> > The CIA's involvement in Afghanistan was definitely a contributing factor to the winning of that war, which in turn was a contributing factor to the collapse of the USSR. ... snip ...
> >
> > jon
>
> Of course you are overlooking the fact that the unintended consequence was the training of a group of people who have become the Taliban and Al-Qaida who were such "wonderful" people then and are such "awful" people now. Give me a break. The ends do not justify the means.

Note the term "unintended" in your post, Rob J D. The U.S. didn't get involved in that conflict with the mindset of "Oh, let's help terrorists." We were trying to stop the Soviet regime from INVADING another country. Would the correct course of action been to simply do nothing, and let the Soviets have Afghanistan?

Oh, wait, I know. We should have let the Soviets do whatever the hell they wanted and then asked them really nicely to stop. I'm sure that would have worked. How about you give ME a break?

Stephen