[cherry_tree]

>voting American here

>have never heard of anything even remotely similar

And therein lies the problem. What the parent said is something the USA has practiced in dozens of countries. For just a single example, operation cyclone had the USA arming separatist militias to fight against the Soviet afghan government. You may be familiar with one of these militia members:

>the most well-known Arab financier and militant of the group during this period was Osama bin Laden, who would later found al-Qaeda and mastermind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone

[OutOfHere]

I don't know why the above accurate comment is downvoted.

[Fnoord]

Historically it is correct, and the movie Rambo III even references to it (such movies are made with approval of US military).

Stuff like this happens all the time though. You give resources to the enemy of an enemy (temp. friend) and they may end up as your enemy with the demise of your common enemy. Ideal allies you have a lot in common with (shared values) which was true regarding Europe and USA last century.