It's an article of faith on the left that the Bush administration has done nothing that has enhanced our security rather,its alleged blunders have only contributed to the number of Jihadist who want to attack us.
Empirically,however,something clearly has made us safer since 2001. Successful attacks on the U.S. and its interest overseas have not increased had been predicted,but instead dwindled to virtually nothing. Since 1988 there were dozens of attacks against America and its intrest all over the globe and at home.
After 9/11, nearly everyone expected more such attacks to follow.Instead, the pace of successful attacks against the United States slowed-- and decelerated futher after the on-set of the Iraq war. Here's the record:
2002: Diplomat murdered in Jordan, in an operation directed by Abu Mus ab al Zarqawi from Iraq.
2003: Suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia kill 36 Americans.
2004: No successful attacks by terrorist groups inside the U.S. or against American interest abroad.
2005,2006,2007: No successful terror attacks inside the U.S. or against U.S. INTREST ABRAORD
There are a number of reasons why our government's actions after 9/11 made us safer.
Depriving al Qaeda of its training grounds in Afghanistan.
Water boarding three top al Qaeda leaders gave us information we needed to head off plots and to disable three-quarters of al-Qaeda's leadership.
al Qaeda designation of Iraq as the central front in its war against the West-distracted terrorist from attacks on the U.S.
The gathering of Islamic terrorist loyalist in Iraq, where they have been decimated by US and Iraqi troops,have crippled their ability to launch attacks elsewhere.
Al Qaeda's brutal conduct{their usual conduct} in Iraq has destroyed its credibility in the Islamic world.
One can debate the relative importance of these and other factors. But based the historical record,the Bush administration obviously has done something since 2001 to dramatically improve oue security against terrorism. To fail to recognize this is to sow the seeds of greatly increased susceptibility to terrorist attacks in the next administration.
ATTENTION!!! the PACE OF SUCCESSFUL ATTACKS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.... SLOWED,after the Iraq War began.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 118
I think Bush did make this country safer... if Bush didnt we would of had more bombings and killings here... It wasnt safe before and this is how those idiots who wanted the virgins were able to pull this off.
Much of the current progress in the Middle East arena is, IMHO, due to the steadying hand of Robert Gates taking over Defense. There is much to be done, and the Afghan situation is currently showing how fragile that situation is, but he may have stopped a hemorrhage.
I wonder, if the US had focussed on stabilizing Afghanistan and not entered Iraq, wouldn't we probably be in a better situation today -- both there and here? Quoting Ecclesiaties 3:8b "a time for war and a time for peace" -- to this, I am not convinced Mr Bush paid much attention. His father knew when there would and when there wouldn't be support for dealing with Iraq and Sr. had a sense of respect for the "other". It seems to me, that is what the US has lost in the current administration's adventures ... and I hope we can get it back.
Terrorism is labeled that by the beholder. There are Iraqis who believe the US in their nation is a form of terrorism. Notable in the definition is "us versus them".
The US (we) have not been attacked, but we (americans) are so fearful of being attacked that we see many or most of "them" as "terrorists". Is that truly winning?
As for Afghanistan, we went in as part of a coalition, but few of our partners actually ponied up a fair share of troops, or insisted they be in "non-combat" roles. We overthrew the Taliban in a month, but the terrorists have a safe haven in Waziristan, and other areas of Pakistan. More US troops would not have made much of a difference, though that point is debatable.
Have we done everything right? By no means, the Patriot Act was wrong-we didn't use a declaration of war to avoid all this backsliding in Congress, Bush/DOD mismanaged the move into Iraq by laagering instead of moving out after guerillas/terrorists, violating habeas corpus with Jose Padilla was dead wrong-US citizen, thats what the court system was for, the President should have gone to the people quickly and continually during the war instead of letting the media shape opinion, very late in reinforcing US forces in both Afghanistan/Iraq instead of trying to do the job on the cheap...
Its been a long and bloody road, we'll see if we can secure this come January. My opinion, Obama is going to do some serious backsliding but who knows.
Look at the last century... the most brutal war & ppl killed were in wars by us (whites & Christians) but we r quick to call others who r not like as barbarians. No doubt these terrorist have killed numerous ppl... but if we have count the number of ppl we have killed worldwide in the same time.. the terrorists share is drop in the bucket.
It doesn't mean we should not deal with the problem, we need to finish them off. but it also means we need look in our foreign policy & actions and what harm it causes to others.
