William Fisher

Though it happened just over 20 years ago, today’s media has forgotten that Afghanistan’s Taliban was largely the creation of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a Texas congressman, Cha-rles Wilson, who helped funnel billions of dollars in arms to “freedom fighters” like Osama. During the 1980s, Wilson was a member of a congressional appropriations sub-committee. In those days, the Mujahedeen were viewed by the US as “freedom fighters”, and were so named by the then President Ronald Reagan, who praised them for “defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability.” In that Cold War environment, chasing the Russians out of the country trumped all other considerations. From a few million dollars in the early 1980s, support for the resistance grew to about $750 million a year by the end of the decade. To help make his case, Wilson exploited one of the dec-ade’s scandals, the Iran-contra affair, arguing that Democrats who were voting to cut off funding for the contras in Nicaragua could de-monstrate their willingness to stand up to the Soviets by approving more money for the Afghan fighters.

Many Muslims from other countries volunteered to assist various Mujahedeen groups in Afghanistan, and gained significant experience in guerrilla warfare. On Feb. 15, 1989, the victory came. Thus, the largest covert operation in the CIA history ended. But in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2003 Grove/Atlantic), George Crile notes that the US-financed war against the Soviets in Afghanistan also helped create the political vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and Islamic extremists, who turned their deadly terrorism against the US on Sep 11, 2001. After the Soviet withdrawal, the CIA tried to buy back the wea-pons they had supplied, but were largely unsuccessful. When the Soviet Union pulled its troops out, however, the Mujahedeen did not establish a united government. Its members bro-ke into two loosely-aligned opposing factions, the Nort-hern Alliance and a radical splinter group known as the Taliban. In the ensuing civil war for control of the country, the Mujahedeen was ousted from power by the Taliban in 1996. The Mujahedeen regrouped as the Northern Alliance and in 2001 with US and international military aid, ousted the Taliban from power and formed a new government.

Bin Laden was a prominent Mujahedeen organiser and financier; his Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK, meaning Office of Services) funneled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the world into Afgh-anistan, with the assistance and support of the US, Pakistani, and Saudi governments. He broke away from the MAK in 1988, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the US invasion of that country, the brutal Taliban theocracy was effectively defeated — or at least dispersed. But its remnants nevertheless continue to battle the US and its coalition partners, and spell trouble for the fragile government of US-backed President Hamid Karzai, which is struggling to deal with the fragmented, warlord-based nature of Afghan society and the devastation of years of war and deprivation. Many believe the Wilson story is a perfect illustration of good intentions resulting in bad consequences. Wilson’s War succeeded in arming the very people responsible for the terrorist attacks in the US. — IPS