On Sun, 28 Oct 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:
> I'm not surprised. Reducing it to a $500m nonlethal aid program misses
> the political point - Zbiggy & Co. wanted to draw the Soviets in.
An interesting interview wtih Brzezinski on that point:
http://www.nonviolence.org/commentary/104.php
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski
Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76*
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his
memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services
began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the
Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security
adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this
affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA
aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the
Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality,
secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was
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.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action.
But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and
looked to provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene,
but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that
they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United
States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there
was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
B: 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 to 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.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic
[intégrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban
or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or
the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated:
fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard
to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam
in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the
leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what
is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate
Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian
secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
* There are at least two editions of this magazine; with the
perhaps sole exception of the Library of Congress, the version sent
to the United States is shorter than the French version, and the
Brzezinski interview was not included in the shorter version.
______________________________________________________________
The above has been translated from the French by Bill Blum Author,
"Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War
II" and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower"
Portions of the books can be read at:
http://members.aol.com/superogue/homepage.htm (with a link to
Killing Hope)
If anyone whose French is better than mine can translate the
bracketed word, "intégrisme", I'd appreciate hearing from them
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com