This really bothers me ( I don' hate Ronald Regan. My opinion is of little matter). I lived through the Regan administration and the legacy he left. I am not debating anything , either. I know were we Americans are NOW. We can split hairs over the details, but what happened in Afghanistan was ultimately Ronald Regan's responsibility. Now that Regan is gone, we have this cult of personality that worships him. I don't think Regan would have wanted that.
I wondered if intervention in another country's affairs was justified THEN, and here we are again NOW, thirty-some years later. The blow back, the side effects, they are always hard to predict...I think the terrorists attacks in 2001 can be attributed directly to Regan's ardent support of the "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. I would love to know what Regan's reaction to all this would be now, years later. Regan would probably muse that even Brezhnev or Andropov's brand of communism beats ANY brand of Muslim extremism any time of the week.
Hi, MaryL.
Actually, your opinion matters: opinions are the coin of the realm around here.
Some are based on firmer footing than others.
If you have the time to read it, the following will give you a better grounding.
1. Continuing the Islamic revival are the
Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the emergence of Al-Qaeda.
a. The Iranian Revolution represented massive change, socially, economically, and ideologically. To judge the impact, Khomeinis pictures are in all the student dorms in Indonesia, although Khomeinilike the Iranians in generalis a Shiite, and the Indonesians are Sunnis.
b. Al-Qaeda and the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of the defeated armies into Russia, the collapse and breakdown of the Soviet Union, was considered a Muslim victory in a Jihad. As Osama bin Laden put it: In this final phase of the ongoing struggle, the world of the infidels was divided between two superpowersthe United States and the Soviet Union. Now we have defeated and destroyed the more difficult and the more dangerous of the two. Dealing with the pampered and effeminate Americans will be easy.
2.
Two major factors added to the mix produce the picture we see today.
a. The first of thesefounded by
a theologian called Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who lived in a remote area of Najd in desert Arabiais known as Wahhabi. Its argument is that the root of Arab-Islamic troubles lies in following the ways of the infidel.
b. The other important thing that happenedalso in the mid-20swas
the discovery of oil. With that, this extremist sect found itself not only in possession of Mecca and Medina, but also of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. As a result, what would otherwise have been a lunatic fringe in a marginal country became a major force in the world of Islam.
https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2006&month=09
2.
Pakistan created the Taliban, and the Taliban gave AlQaeda a home in Afghanistan. Pakistan was founded with an Islamic character. When Bangladesh broke away it was due to ethnic diversity, and the Pakistanis remembered this.
So when Afghanistan needed aid after the Russian invasion, they only supported Islamic groups, and thus the secular and nationalist factions whithered on the vine.
The Pakistani Army would rather make deals with the Talibani factions than fight them, but if push comes to shove, they will repel them: recall the Red Mosque events.
3. The
1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has been compared in importance to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The central problems of world affairs today spring from the Iranian Revolution much as those of the 20th century sprang from the Russian Revolution.
Book review: The Shah - WSJ.com
Without the support of oil money, and theological support of Iran, the problem would be minor.
4. Khomeini and his allies in Iran actually reached out to the Americans, to whom he promised a) to hold the country together, calming the unrest, b) to keep the communists out, and c) to keep the oil flowing.
Thats all Carter had to hear! Carter then intercedes with the Iranian military on behalf of Khomeini and in opposition to Bakhtiar, and that the US would not support any coup in favor of the Shah. In 1991, Bakhtiar was assassinated.
a.
Carter believed that Khomeini would support democracy, contrary to all that he had written while in exile. In over 110 interviews he gave in Paris in the three months prior to re-entering Iran, he never mentioned the rule of the juriscouncil, the clerical guardianship, i.e., the regime in control currently. He promised that he would retire to a life of study, and
leave all powers to the people.
b. The first constitution that was written was democratic! Khomeini flew to Iran in February, 79. Within weeks he began to marginalize democracy forces. Soon a new constitution was written with the rule of the guardians at its center. November 4, of 79 was the attack on the US embassy and taking of the hostages for 444 days.
This from Dr. Abbas Milani, the Director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. His recent book is The Shah, is based on ten years studying the archives of the United States and of Britain.
So, it is the march of history that is responsible for the Islamofascism we see today....but if you need to find one individual to blame...
....it is the naive Jimmy Carter, not the great Ronald Reagan.
