Brezinski & co. didn’t create Al Qaeda.

You’ve got me confused with Larry Johnson…

But they didn’t have the funding – though indeed, to a limited extent Britain funded them against Nasser.

My point is that Dan O doubted a well known piece of history that I mentioned, and you added to that by asserting it was hyperbole. I was merely trying to show that indeed it was not at all hyperbole.

Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76*

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his
memoirs [From the Shadows], that American intelligence services
began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan six months before the
Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national
security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a
role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history,
CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say,
after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the
reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise:
Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the
first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet
regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the
president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid
was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Question: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action.
But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and
looked to provoke it?

Brzezinski: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to
intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they
would.

Question: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting
that they intended to fight against secret involvement of the
United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them.
However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything
today?

Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea.
It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and
you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially
crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, in substance: We
now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.
Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war
unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about
the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Question: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic
fundamentalists, having given arms and advice to future
terrorists?

Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The
Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up
Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the
cold war?**

Question: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated:
Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in
regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam.
Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or
emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5
billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi
Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism,
Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more
than what unites the Christian countries.

ANY history of the Afghan war, including the many sympathetic to the US position. Carter signed a finding in early 79 to fund Afghan fundamentalists, well over 8 months before the Soviet invasion. Robert Gates’ memoir was the first to officially acknowledge this.

It’s just hyperbole. Pay it no mind.

Speaking of reasonableness: I’ve decided I’m not gonna blame Dubya for the South Ossetia Crisis, except perhaps insofar as one can find major leaders all over the world indirectly culpable for just letting the situation fester for too long. Could Bush have behind a Georgian move as stupid as this was? No. He can’t be THAT dumb. I mean, just LOOK at how stupid it was:

—
7 Aug 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7551576.stm

Georgian forces and separatists in South Ossetia agree to observe a ceasefire and hold Russian-mediated talks to end their long-simmering conflict.

Hours later, Georgian forces launch a surprise attack, sending a large force against the breakaway province and reaching the capital Tskhinvali.
—

Words fail.

From the more reliable reports I can find, what the Russians are mainly doing now with their supposedly egregious violations of sacred Georgian national sovereignty is neutralizing any Georgian military presence out to maybe 10-15 miles from the previous borders of South Ossetia (and working similarly from Abkhazia, and starting coastal patrols to boot). Sounds pretty smart to me. You can’t trust them to do it well, or in a kindly manner, exactly, but … when you look at how bumbling and deceptive their opponent has been, can you imagine that the Georgians are managing protection of civilians significantly better?

I chose the word “self-determination” after pondering “independence”, then deciding it was pretty obviously wrong in this case. I think I made the right choice. Californians choice self-determination, fighting the Spanish empire. A week or two later, they joined the Union, as they had … well, determined, for themselves. (Not drawing any other political parallels, mind you.)

The news on all this is fun. Allegations flying, not much you can pin down. Supposedly, there’s a column of 10 — no make that 60 — no make that 100 — Russian military vehicles rolling from Gori to Tbilisi as we speak, as the Rape of Gori goes down in history. Or perhaps not.

“Saakashvili, flanked by the leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia in a separate media briefing, said Russian tanks were attacking and “rampaging” through the Georgian town of Gori despite the cease-fire.”

Rampaging, I tell you! However ….

“… journalists in Gori, the birthplace of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, said they had seen no Russian tanks. Residents there told the journalists they had earlier seen “some” Russian tanks, but not in large numbers.”

Saakashvili is now sorta blaming the Western powers (which would included the Bush administration) for not “analyzing” Russian “intentions” correctly in the wake of Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia. Wait a minute, lemme get this straight: you pull a surprise attack on the capital of South Ossetia, but then when you’re routed by the Russians, you blame the West for not figuring out that it should have responded instantly to Russia’s response, and that’s why you’re losing? This guy’s delusional. And a danger to his own people, clearly.