 1990s that created the Taliban; it was Pakistan’s intervention and America’s non-intervention. Doves might consider this as they counsel the U.S. to respond to September 11 by leaving the rest of the world to its own devices. After all, it was leaving the rest of the world to its own devices that got us into this in the first place.

Another analysis available, a view from India, supports the view that the Taliban was created by a Pakistan with expansionist leanings:
http://www.indolink.com/indolink/Analysis/taliban1.html

[FriendRob]

Thanks for the links, Blowback. In spite of the spin put on the facts by the NR article, the facts themselves seem to support the idea of “blowback”. Apparently we provided both weapons and money, to the tune of $3 billion, to the mujahedin during the 1980s. Although others provided training (Pakistan) and money (Saudi Arabia), $3 billion is not an insignificant amount of support. (According to the INDOlink article, the Taliban require $70 million a month in support - so we effectively gave almost 4 years of support.) The NR claims that the US was too “disengaged”, for example, the US gave Pakistan “virtual carte blanche” in directing the rebels. This hardly seems to absolve us of responsibility for the uses to which the money was put.

NR’s other point is that the US should have been more involved in Afghanistan after the communist regime fell in 1992. I think most “doves” would agree with this. We failed to “win the peace”.