XBoxBoy: Fair enough. Let me clarify what I meant. I do NOT believe that Carter and the CIA had a master plan to draw the Soviets into Afghanistan. I DO believe that once the Russians were there, we did our utmost to bleed them white. Having worked with SOF guys who supplied the Muj fighters with Stinger missiles (and gave them the know-how to use them) I know that we were heavily involved in the area and the effort.
Do I think we bailed out after the Russians did? Sadly, yes I do.
I don’t give Carter any credit, because he deserves none. I think Charlie Wilson is a stud, as I believe many of the individual field officers (CIA) and SOF guys were as well. I think the situation was driven by the expedient issues at the time and, once the objective was achieved, we took off.
I get irritated whenever I hear the mantra start about an “unwarranted war”, and the presumption of some perfidious neocon plot to rule the world. In that part of the world, at that time, it was basically a continuation of “The Great Game” started by the British 150 years earlier. We were seeking to head off Soviet influence, maintain an acceptable balance of power, and protect the free flow of oil.
I think Carter did us irreparable harm in both that part of the world, and in dealing with the Soviet threat, specifically the various wars by proxy that the Russians were waging at the time.
