>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.

I purposely didn't bring up the "fact" that the CIA trained the Taliban and Al-Qaida because it wasn't relevant to this discussion. Period. And never did I say anywhere that the Taliban or Al-Quaida were "wonderful people", nor was it implied. I merely stated fact. But now that you've brought it up, let me be the first to point out that contrary to what you think, the CIA didn't create the Taliban. Or Al-Quaida. The CIA's chief role was weapons supply. It was left to the ISI (Pakistan intelligence) to train them (though the CIA probably did have some role in the actual training). What I can tell you is that the CIA was not out there in Afghanistan creating religious schools on the border - Pakistan was. The fact of the matter is that the Taliban and Al-Quaida are creations of the ISI. It is not the CIA's monster, but Pakistan's. How else can you explain the religious fanaticism of these members - you think the CIA were supplying imams and copies of the Koran to the ISI? More like Stinger missiles.

jon