Taliban Gates' legacy

[Just-plain-Kathy]

Letter to the editor
by Brian Minerly
of Bloomingburg, NY

Donald Rumsfeld's resignation from the post of secretary of defense has finally been accepted by George W. Bush, a week after Bush lied to the press and the nation about it. His choice of successor, however, is a whopper: Robert Gates. For those of us who weren't paying attention during the 1970s and '80s (I was going to school), the name may not ring any bells. But a review of history raises some disturbing questions.

Gates published a book in 1996 titled "From the Shadows." In it, he outlined how the U.S. government funded the insurgency in Afghanistan to the tune of billions of dollars, achieving their goal of bogging down the Soviet Union into a Vietnam-like quagmire.

Who are the insurgents that received this money to arm themselves and fight against the Soviets? You know them as the Taliban, and one of their key leaders was none other than Osama bin Laden. Gates was instrumental in arming and, more importantly, training in military tactics the people who now threaten our national security.

Should a man who helped fund and train the greatest threat to our nation be given the job of leading our military against that threat? Hasn't Gates done enough damage?

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/OPINION/611140304/-1/OPINION03

[noahmijo]

1. Taliban didn't exist during the Soviet-Afghan war

There were Islamic extremists yes, however officially there was no Taliban. It was a time when factions pretty much all held common ground in their fight against Soviet occupation, i.e. Islamic extremist or not they fought the soviet occupiers. The Pakistani ISI is the organization responsible for directing training the Mujahadeen while the US were major financial backers. People like Ahmed Shah Massoud (a principal player whom we helped finance in his fight against the Russians) were NOT taliban in fact he would come to lead the Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban and against bin Laden before he died in Sept 2001 (one day before 9/11 no less)


I'm just pointing this out because I don't want to see our side take the republican road and twist facts. I would prefer to use Gates' involvement in Iran-Contra than trying to link him to a group that didn't even officially exist till after the Soviet occupation ended.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

2. I thought the writer

was stating that the insurgents the US funded turned into the Taliban. :shrug:

[noahmijo]

3. Well the writer infers that they were Taliban at the time

I'm just pointing this out because not everyone the US funded was taliban-you could make the same argument that although alot of the mujahadeen that the US gave funding to eventually would become Taliban, but alot of those also went on to become UIF (United Islamic Front for Salvation of Afghanistan) or as we call them Northern Alliance as well.

If you ever want to dig deep on this issue check out a book called "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. That's the same book where I picked up the quote that I always recite for people who try to connect bin laden and saddam-"I want to fight Saddam an infidel I want to wage guerrilla war in Iraq" this was spoken to afghan scholar who spent time "conversing" with bin laden and this was during the Iraqi invasion of the Kuwait (which is what primarily set bin laden off on Saddam).