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Yeah, that was entirely driven by US cold war politics. And it was smart work. They wanted to dissolve the Soviet Union and it worked.Interesting you bring up Afghanistan -
"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."
"The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border of Afghanistan, I wrote to President Jimmy 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 in Afghanistan, unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire."
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
One thing I will say about Brzezinski is that he saw the actual threats well. People asked why he focused on the Russian threat over a potential Islam threat, and he stated clearly that the Soviet Union proved an actual threat. Meanwhile Islam had over 1.5 billion followers and showed no clear threat.
We now look at the threat caused by Islamic extremism, but it's still nothing compared to the damage caused by the USSR or the US. The Arab countries unfortunately got stuck in the middle. And they are still suffering due to it.