I meant to post this yesterday, in response to that ridiculous piece by TNR's Beinart, who tells us that CIA involvement in Afghanistan was light at best (and that the Saudis and Pakistanis operated on their own). From a report by Steve Coll of the Washington Post, July 19, 1992:
"In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166,...[which] authorize[d] stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal. The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, ... as well as a 'ceaseless stream' of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels."
DP