Holy Jeebus. It isn't Bush's fault anymore, it's REAGAN's fault.

[Patriot Guard Rider]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027417298

Star Member WillyT (68,814 posts)

This May Not Be The Right Time... But This CAN Be Laid At Reagan's Feet...
This was posted in Good Reads, but got little attention. So I post it here, today.

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We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS would have supported Osama bin Laden in the ’80s
Jingoists conveniently forget the West's Cold War strategy was to arm the Islamic extremists that became al-Qaida
Ben Norton - Salon
Tuesday, Nov 17, 2015 12:48 PM PST


(Credit: AP/Dennis Cook)

<snip>

History takes no prisoners. It shows, with absolute lucidity, that the Islamic extremism ravaging the world today was borne out of the Western foreign policy of yesteryear.

Gore Vidal famously referred to the USA as the United States of Amnesia. The late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai put it a little more delicately, quipping, “One of the delightful things about Americans is that they have absolutely no historical memory.”

In order to understand the rise of militant Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaida; in order to wrap our minds around their heinous, abominable attacks on civilians in the U.S., France, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, Yemen, Afghanistan and many, many more countries, we must rekindle this historical memory.

Where did violent Islamic extremism come from? In the wake of the horrific Paris attacks on Friday, November the 13, this is the question no one is asking — yet it is the most important one of all. If one doesn’t know why a problem emerged, if one cannot find its root, one will never be able to solve and uproot it.

Where did militant Salafi groups like ISIS and al-Qaida come from? The answer is not as complicated as many make it out to be — but, to understand, we must delve into the history of the Cold War, the historical period lied about in the West perhaps more than any other.

How the West cultivated Osama bin Laden

We needn’t reach back far into history, just a few decades.

A much-circulated photo of an article published in British newspaper the Independent in 1993 exemplifies the West’s twisted hypocrisy. Titled “Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace,” it features a large photo of Osama bin Laden, who, at the time, was a Western ally.


Osama bin Laden, reported on favorably in the U.K.’s The Independent in 1993 (Credit: Imgur)

The newspaper noted that bin Laden organized a militia of thousands of foreign fighters from throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and “supported them with weapons and his own construction equipment” in their fight against the USSR in the 1980s. “We beat the Soviet Union,” bin Laden boasted.

The mujahedin, the Islamic militias bankrolled by bin Laden, along with Maktab al-Khidamat — the organization bin Laden created to recruit and fund foreign Islamist fighters — are what eventually morphed into both al-Qaida and the Taliban.

“When the history of the Afghan resistance movement is written,” the Independent wrote, “Mr Bin Laden’s own contribution to the mujahedin… may turn out to be a turning point in the recent history of militant fundamentalism.”

Portraying bin Laden in a positive light, less than eight years before he would help mastermind the largest terrorist attack on American soil in decades, the British publication claimed that the “Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan.” In reality, bin Laden was setting the stages for what would be become al-Qaida.

Unheeded warnings...

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was blessed with the power of prophecy, but cursed in that no one would ever heed her warnings. Eqbal Ahmad, the late political scientist, historian and expert in the study of terrorism, was a modern-day Cassandra.

In a speech at the University of Colorado, Boulder in October 1998, Ahmad warned that the U.S. policy in Afghanistan would backfire:

“In Islamic history, jihad as an international violent phenomenon had disappeared in the last 400 years, for all practical purposes. It was revived suddenly with American help in the 1980s. When the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan, Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator of Pakistan, which borders on Afghanistan, saw an opportunity and launched a jihad there against godless communism. The U.S. saw a God-sent opportunity to mobilize one billion Muslims against what Reagan called the ‘Evil Empire.’

“Money started pouring in. CIA agents starting going all over the Muslim world recruiting people to fight in the great jihad. Bin Laden was one of the early prize recruits. He was not only an Arab. He was also a Saudi. He was not only a Saudi. He was also a multimillionaire, willing to put his own money into the matter. Bin Laden went around recruiting people for the jihad against communism.

“I first met him in 1986. He was recommended to me by an American official of whom I do not know whether he was or was not an agent. I was talking to him and said, ‘Who are the Arabs here who would be very interesting?’ By here I meant in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said, ‘You must meet Osama.’ I went to see Osama. There he was, rich, bringing in recruits from Algeria, from Sudan, from Egypt, just like Sheikh Abdul Rahman. This fellow was an ally. He remained an ally.

“He turns at a particular moment. In 1990, the U.S. goes into Saudi Arabia with forces. Saudi Arabia is the holy place of Muslims, Mecca, and Medina. There had never been foreign troops there. In 1990, during the Gulf War, they went in, in the name of helping Saudi Arabia defeat Saddam Hussein. Osama Bin Laden remained quiet.