As for mankind killing each other...I think it goes back further than 1400 years. Recorded history is longer than that and those records speak of wars in the Mesopatemian (sic) valleys. The point is valid tho, mankind will keep killing because deep down..we are animals and not often enough rational.
Did I miss this memo? Do you have a source that says the Democrats want to dismantle our military defense?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings
Up above in the comment stream we have another example of a horse's - s- claiming that they got something from the horse's mouth. You know it would worry me that you had support like that for your cause. I think that is pushing so many people in the opposite direction that it isn't even funny! well actually for me and many others it is hysterical but for those that believe in a cause that this person is trying to push. I would worry that more harm than good is being done.
I mean even those on the other side have to see how totally ridiculous it is!!!
All I can say is I LOVE IT!!!! Every time that the word is spoken by this person I think Obama picks up at least one more vote!!!
Spain is one of our allies also aren't they?
Saudi Arabia, May 1: 2004 Yanbu attack kills six Westerners and one Saudi
Why hasnt Bin Laden been captured?
How many attacks were there before 9/11? On US soil.
I give Bush no credit for keeping us safe. He doesnt deserve any.
Iraq, July 18, 2006: Car bombing near a Shiite shrine in Kufa kills 53 and injures 103.[9]
January–February: 2007 United Kingdom letter bombs.
February: 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq.
[21]
[26]
April 14 th 2007 Suicide car bomb kills 65 people and injure 100 in Karbala, Iraq.
[27]
April 14th 2007 Two suicide bombers explode near the American Language Center in Casablanca, Morocco; one person is injured.
April 18th 2007 A series of explosions kills 198 people and injures 251 in Baghdad, Iraq.
[58] Eight men are arrested, one Glasgow suspect is critically burned. One of the five men could be an associate of Dhiren Bharot, a high-level Al-Qaeda operative. Authorities say the London bombs could have caused "significant loss of life."[59][60] Police link the two incidents to the same two people.[61]
Nick, I don't think "Spanglish" does in justice. "Jibberishinese" is more like it.
So since I was not being mean spirited or anything and you choose to call me names, how is it that I am "childish"? Didn't mean to get your knickers all in a twist there Mickey. Sorry that your feelings were hurt.
I say, let the terrorists keep blowing up themselves, eventually, there won't be anymore terrorists.
Micky D.....ignore The Bob, he's only giving you more points whilst he spouts. funny he brings up the UK's 7-7 attack..............
Sorry Micky about the mis-spelling, although there is a huge difference in mis-spelling and skipping a letter because you are having keyboard problems, but since you aren't chidish (childish?) I am glad that you didn't bring that up at all! I wouldn't want to have to go into the mis-spellings of so many words here and be chidish too.
You are right about one thing though, our brave troops are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Now that they have been given armor plating and all of that good stuff that they didn't have when Rummy, Dickie and Georgie sent them in there to begin with.
Can you please tell me of all of the attacks under Billy's watch? I don't remember them all that well? Would you mind naming them factually like I did here? Wow Billy found three chances to kill Bin Laden? I didn't know that!! Here we are seven years after 9-11 and GWB hasn't found one!!!!!!
THe "war is won" Micky? WOW, I didn't get that memo!! Did anyone tell Bush and McCain that it's over?
Nice try though!
What happens in Crawford STAYS in Crawford.
Oh, my Prince, LET'S MAKE A DEAL! Why
was Dick Cheney over in Saudi at the time of 9/11?
Of course, it was all done PERFECTLY! We never went after Osama bin Laden -- a citizen of Saudi Arabia. We went after a crippled Saddam Hussein! How BRILLIANT.
Allies know how to stick together, while the "We the People" snore away!
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
In the words of the BRILLIANT poet and musician, Gil Scott-Heron:
"Must be something"
You are most always wrong , but you at least allow discussion.
I salute you sir , now don't disappoint and turn into carol the insane ( wouldn't know the truth is it bit her) l.
vickey w, Jun 18, 2008, 7:17pm EDT
Has anyone seen Obama's new ads where he is sitting with his white grandparents, than all of those pictures with his white mom and also where he gives them all so much credit for how good of a man he has become today and that he is only about 4 months away from winning the country's and maybe the world's most respected and highest office? Or at least it used to be that before Gee Willy Bush took over and made it into the biggest laughing stock it has ever been considered in it's history.
