History lesson for the intentionally uninformed:
After 9-11, the US wanted to hunt down BinLaden in Afgan. They used the Norther Alliance [”NA”] - remember them? Fought for a year and crushed organized resistance for the American occupation. The NA was RUSSIAN trained and led by RUSSIAN officers. Why did they help? Because Bush 1 begged Putin for that help, and against his own advisors Putin granted that help. What did US do? Gave the Putin the middle finger and expanded NATO and scuttled the ABM treaty. Betrayal #1.
Ukeland, a country that never existed before Stalin created it in the ‘40’s and that has a per capita income of $4,000/year, built up the best trained, best equipped and 2nd largest army in Europe, 2nd only to Russia, all starting in the ‘90’s. How? Salaries of their massive armies, advanced weapons, training was all given by NATO. On the russkie border. Held elections in 2014 after the prior gov was overthrown, disqualified all russian votes in the now captured areas of Uke, and launched a campaign to cleanse the region of ethnic russians. NATO then prepped Uke land for membership, with the intention of putting NATO nukes within 100 miles of Moscow. When the russkies tried the same in 1967 in Cuba, the US first tried invading, lost, then blockaded russian ships, threatening to sink them if they continued. But the russkies should not have the same buffer from western weapons as we demanded of them. Betrayal #2.
Russkies went diplomatic, agreeing to 2 different treaties with Uke, guaranteed by ‘western powers’ France and Germany but not the US. The treaties were then ignored and those western powers now gloat they lied and did it only to give Uke ‘time’ to arm up for war against russia. Betrayal #3.
OK russiaphobes, you’ll call me names, but none of you can argue the russkies have any reason to believe a word the west has to say. The west created and armed Uke specifically to go to war with russia, the russians naively thought they could negotiate their way out, discovered that was impossible, and now you’re bitching because it turns out the russkies are far more formidable and resilient than your fantasies about it.
The Northern Alliance was trained by the US and UK. They were one of the groups supplied by Operation Cyclone. They were among the most effective fighters against Russia and remained friends of the US, with their leader Ahmad Shah Massoud warning America about the information he had regarding the upcoming 9/11 attacks and subsequently getting assassinated by Al-Qaeda for that.
During Operation Cyclone, they faced difficulties because Pakistan didn’t like them and attempted to withhold supplies. As a result, the US funneled supplies and training through the UK, which, despite experiencing a severe economic crisis in the 80s and being unable to afford much material on its own, had many operatives with area knowledge.