“Saddam was defeated, but the American troops stayed on in the land of the Ka’aba , foreign troops. He wrote letter after letter saying, ‘Why are you here? Get out! You came to help but you have stayed on.’ Finally he started a jihad against the other occupiers. His mission is to get American troops out of Saudi Arabia. His earlier mission was to get Russian troops out of Afghanistan.”


For bin Laden, Ahmad added, “America has broken its word. The loyal friend has betrayed. The one to whom you swore blood loyalty has betrayed you.”

“They’re going to go for you. They’re going to do a lot more,” Ahmad warned, three years before the 9/11 attacks. “These are the chickens of the Afghanistan war coming home to roost.”

We now know that Ahmad was right. But, like Cassandra, the powerful ignored his sagacious admonition, and suffered the horrific consequences.

<snip>

Much More: http://www.salon.com/2015/11/17/we_created_islamic_extremism_those_blaming_islam_for_isis_would_have_supported_osama_bin_laden_in_the_80s/

Yes, it's Reagans fault. Clinton had nothing to do with it when he was handed Bin Laden on a silver platter and he declined, since Bin Laden hadn't done anything wrong. Clinton passed on missile strikes against Bin Laden because some poor, innocent civilian might have been hurt.

Let's blame everyone except a damn democrat.

[Carl]

A reminder for when islamic terrorism went into overdrive.



Who was President?



**** off asswipes.

[USA4ME]

I'm convinced they do this nonsense every so often in order create cohesion. Right now you have the bern-outs and the billery-bots throwing their hate at one another.  So one or more of them decides to start a thread pointing the finger at someone they can all commonly hate. Group hate helps smooth over some of their internal hate.

Note what they all have in common is hate.

.

[Carl]

I'm convinced they do this nonsense every so often in order create cohesion. Right now you have the bern-outs and the billery-bots throwing their hate at one another.  So one or more of them decides to start a thread pointing the finger at someone they can all commonly hate. Group hate helps smooth over some of their internal hate.

Note what they all have in common is hate.

.

Remember too that just a week ago they were certain everything was within their grasp.
A nutcase shot up a PP building and they just knew that the country was going to demand everything considered conservative be exterminated and the glorious socialist utopia would be ushered in.

Now reality has hit,we are under terrorist threat despite Obungles trying to pretend it doesn`t exist.
On top of that he yawned and punted once again when confronted with it.

Deep down they know they are a true lunatic fringe and things like this prove it but they will never accept it.
Stupid is their only outlet for the rage and it has been showing.

[Big Dog]

Next, they'll be blaming William McKinley.

[Chris_]

Next, they'll be blaming William McKinley.

Nixon.  It's always Nixon.

[Skul]

I figure they will finally get to the source. Lincoln, the first "R".

[Patriot Guard Rider]

Remember too that just a week ago they were certain everything was within their grasp.
A nutcase shot up a PP building and they just knew that the country was going to demand everything considered conservative be exterminated and the glorious socialist utopia would be ushered in.

Now reality has hit,we are under terrorist threat despite Obungles trying to pretend it doesn`t exist.
On top of that he yawned and punted once again when confronted with it.

Deep down they know they are a true lunatic fringe and things like this prove it but they will never accept it.
Stupid is their only outlet for the rage and it has been showing.

I've talked to regular, every day democrats and I ask them if they've ever heard of democraticunderground OR if they've ever been to that pissant website. The answer is either 1) Never heard of it, or 2) I don't go there, those people are crazy.

[miskie]

Oh please.

Radical Islam is a problem that predates the United States. It got the point where no merchant ships were safe. Thomas Jefferson ordered strikes on the Barbary Coast to stop it.

The Inquisition happened after Radical Islamists were ejected from Spain. - not before as you seem to believe.

As a matter of fact, The Crusades were to stop Islamists from conquering all of the land surrounding The Mesopotamian Sea, they weren't some sort of war against Muslims for their beliefs.

And TBH, they have been pissed off ever since.
 

[Ptarmigan]

They cannot let go of Ronald Reagan, let alone George W, Bush. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

I figure they will finally get to the source. Lincoln, the first "R".

That was my thought too.  DUmmies & leftists be so stupid.

[98ZJUSMC]

I've talked to regular, every day democrats and I ask them if they've ever heard of democraticunderground OR if they've ever been to that pissant website. The answer is either 1) Never heard of it, or 2) I don't go there, those people are crazy.

We talked about that, over a few years ago now, and came to the conclusion that (D)U was funded by the Clintons to $kammer to build a web forum that would keep these lunatics out of sight.

Hence, $kin's Island.   

[98ZJUSMC]

They cannot let go of Ronald Reagan

Never.  Even teh despised Boooosh isn't the boogeyman that Reagan is.  The leftover hippies and wannabes went to plaid when he was elected and never came down.  The (D)Ump is or, at least was, the greatest concentration of these aging retards in the Webverse.