Osama bin Laden has been called America's most wanted terrorist suspect at least since the bombing in 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
(Footnote: 1998 to 2000 Billy Clinton had three shots at him according to Micky D, 8 years since then, GWB hasn't been anywhere near the man)
The U.S. State Department said bin Laden is "one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world." ;footnote: due to his vast riches given to him and his family from motly being paid for building contracts by the good friend of GWB, the Saudi Royal Family. The same Saudi Arabia that is where 13 of the 19, 9-11 Terrorists came from. None came from Iraq!
His code name, "The Contractor," is maybe the best indicator of bin Laden's link to terrorism. Officials in many countries including the United States say that bin Laden's money has paid for attacks in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His personal wealth is estimated at $250 million US.
Osama bin Laden is believed to be the youngest of 24 brothers in a family that came from Yemen and built up one of the largest construction companies in the Arab world, Bin Laden Group, an empire based in the Saudi city of Jidda that made its fortune in building projects for the Saudi royal family.
(Footnote: Bin Laden's $250 million personal wealth, used to support terrorism all over the world was mostly given to him by Saudi Royal Family and their building contracts. See above pictures from Lady N. That showshow close our president Georgie boy is with said Saudi Royal Family)
As a teenager and a young man, Osama bin Laden was reported to be a typical Saudi of his generation, a bit of a playboy who used his family fortune to have fun outside of Saudi Arabia in Europe and the Gulf states.
The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1979 changed bin Laden's life. Like many young Islamists, he went to Afghanistan to help fight the invaders, to take part in the jihad against the infidel Soviets. (Footnote, that little conflict was the one where Ronnie Reagan heavily armed the "resistance fighters". Said Resistance fighters defeat a boneheaded Soviet Army who fights on home turf of Afganistan Resistance fighters and gets hammered while they are also falling apart INTERNALLY back in their own homeland. Said Resistance fighters go on to form Al Queda, lead by Osama Bin Laden and also Taliban who is large Islamic rebel group also responsible for terrorism.)
Bin Laden apparently received training from the CIA, which was backing the Afghan holy warriors – the mujahedeen – who were tying down Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Footnote: CIA Lead by Daddy Georgie Bush and successors with full blessing Of Ronnie RayGun train Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden in convert combat ops. Very similar to terrorism type of attacks. throw in same training for Taliban and Osama's Mujahedeen who later make up the elite members of Al Queda)
He gave the family money and his own expertise gleaned from the family business to MAK, Maktab al-Khidimat, which recruited young Muslim men from around the world. He also used his fortune to help buy equipment for the Afghan resistance. (Footnote: see above footnote on where that money came from and that GWB holds the people that give that money to Osama as some of his dearest friends. In fact on 9-11 after the deaths of over 3000 innocent Americans GWB flies Bin Laden's Family back to Saudi Arabia to get them out of harms way (has anyone ever thought how much of a bargaining chip that could have been if we held onto Osama's Family? nah!!) GWB gets full clearance from his friends the royal family of Saudi Arabia to fly his friends the Bin Laden family back to their home land. One of a very few planes that were permitted to fly for days after 9-11-01. Full military escort is given to the Bin laden family plane to "protect them" since they are such good friends of the USA, even if their "son,brother,father,uncle" was just the mastermind behind the death of 3000 Americans.
In 1984, he helped Abdullah Azzam, founder of the Pakistani "Office of Services," establish training camps across the border in Afghanistan. The 'Office of Services' goal was to recruit and train Muslim volunteers. Bin Laden provided financial support and handling of military affairs. Two years later, in 1986, Bin Laden established his own training camp for Persian Gulf Arabs called al Masadah, or the Lion's Den. (footnote, could the president of this country have stopped him then, before his power was beyond control? Who was that President? Ronnie Ray Gun then two years later Daddy Bush. Or was the CIA still arming and training his "Holy Warriors" with the full blessing of the president of the USA?
