Cyprus-Forum.com

[boomerang]

US responsible for Taliban existence
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:57:20 GMT


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that the United States had a share in creating terrorist groups such as the Taliban.

Clinton in a congressional hearing explained how the militancy in Pakistan was linked to the US-backed proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, Dawn reported on Saturday.

"Let's remember here… the people we are fighting today we funded them twenty years ago… and we did it because we were locked in a struggle with the Soviet Union," she said.

The US along with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) created the Taliban in 1980's to counter then Soviets' influence in the volatile region.

"And great, let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries, importing their Wahabi brand of Islam so that we can go beat the Soviet Union," Clinton said.

"… and it was President Reagan in partnership with Congress led by Democrats who said you know what it sounds like a pretty good idea… let's deal with the ISI and the Pakistan military and let's go recruit these mujahideen," she added.

Moderate Sunni and Shia Muslims believe that the Wahabi order has nothing to do with Islam and was created by the global powers to fuel extremism.

In earlier remarks Clinton had emphasized that Pakistan posed "a mortal threat" to world security by abdicating to the Taliban.

Despite the presence of more than 70,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, insurgency has escalated in the war-torn country and spilled over to neighboring Pakistan as well.

The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has prompted militants to cross the border into Pakistan, turning the restive tribal belt between the two neighbors into a scene of deadly and continuing violence.

Ensuing attacks have killed thousands of people including soldiers in Pakistan since the country joined the US-led war on terror.

The insurgents appear to have the upper hand and are rapidly extending their influence to major cities in Pakistan

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=92530&sectionid=3510203

[Tim Drayton]

I think it goes a lot deeper than the Taliban. The American thesis during the Cold War of creating a "green crescent" of political Islam as a bulwark against the spread of Communism has helped to undermine the growth of moderate, secularist, modernising political movements in a great many Muslim countries and has gone a long way towards creating the phenomenon referred to as the "clash of civilisations".

[saravakos]

The CIA has created plenty of 'enemies'