>From: "Christian A. Gregory" <christian11 at mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: Re: Count the dead Russians/ Americans
>Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 10:49:21 -0500
>
> > You seem to assume (as many on the Left) that the US involvement is a
> > critical factor here - that is, there would be no Islamist
>fundamentalism
> > had it not been for the US support of that movement under the rubric of
> > anti-communism.
>
> > Without the assumption of the critical importance of the US policy in
> > foreign developments, this whole "blowback" argument is a nonsequitur -
> > nothing more than an ex-post facto rationalization, the "poetic justice"
> > trope that might provide some emotional consolation to the assorted
> > First-World haters, but otherwise explains nothing.
>
>I don't think that US policy such as it was pursued (ie half-assedly,
>unself-consciously, cynically) was decisive in fostering fundamentalism
>itself. But it has been decisive in the sense that the State Depts cynicism
>about anything but military operations left a critical vacuum in which
>fundamentalism--might become going discourse and reality of the Pakistani/
>Afghan refugee "civic realm" (such as it is).
The Dilip Hiro article at the Nation site suggests that the US also thought that the growth of fundamentalism would be useful in destabilizing the southern flank of the USSR.
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