Not that most weren't already aware - it's common knowledge of course, notwithstanding the limited degree to which it seems to "sink in" with many people - but just for the sheer ironic force of it, and the short span of time between then and now that adds emphasis to same.
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/ dave /
Bush's Faustian Bargain with The Taliban
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm
"Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously...
That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban..."