Our State department was sending the Mujahedeen junk (WWI rifles, etc.) at first. Occasionally, they’d get lucky from a mountain. Eventually Reagan, or someone close enough to him, found out what was going on. Once the Afghanis got their mitts on Stingers, the Soviets were losing about one chopper a day. Very asymmetrical warfare.
Reagan’s genius was giving the Afghanis the means to fight their own war, to protect their own land and people.
An unintended consequence was the formation of a global radical jihadist movement that spawned the Taliban, AQ, and now ISIS.
“Reagan’s genius was giving the Afghanis the means to fight their own war, to protect their own land and people.”
Exactly what we should be doing today. We do not need to send any of our fighting men to those places unless they are willing to fight as hard as we do/did.
Oh yeah. How did funding and training mujaheddin work out?
Besides, Reagan continued a Jimmy Carter program.
The biggest f*** up by any CIC in history.
These same mujaheddin have spread throughout the world. Yeah, heap praise on that . Blow back , baby.
Suggested reading materiel.
I love the quote from Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, concerned about the growing strength of the Islamist movement, told President George H. W. Bush, "You are creating a Frankenstein."
Reagans' blunder. We should have butted out. Islamists were a bigger potential problem than The USSR.