That Time Ronald Reagan Hosted Those 'Freedom Fighters' At The Oval Office

[FarCenter]

As the public debates some of the more controversial ways the US deals with foreign policy and safety, it's prudent to remember some of the less than fruitful foreign policy items where America invested its time and money.

This photograph is from 1983, when Reagan and the CIA were dancing around the idea of arming Mujahadin fighters in order to fight back against Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. The result was a well-armed, well-trained group of jihadis who resisted (some say defeated) the onslaught of superior Soviet weaponry.

Once the Soviets retreated, the U.S. lost interest and pulled the funding. Osama bin Laden took interest, and filled the vacuum, later fathering the Taliban.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/reagan-freedom-fighters-taliban-foreign-policy-2013-2

[Mnemosyne]

1. Mean old pos. No wonder the Taliban were so attractive to him. nt

[LeftInTX]

2. Kick

[progressoid]

3. Reagan: "These gentlemen are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers."

[thelordofhell]

4. Ronald Reagan

[Kath1]

5. History's been too kind to Reagan, IMHO.

I was in college when he was elected and it made me sick. I thought he was a mean-spirited, detestable and stupid man. My college roommates and I gave the TV the finger many a time when his face came on. He sowed the seeds for many of the problems we have now, from economics to foreign policy.

[Catherina]

6. I hate to be a party pooper but even my favorite President isn't immune

I don't know if they were ever received at the White House under Carter but this all started before Reagan. We were arming the Mujahadin fighters under Carter because Brzezinski was a Cold War hawk

That's suposedly Osama Bin Laden in the picture with President Carter's National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. I can't personally vouch for that because I just ran across the yesterday but they're all over the net.

Zbigniew Brzezinski: How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen


Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs "From the Shadows", that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

Brzezinski: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic (integrisme), having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
...

http://www.counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen/

[FarCenter]

7. My recollection is that Carter & Reagan thought Islamists were a bulwark against Godless commies

The view was expressed that god-fearing Christians and Muslims were natural allies against atheistic communists. Both Carter and Reagan were devout Christians and followed that line.

I think that the religious attitude also colored the US' policies towards other countries in the Middle East. The more westernized regimes were also more secular, as well as socialist, and therefore were disdained on religious grounds, while the theocratic monarchies were supported, with the exception of Iran.

[Catherina]

8. I was too young to follow all this at the time

so thanks for that information. Have you read ZB's "The Grand Chessboard"?

[Catherina]

9. You're not kidding!

I just watched a video of ZB talking to the Mujahideen and every other word out of his mouth was God God God, how God was blessing their struggle so it would succeed. Right down to a promise of how they were going to get their mosques back because their cause is right and God is on their side. I'm astounded.