Originally Posted by ibex

While I admire Brezezinski's stinging and well deserved criticism of the Bush administration's foreign policy blunders, particularly the Iraq war, let's not forget he's the author of a policy that armed and trained the Afghan Arabs, Islamic radicals who migrated to Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet invasion late in 1979. Many in their ranks, including Osama bin Laden later evolved into Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Like a lot of Cold War offensives by the West, this policy formulated under the Carter administration and then accelerated under Reagan had unintended and disatrous consequences.