[kharms]

I'm quite sure that the US goal was not to arm Islamic extremists and topple the Afghan government, but rather to arm the resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. That they ended up being Islamic extremists was besides the point.

[skrebbel]

So "yeah we tried to arm the rebels but we didn't realize that they were extremist nutcases until they were swimming in rifles and rocket launchers"

You aren't really improving my confidence in American military strategy.

[jwhitlark]

Trading the Soviet Union for the Taliban was like trading stage 4 cancer for a bad cold. Even if one could perfectly foresee the results, it would have been criminally negligent to fail to do so. Trading an existential threat for a non-existential one is always a good deal.

[majewsky]

Wait, are we talking about the Taliban or ISIS?