According to this interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the CIA’s intervention in Afghanistan preceded the 1979 Soviet invasion. This decision of the Carter Administration in 1979 to intervene and destabilise Afghanistan is the root cause of Afghanistan’s destruction as a nation.
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CIA’s INTERVENTION IN AFGHANISTAN
Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,
Former President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser
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Translated from French by Bill Blum
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Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahideen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
Brzezinski:: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?
Brzezinski:: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
Brzezinski:: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski:: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
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Copyright, Le Nouvel Observateur and Bill Blum.
Source: Translation cross posted
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Wonders of Pakistan 
Yes, this is the piece I’ve read several times before that justifies my position on Extremism. WE created it, we fomented it, and now we rail against it.
All a fraud. All to manage continued war for ungodly profits at the expense of innocent civilians.
Yes, this is a Great Game. A game. We are the chess pieces. Our children are dying so they can play games.
Jeff,
Its very true, very right and very well said. It’s indeed THE GREAT GAME BEING REPLAYED. As you rightly say, we the people are the chess pieces and men like Zbig, Bush, Cheney and now Obama who to my mind is again a puppet of the military industry complex [as most of his predecessors have been] are playing their game at the cost of our youth. I think there is a dire need to start a worldwide campaign for “NO MORE WARS” for which we need to mobilize the public opinion on every platform that we are working or active in.
Yes, NO WAR CAMPAIGN is urgently needed but its success solely depends on our ability to convince the people in our close proximity and contact that nonviolence is the only means to create a world opinion against the culprits .The armed resistance will only lead to disaster .
@ Tewari,
It’s very difficult to declare who is culprit and who is not. Hero of one party is terrorist of the other. I would suggest you please read the 4 posts that we put up on this blog. These are based on a lecture by late Eqbal Ahmad. Titled as “TERRORISM: THEIRS AND OURS” the posts make it amply clear why is one, a culprit [a terrorist] in the eyes of one party but its something opposite in the eyes of the other party.
Or for one party he is a freedom fighter once it serves the purpose of its sponsor/s, but when it doesn’t, the same party declares him a ‘terrorist’. Before 9/11 US mainstream media always termed the Kahmiris fighting against India as freedom fighters but after 9/11 they became terrorists. Afghans before the Soviet’s defeat were Mujahideen fighting for the freedom of Afghanistan but after 9/11 through a single stroke of GW Bush’s pen were declared terrorists. So with changing situation definitions change. Do read that series Dr. Tewari. Though the lecture dates back to 1999 but still what the late Pakistani professor said 11 years before, is valid even today.
I agree that armed resistance will lead to disaster. Armed resistance is exactly what these people want to continue fighting their wars.
Nayyar, please watch this video of a CIA agent explaining some facts about the US and how to gain control over these things. This blog and many more like it are the answer.
The answer lies here….._What Mr.Jha has suggested is the only path to realise the goal of AMAN KI ASHA campaign .Poor Peter faild to analyse the situations and dared to keep India and Pak on equal footing .There exist a lot of misconceptions about India in Pakistan .In contrast to it we have clear picture of Pakistan in almost every city in India .So don’t be in hurry to solve the watery misconceptions ,.Come on to solve the solid misconceptions first… Mind it, there exist SAARC between us and not the USA, .as stated in a recent post. published in this blog .
@ jeff,..Yes , I too know that Our TU TU , mAI MAI is so valuable.
Yes, today a Freedom Fighter, tomorrow a Terrorist.
So WHO is the real Terrorist?
I think the USA, CIA and Mossad, MI5, ISI, RAW, these are the real Terrorists.
All these agencies are state acters and therefore can not be compared with nonstate acters namely the Islamic terrorists .
Yes, Dr. Tewari but these are the state actors that fund and agitate the non-state actors.
@ jeff ,yes, they fund and agitate them to achieve cirtain specific purpose thereafter the same is utilised by others to create problem in the neighbouring country on the name of religion making things more complicated . .
The Pakistanis should have sided with their Muslim brethren in the USSR. But they betrayed them and helped the CIA to defeat the Soviets. The demise of the USSR opened the gates of Afghanistan for your and Americans’ entry there, so its for you to face the music there in Afghanistan as well as in FATA.