Notes from the last time the U.S. goaded Russia into a war
Spoiler alert: Things are not what they seem
During the CIA’s holy war against the USSR in 1980s Afghanistan, the U.S-.trained and funded Mujahideen regularly captured Soviet soldiers, drugged them, and kept them in cages. A reporter from the Far Eastern Economic Review told of Soviet soldiers being killed, skinned, and hung in butchers’ shops.
“One captive,” he reported, “found himself the center of attraction in a game of buzkashi,” an Afghan form of polo using a headless goat as the ball. In this case, the Soviet soldier was used, alive. “He was literally torn to pieces,” said the reporter.
Yet another example of U.S. tax dollars at work.
In this brief video is Zbigniew Brzezinski — former U.S. National Security Advisor and one of the architects of America’s role in the USSR invasion of Afghanistan — doing what Americans do in these situations… making false promises:
Decades later, Brzezinski was a little more honest about his plans: “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 on Dec. 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was on 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.”
When Brzezinski was asked if he regretted anything about the CIA being on the ground in Afghanistan to make it more likely that the USSR would invade, exploiting the people of that nation, destabilizing an entire region, and laying the groundwork for Islamic fundamentalism, he replied:
“Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.”
Asked again about having any possible second thoughts on providing arms and advice to future groups like al-Qaida and the Taliban, Brzezinski snapped:
“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”
Teaming with Islamic fundamentalists in the 1980s. Arming Neo-Nazis today (click here for but one example). Please keep all this in mind before trusting what the nightly news is telling you about Ukraine (or anywhere).
