"So the doves are wrong: There was no blowback. America's involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s didn't help create Osama bin Laden; Saudi Arabia's involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s helped create Osama bin Laden, in large part because the United States was too timid to direct the war itself. Similarly, it wasn't America's intervention in Afghanistan in the 1990s that created the Taliban; it was Pakistan's intervention and America's non-intervention. Doves might consider this as they counsel the U.S. to respond to September 11 by leaving the rest of the world to its own devices. After all, it was leaving the rest of the world to its own devices that got us into this in the first place."
Beinart may wish to talk with TNR vet Charles Krauthammer, who coined the term "Reagan Doctrine," and who urged military support of the mujahedeen, which now, in Beinart's view, was minor if it happened at all. And of course the Saudis operated solo, not caring what Washington thought (which, according to one of Beinart's sources, was the "fear" of creating another Guatemala, the first time I've ever heard that sentiment expressed). Indeed, it seems the US doesn't intervene enough. And is not an empire. And doesn't reward aggression. And . . . well, you know how this song goes.
DP
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