TGLS wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 8:29 pm
Jonathan101 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:49 pm
Ronald Reagan did not create ISIS. One, ISIS is from Iraq and Syria (it's in the name, guys), and the Reagan government funded the Mujahideen in Afghanistan; and two, the Mujahideen were a bunch of different groups fighting the USSR, and if you are thinking of the Taliban those were created by Pakistan in 1994 to fight AGAINST the Mujahideen and establish a pro-Pakistani government in Afghanistan.
My understanding for the argument goes like this:
- Reagan funded the Mujahideen.
- al-Qaeda was part of the Mujahideen.
- Therefore, Reagan funded al-Qaeda.
- The Reagan administration funded certain elements of the Mujahideen
- The Mujahideen were a bunch of different groups with their own distinct ideologies and agendas, united mostly by their opposition to the Soviet invasion.
- The "Arab Afghans" like bin Laden did not receive any funding from the United States, who was aware of them and (correctly) considered them minor players
- Some of the groups that were supplied and funded shared their weapons with bin Laden and his group, but this was not the intention of the United States and the vast majority of the weapons did not fall into their hands anyway.
- The popular argument was "The US funded Al Qaeda and created the Taliban" and it dates back to after 9/11. It accuses the US of funding bin Laden and the Taliban directly (in the mistaken belief that the Mujahideen= Taliban) and even training future Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan; the reality is far more mundane and was just blown out of proportion by conspiracy theorists and critics of US foreign policy.
