Comments on: Afghan Mujahideen and Reagan

By: Zack

Zack — Mon, 31 May 2004 05:21:03 +0000

Mike: Sorry can’t help you there.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 30 May 2004 16:54:45 +0000

Looking for a photo of Reagan in 1985 with Afghan Mugahideen, with Reagan pointing at the men & saying ‘These are the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers.’ Can’t yet find the photo. Any help??? Mike

By: Wes

Wes — Mon, 10 Nov 2003 06:47:29 +0000

I thought it went down like this:

Saudis: Hey Reagan administration, you know how you’re arming Islamist radicals,er mujahadin in Afghanistan, well we could probably get a lot more to come in from all over the Muslim world and they’ll fight really hard. It’ll be good PR for us, and they’ll help you beat the Russians. What do you think?

Reagan Adm: Sounds good to me.

Is that not what happened?

By: Zack

Zack — Fri, 07 Nov 2003 01:28:32 +0000

PhotoDude: I excerpted more from Juan Cole to give some context, but what I was surprised about was Hatch flying to Beijing to ask the Chinese to pressure Pakistan. According to Cole, this happened in 1985 which is pretty late in the game for the Mujahideen-Soviet Afghan war. I tink I’ll go back and make that part bold.

BTW, the US did support a number of Islamist leaders over the years in all kinds of places because they were the most reliably anti-communist.

By: PhotoDude

PhotoDude — Thu, 06 Nov 2003 15:10:17 +0000

I think a lot of the history of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan gets mixed up, and though the specifics don’t change the aftermath, they’re worth noting.

It’s always been my understanding that there were two intentionally separate efforts to support resistance to the Soviet occupation. The US, largely via the CIA (and through Pakistan), provided material support for Afghan freedom fighters. Saudi Arabia agreed to provide support for non-Afghan resistance, the many men from many countries who came for jihad against the Soviets. Obviously, those who answered a call for jihad didn’t do it because of a fatwah from Ronald Reagan. It ought to be easy enough to track down just who did call for believers to go fight in Afghanistan in the ‘80’s.

Of course, those two efforts intermingled due to the “common cause.” And the distinction in no way excuses the aftermath, when all support (from all sources) dried up after the Soviets pulled out, leaving a vacuum that eventually created the Taliban. And a home for Al Qaeda.