Ed Stasiak <edstasiak1067@gmail.com> wrote:

>>Adam H. Kerman

>>Again: The origin of the United States misadventure in Afghanistan began
>>with US foreign policy changes under Carter and then the abandonment of
>>the Mujahideen to Saudi Wahhabi Islamic missionary clerics under Reagan.
>>These people radicalized into Wahhabism became the Taliban.

>>Zbigniew Brzezinski, with Carter's blessing, thought it would make the
>>Cold War go in the United States favor if just enough trouble could be
>>stirred up against the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan that the
>>Soviets could be tricked into invading.

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Afghan_War

>Afghanistan was allied with the Soviets for decades prior to their invasion
>to prop-up the pro-Soviet government, no "trickery" from the U.S. was needed.

Do you know what you are talking about? You're reading the wrong page.

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

Afghanistan had rival Communist parties broken down along sectarian
lines. Pashtun, from whom the Mujahadeen were recruited and later from
whom the Taliban originated, were Khalq. It was rural and didn't want to
cooperate with the more urban Parcham. The Soviet Union tried to force
them to cooperate. They wouldn't. It resulted in a coup led by Soviet
forces to topple one Communist government and put in a different one.

Brzezinski secretly may or may not have encouraged or at least helped to
play up the ethnic rivalries before and after the coup.

It was certainly a wacky coup what with the Soviet Union swapping one
supposed ally for another, although in truth, no one was terribly
enthusiastic about the alliance with the Soviet Union. The Khalq were
allegedly more Leninist than the Soviet Union was at the time but they
had no support among the masses. They had successfully recruited among
the Army, however.

Then Moscow probably assasinated one prominent politician and the two
factions briefly united fearing that their leaders were also targets.

Then the Khalq briefly held the government till their leader was
assasinated, definitely by the Soviet Union this time. This was 1978.
During this period, they purged the Army of rival Parchams.

The Soviets began with a small-scale invasion in 1978 to install a
Parcham government. It became a full-scale invasion by 1979.

Brezinski got what he wanted. How could it possibly go wrong?

Under Reagan, the supposed alliance with the Pashtun ended and we gave
them no further aid. Our friends the Saudis took over and introduced
Wahhabism, and that's what created the Taliban.