Cross posted at Peace is Active
In the 1980's, the United States used the Pakistani military and intelligence services to funnel money, weapons and training to islamic militants in Pakistan who were then crossing the border to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Now, the United States is in Afghanistan. We are fighting islamic militants who are crossing the border from Pakistan. As the militants try to kill Americans in Afghanistan, they are using the same routes, weapons, and bases we once assisted them with.
"The Pakistani military and intelligence services have for decades used religious parties as a convenient instrument to keep domestic political opponents at bay and for foreign policy adventures..."
"The religious parties recruited for the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan from the 1980s, when the Pakistani intelligence agencies ran the resistance by the mujahedeen and channeled money to them from the United States and Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Mr. Haqqani said."
http://www.nytimes.c...
We trained an entire generation of islamic militants. We helped them with training, weapons, and money in order to unleash their violence on the Soviet Union. Now their violence is being unleashed on us.
After the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, the islamic militants turned their attention against countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. These countries are supported by the United States. These countires have autocratic leaders who are growing rich by selling oil to Americans in return for great personal wealth and the US taxpayer assistance that helps them stay in power. The islamic militants want these countries to be run by religious leaders. The islamic militants declared war on these countries and they also declared war on the United States for their role in supporting these countries.
Then we have 9/11 and the story of how we used to support these islamic militants somehow got lost.
In order to solve this terrible cycle of violence and backlash, our president tells us we must increase the violence.
We have the ability to live in peace.