In 1988, as the Soviet occupation faltered in Afghanistan, Bin Laden turned to a global crusade. He founded the group called Al-Queda, Arabic for "The Base". According to one report from the CIA in 2001, al-Qaeda had at least 5,000 trained militants, who created cells in 50 countries. The purpose of these camps was to take militants from around the world and shape them into an international network that would bring all Muslims under a militant version of Islamic law. (footnote: started this organization in 1988 and CIA told the then president all about it. Did he even attempt to stop it then? 2001 GWB is in office. CIA again says that Osama now has bases in 50 countries and 5000 Holy warriors who had gotten their start years ago with the blessing of Ronald RayGun and Daddy Bush. CIA also tells GWB on Several occasions that Bin Laden is determined to carry out a major attack on US soil and that it is imminent and will be coming soon. Since the CIA knew all of this, did they also know where Bin Laden was? If so why didn't GWB go after him before 9-11? Well, that probably wouldn't have mattered anyway since it is 7 years since then and GWB still hasn't found him. Meanwhile his family is still firmly entrenched in Saudi Arabia, still doing business with Saudi Royal family and Saudi Royal family are STILL considered valuable and honored friends of the GWB administration)
In 1989, the collapsing Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to join his family's construction company. He kept up his contacts with al-Qaeda. (footnote, went back to Saudi Arabia and used his CIA, Ronny RayGun, Daddy Bush training to strengthen his Terrorist organization that did not even exist before Ronnie and Daddy Bush heavily armed them, sold them major weapontry when they weren't just giving it to them and trained them in the best ways to fight covert operations and do the most damage with the fewest people.)
In 1991, bin Laden moved the headquarters of al-Qaeda to Sudan, where a militant Islamic government had come to power. In 1993, a bomb exploded in an underground parking garage at the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people and injuring another 1,000. The attack was linked to al-Qaeda. (footnote; Attack on American soil by American trained Terrorists kills six people in the infancy of the Bill Clinton years and is carried out by terrorists trained to be that way during the Ronald Reagan, Daddy Bush years. Please note only 6 deaths. Still a tragic loss of American life at the hands of CIA trained terrorists but the worse is still to come)
In 1994, Saudi Arabia stripped bin Laden of citizenship for alleged terrorist links and his family disavowed him, at least publicly. (Footnote for "Carol the I wouldn't know the truth if it bit me detector") "stripped Bin Laden of his citizenship" says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Criminal Charges or execution should he return. Family disavows him "Publicly" while it was still well known that they had contact with him through those years. Also widely speculated that he has RETURNED to SAUDI ARABIA many times since 9-11-01 secretly to visit family? Family has very tight connections with Saudi Royal Family, Saudi Royal Family has very friendly relationship with GWB and Dickie boy, who just may have actually been in Saudi Arabia on 9-11-01. This one is just an opinion but (actually more of a question) does anyone think that someone as huge as a figurehead like Osama could actually come back into Saudi Arabia and the Royal Family NOT know about it? If they did and they are such good friends with GWB and Dickie, don't you think they should have told him that Bin Laden was there?
Let's "fast forward" to 9-11-01. GWB is now president of the USA and has been warned several times by many offices of his administration and the CIA (who probably knows him best, since they trained him) that Osama is determined to attack on American soil and that it will be soon. GWB ignores said warnings and goes on with "screwing the country" business as usual. Osama attacks the WTC and the Pentagon and would have attacked the Capitol Building if not for some brave average American citizens While GWB has a third grader help him read a complicated book. He is informed of this and sits there "dumbfounded" for minutes while the country is in a state of chaos and looking for leadership. Maybe still not believing that it was going to happen or in fact had happened that Osama had carried out what many senior well trained Government officials had been telling GWB he would be carrying out and GWB ignored them through all of those warnings. OVER 3000 thousand Americans die in those first days and who knows how many since then from the aftereffects of this attack that happened on his watch and that he had been told countless times was going to happen!! (6 in the infancy of the Billy BJ {thanks for that intelligent well thought out name, Micky} over 3000, nine months into the GWB years)
Fast forward two more years, GWB goes against public opinion and the UN, lies to Congress about WMDs to get them to agree with him and attacks a country to "fight the terrorists there, so they don't come here". Unfortunately that country never had any WMD's that GWB said they did at that time and also did not have any terrorists there until after he authorized them being attacked.
Fast forward five more years later, more than 4000 brave troops have died in that country that was no threat to us whatsoever. Countless others have been maimed both physically and mentally. Depending on who you listen to the war there either is or isn't going well and in fact can change in a heartbeat with more terrorist attacks by the terrorists that were not there before 2003.
No one can say with any certainty when this war will be going well enough that we can turn this country back over to the people that we have now been training for years to defend their own country and they are still buffons who can't protect an outhouse let alone a country. No One can say with any certainty when we will be able to pull our troops out of there before any more die. The Republican candidate for President (also known as "Bush Lite") first says we could be there for 100 years then when pressed on that statement cleans it up by saying that doesn't mean that there will be active combat there for those 100 years. (indulge me with a question here again please, If we are not fighting a given enemy, on a given front as we were in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam, than how can we say what exactly is meant by active combat and when we could stop it, if we do not even know exactly what it is?)
