As the world marks ten years of war in Afghanistan, it is instructive to remember, as Michel Chossudovsky has observed, that the war started long before, in 1979, when the United States sponsored an insurgency against the Afghan government. Chossudovsky calls it “genocide”; I think he’s understating the situation.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter, known these days for good works such as Habitat for Humanity and defending Palestinian rights (oh the irony!!), on the advice of Zbigniew Brezinski, turned the CIA loose upon the Afghans, trained and bankrolled the Mujaheddin and drew the Russians into a bloody quagmire as it sought, unsuccessfully, to defend the progressive, pro-Soviet Afghan government.
The rest, as they say, is history.
As an antidote to main-stream media mythologizing, take 20 minutes to watch this excellent report by James Corbett at Global Research TV. Then curse the war criminals and mourn the lives needlessly sacrificed to satisfy imperial greed. Then organize.
Paul S. Graham 