"The former point has been judged unfashionable to the point of being, in non-left circles and in some left circles, unsayable. But it has been harder to gainsay in the wake of the recent resurfacing of a 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former Carter administration National Security Advisor. In it, Mr. Brzezinski reversed the U.S. government's official claim to have intervened in Afghanistan to aid the Islamic fundamentalist mujahideen guerrilla movement only after the Soviet Union invaded the country; he admitted that the administration had armed the Muslims six months earlier and thus "knowingly increased the probability" that the Soviets would intervene. It would be "their Vietnam," he said proudly in the interview. "What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban, or the collapse of the Soviet empire?"
After Sept. 11, of course, the history of the world looks different. Mr. Cockburn practically spits out the words: "I mean, chickens do come home to roost! You've seen the Brzezinski interview! He was rejoicing!" The C.I.A. spent $3.5 billion in Afghanistan building up the mujahideen, he says, the largest covert operation in history.
But then that other ball: After the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, who cares?"
---This is where, in addition to misquotes and lack of careful attention to the arguments being made on the left at the moment for not supporting Bush's 'war on terrorism', Perletein's argument really seems to fall apart. What can he possibly mean, who cares? Obviously there is no *direct* a-->b formula that can be applied here, but "who cares" about the *choice* to knowingly fund fundamentalist religious right wing terrorists on the part of the Carter/Reagan administrations for the purpose of goading the Soviets into invading Afghanistan? That episode of American history bares no relevance, merits no careful discussion, *criticism*, lessons for the future? We shouldn't ask who in the current administration was involved in such decision making in the 80's or to what extent our current policy is continuing past policies that increase the likelihood of a new round of WTCs?
Wow...because the attack occurred in NYC, who cares? Gee, I do for one...Maybe journalists like Hernstein who missed that story the first time around, unlike Jonathan Steele who did fine reporting on the character of our Afghani freedom fighters in the 1980's when it was heavily frowned on by media editors to do so, might want to care a little more now, now that the potential price for not caring is no longer all that potential...., but explicitly known?
Steve
Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822