>>> What was (presumably) in somebody's interest was to invade
>>> Afghanistan.
>>>
>> After which they promptly toppled the Taliban. What a weird coincidence.
>>
>
> They didn't exactly "topple the Taliban". But, arguendo, if they had -- why
> would they still be there? Mission accomplished, right?
>
Because currently the Taliban is trying to retake power and they're trying to prevent that. You do keep up with the newspapers, right?
>> http://www.the-american-interest.com/article-bd.cfm?piece=423
>>
>>> In the 1990s, Iran and Russia saw the Taliban (like the previous U.S.
>>> policy tilt toward Saddam Hussein) as part of a U.S.-Pakistani-Saudi
>>> plan to encircle Iran. The strengthening of links between the Taliban
>>> and al-Qaeda, and the consequent worsening of relations between the
>>> United States, on the one hand, and Pakistan and the Taliban, on the
>>> other, culminated in a temporary realignment after September 11.
>>>
>
> This all seems utterly incoherent to me -- like a desperate
> post-hoc attempt to devise a theory without having the essential
> information.
>
This is starting to feel a lot like a debate with a creationist. How about let's just agree to disagree. I'll side with Barnett Rubin and you side with "who knows, maybe God hid the dinosaur bones to make us *think* Russia never felt threatened by the Taliban?"
SA