Why did the US support the Taliban during the Soviet-Afghanistan war and now they condemn them?
Well, let’s see… Someone had to make the Mujaheddin (it means the holy ones or the anointed ones, by the way) wealthy. At the time, a few sage pundits noted that supporting an arch-religionist movement against the “accursed infidels” from the U.S.S.R. might be a mistake, but the Reagan administration ignored them. Out of that same bunch of “good fellows” came the Taliban, Al Quaeda, and our esteemed good friend, Osama Bin Laden. And of course, now, in those selfsame eyes, we have become the MAIN “accursed infidels”. I’ve always thought it strange that the ultra-right fringes of that movement choose to use a Latin word direct from the vocabulary of the Franks in the Crusades to describe their perceived religious enemies, but it seems to be a word which stuck in their memories. The fallacy with “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is that, more often that not, your enemy’s adversary is next in line at YOUR throat. Far be it from the far right to make those tiny distinctions! Same with
