American+and+Taliban+Relationship

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 * Pre-Soviet Afghan War**
 *   The Cold War we were "fighting" against the Soviet Russia was less of a war and more closely related to tension between two different superpowers and competitiveness to come up with the better weapons and innovations.
 * Used much during the Cold War, were smaller proxy wars, or wars that result when two powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly.
 * The most influential proxy war was the Soviet Afghan war, in which the the US used Afghanistan as a third party to defeat the Russian in an attempt to end the Cold War.
 * Operation Cyclone**
 *  The code name for the U.S. CIA program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet was in Afghanistan
 * Used to supply the later known Taliban with weapons, funds, and training to defeat the Soviet.
 * Trained many of the Afghan rebels at Camp Peary in VA.
 * Jimmy Carter authorized aid to the mujahideen on July 3, 1979. Soviet Russia invaded Afghanistan Dec. 24, 1979.

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 * <span style="font-size: 260%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Afghans In Dealings with the US **
 * <span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Osama bin Laden, Gulbddin Hekmatyar and many current Taliban leaders

U.S. "Lends A Hand" <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: left;">
 * We begin giving money in 1978
 * Working with "opponents of the Afghan government" (Taliban; Hekmatyar)
 * CIA envoys stationed in Pakistan
 * Allowed bin Laden to pay zilch for basic weapons
 * Afghanistan is using simple weaponry, so we begin giving them hi-tech weapons (remote-controlled mines and bombs, sophisticated timers and explosives, Stinger Missiles
 * Developed textbooks for Afghan schoolchildren that were filled with violent images
 * Our contributions lead to their creation of nuclear weapons
 * Falsely certified that Pakistan didn't have nuclear weapons

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> **Charlie Wilson's War<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ** <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Charlie Wilson became House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense in 1980, meaning he was responsible for CIA funding and he raised the budget for the covert Afghanisten operation.
 * <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Gust Lascarois Avrakotos also played a role in the masive arming of Afghanistan's mujahideen in the 1980's in the Soviet war against Afghanistan.
 * <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Joanne Herring helped Afghan resistance fighters get the U.S. support and weapons by helping to persuade Wilson to up the covert Afghanistan operation budget.

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Why did the US Relationship with the Taliban Go Sour? <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 15pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="nekQo_m-KwE" height="344" width="425"
 * <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> US has always supported Israel, whom the Taliban despise.
 * <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Many Americans had a problem with the Taliban's oppression of women and protested.
 * <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> No one was happy with the bombings of the Buddhas.

Some Helpful Links: [|The Taliban and the US] [|Inside Osama bin Laden] [|How the CIA created Osama bin Laden] [|CIA Interview with Zbigniew Brezinski] [|Charlie Wilson] [|Complete Timeline of Soviet-Afghan War] (information from "U.S. Lends a Hand")