Gas prices nation wide are over $4.00 per gallon, many people that were reasonably well off in the recent past (middle class) are now losing their homes to foreclosure at record rates. Job loss is growing by the day. The country is on the brink of recession if not already in one. The war that "was not about oil, but about defeating the terrorists there, instead of here" is still going on, but yet the five biggest oil companies in the world have been given exclusive no-bid contractual rights to all of the oil fields in that country where oil had nothing to do with the war. Three of these oil companies have close ties with the Bush White House and Halliburton. Billions of dollars that could have righted this country's economy in a heartbeat went to fight that war that has now given billions upon billions maybe trillions in oil rights to five aready very rich companies only who never had TO BID at all. Our President's famly and our president himself just happens to have been in the oil business for years and our president more than likely will return to that business in 6 months when he thankfully for all of us finally leaves the White House. His Vice President after leaving office has every right to return to his previous position as CEO of Halliburton without violating any laws. Halliburton just happens by some strange coincidence is the company that was given billions in war service contracts in that war not about oil in Iraq without bidding for them at all. This country is now looked at unfavorably by most of the world for what the Bush administration has done or condoned for the past eight years. The richest 5% in this country have gotten much richer in the last eight years while the average citizen has struggled to survive and with inflation taken into consideration is actually making less than they were a few years ago. Even with those fantastic "tax cuts" that benefitted ALL of us.
The environment is a mess and after 7-1/2 years of virtually not even acknowledging the existence of Global Warming or an evironmental crisis our president now says that he can get an accord that will save us from a polluted future before he leaves office.
After 7 years of not catching the world's most vicious and evil terrorist our illustrious president is now quoted as saying that he can "catch him" before he leaves office!
After watching the Middle East relations between Israel and all of the Arab Countries disintegrate to the point where a few Arabic Mad Men are saying they will wipe Israel off of "the face of the map" our SUPERPRESIDENT now says that "before I leave office I think that I can acheive a completly sustainable peace in the Middle East"
You ask in this article are we safer than we were before 9-11 because of what GWB has done? Well I have to say in my "humble opinion" and based on many FACTS I would have to answer that with a resounding HELL NO!!!
Anyone else care to vote? The floor is open!!
Peace to all!
I think I may just make this into an article instead of a comment.
Cindy L., Jul 2, 2008, 3:40pm EDT
That is such a brillant idea and who really cares if they take a few thousand innocent people with them along the way? Wow, why didn't we think of this sooner. We give all of the Islamic Extremist bombs, let them blow themselves up and it ends the whole terrorism problem. I am calling the White House to tell them they have been going about it al wrong, trying to stop them is just counter productive it would seem! Those thousands of people that die along with them are just collateral damage so we can win this war. Heck, why don't we give them a nuke, put them all togeher in let's say a small place, hmmm. maybe London or some place like that.. They blow it up, kill maybe a couple of hundred thousand but they are all gone also! Freaking Brillant idea!!
How anyone can deny that we are safer now because of the war on terrorism is beyond me. If nothing was ever done, like the 8 years of hell under the regiem of Bubba, we'd all be dead now. Plain and simple. The terrorists have wanted to destroy us infedels for centuries. It's NOT us, it's THEM who want to kill, kill, kill. All they know is war and they glorify war. If any of you naysayers got your heads out of your butts, you'd see that.
You know Bob, for one who proclaims to be a "moderate" you sure sound like you're from the left. Nice job of making fun of someone's spelling,,,,,how do you know they aren't having a problem with their keyboard also? DA!
Sorry though that Parts of the above article were taken from several different sites and not quoted word for word. So there were too many sources to quote. But since the majority of the article is written by me and the facts are just used as a pointo f reference, I'll let it stand as it is.
Do you really think Cindy that your opinion on whether I am a liberat,e a moderate, a conservative or a "trool in my miserable lair" means anything to me? As I said above, "quite frankly Cindy, you bore the hell out of me"! Now your bitterness is starting to show much more and I am still laughing!!
Oh and just for the record Cindy, when the letters are all scrambled or just plain wrong all together instead of missing, I don't think it's a keyboard problem. But hey, you are so intelligent and know more than the rest of the world, so you may just be RIGHT!!
How anyone can deny anything that you say or believ is beyond you isn't it Cindy? But since you want to know how anyone can deny the CLAIM that we are safer, let me ask this; where is your PROOF of that? Is it because of the lack of terrorist attacks against Americans and American interests? See the 50 or more incidents above to refute that being true. Is it because there thankfully hasn't been another 9-11 in the last seven years? Well if that's the case how long was it before 9-11 that there was a previous attack of that magnitude? Pearl Harbor in 1941 maybe?
Peace Cindy, have a nice holiday celebrating America's Independence while you are over there in England. I know I will be enjoying myself with interesting, caring, intelligent warm people. Not wasting my time with someone like you that once again I have to say; quite frankly your same old tired pathetic rhetoric bores the hell out of me! Now that doesn't make you a bad person with your "head up your butt", but it just makes you a person that I have absolutley no interest in hearing you repeat the same old crap that you have ben saying since we started talking on here.
"The terrorists have wanted to destroy us infedels for centuries. It's NOT us, it's THEM who want to kill, kill, kill. All they know is war and they glorify war." Given credit where credit is due, I am quoting Cindy L. with the above words. In an article where it is suggested that we are safer now than we were years ago Cindy talks about the infedels (infidels maybe?) that have been stalked by terrorists for centuries, but asserts that we are "safer now". So did these people that have been around "for centuries" just disappear all of a sudden? I didn't get that memo, did anyone else?
Peace Cindy, have yourself a great weekend!
a belief that capitalism is based on the exploitation of workers by the owners of capital
a belief that people's consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects the dominant ideology which is in turn shaped by material conditions and relations of production
an understanding of class in terms of differing relations of production, and as a particular position within such relations
an understanding of material conditions and social relations as historically malleable
a view of history according to which class struggle, the evolving conflict between classes with opposing interests, structures each historical period and drives historical change
a belief that this dialectical historical process will ultimately result in a replacement of the current class structure of society with a system that manages society for the good of all, resulting in the dissolution of the class structure and its support (more often than not including the nation state)
Bob, you did a great job of cutting and pasting the OBL article....you should credit the person who wrote it. You do such a great job of quoting everyone else.
Cindy L., Jul 3, 2008, 5:36am EDT
Oh and Cindy, this one is a cut and paste. Just wanted to let you know that, so you don't make a fool out of yourself again by not knowing which ones are and which ones aren't! Thanks for the compliment though on thinking that my large comment up there was a "cut and paste" from somewhere else. It's good to see that even you can recognize intelligent writing when you see it. The author (me) thanks you!!
As always`you never disappoint the sane folks among us carol.l
On of them charter schools???
Look for my article soon, on the story I read today about GWB tearing up many enviromental regulations in his final six months in office and causing so much more pollution and damage than he already has because he wants to kiss the ass of big business just a bit more before he leaves office. I guess he is saying "the hell with the air that people breathe. Clean air is overrated, when there is a buck to be made in less clean air standards."
The Taliban initially had enormous goodwill from Afghans weary of the corruption, brutality and incessant fighting of Mujahideen warlords. Two contrasting narratives of the beginnings of the Taliban are that the rape and murder of boys and girls from a family traveling to Kandahar or a similar outrage by Mujahideen bandits sparked Mullah Omar and his students to vow to rid Afghanistan of these criminals. The other is that the Pakistan-based truck shipping mafia known as the "Afghanistan Transit Trade" and their allies in the Pakistan government, trained, armed and financed the Taliban to clear the southern road across Afghanistan to the Central Asian Republics of extortionate bandit gangs.
Though there is no evidence that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, some basis for military support of the Taliban was provided when, in the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence Agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets. Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. The U.S. poured funds and arms into Afghanistan and "by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war".
The Taliban were based in the Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan regions, and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns. They received training and arms from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia as well as other Middle Eastern countries who had been recruited by the U.S. to thwart the Soviet invasion of this region
BTW, for those of you who want to blame Reagan,since Bob indicated CIA involvement with several members of what BECAME the Taliban, I HIGHLY recommend you read the book Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile.
Wilson was a Texas DEMOCRAT who almost single handedly led the DEMOCRAT controlled congress into involvement in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Yes, he saw Afghanistan as a U.S. SECURITY issue in the 80's. The book is very well written and is pretty damn honest about the man, good and bad.You will see a lot of names you recognize from current and recent Iraq debates, most of them democrats who had no problem with us being involved in Afghanistan, even if they didn't really understand it.
Remember to adjust the dollar values WAY up for inflation.