WASHINGTON: Two days of continuous congressional hearings on the Obama administration’s foreign policy brought a rare concession from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who acknowledged that the United States too had a share in creating the problem that plagues Pakistan today.
In an appearance before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, Mrs Clinton explained how the militancy in Pakistan was linked to the US-backed proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
‘We can point fingers at the Pakistanis. I did some yesterday frankly. And it’s merited because we are wondering why they just don’t go out there and deal with these people,’ said Mrs Clinton while referring to an earlier hearing in which she said that Pakistan posed a ‘mortal threat’ to the world.
‘But the problems we face now to some extent we have to take responsibility for, having contributed to it. We also have a history of kind of moving in and out of Pakistan,’ she said.
‘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.’
Now you heard it from the horse’s mouth, stop accusing Pakistan of creating a monster which got out of hand.
^ Pakistan may have given them the name "Taliban" but they were all there, all trained and funded by US.
not really...since they were 10 year old during the soviet war in the 1980's....and were studying in Islamabad....
only in 1992 were they send to Afghanistan....
what USA did help fund were the Haqqani, Hekmetyar, and Shah Masood Warlords who fought the Soviets
The Taliban were a Pakistani creation and then went completely psycho in 1997 with the arrival of Al Qaeda since Taliban worship Arabs and all the things they say are gospel to them
Either you are lying or its Hillary… let see who could it be?
Dude we are not talking about just foot-soldiers here, many of them were not even born. Its the leadership, the warlords who are now “Talibans”. Mullah Omar was not born in 1980, he fought against Russians.
Taliban of today (namely Mullah Omar/Haqqani, etc..) were the Mujahideen of the day when USA was extremely keen on them winning and defeating Soviets. Overtime they earned a different title because the word "Taliban" is plurla of "Talib" which means Student.
Most of the recruits for Soviet war in Afghanistan were Students hence the term Taliban. There is no doubt in the fact that USA stood idle at first and neutral until the resistance was just mind boggling that USA sought to support them financially and with stingers because American knew with the help of advanced weapons, the "Taliban" would win and they did.
USA and Saudi Arabia picked up the tab on the bill where Saudi Arabia matched the funds of Americans, and so on and so forth
so yes indeed, America has been a great factor in supporting/financing/nurturing Taliban a.k.a. ex-Mujahideen, the only difference now is that back then it was America supporting them against Soviets to topple them so American media treated Mujahideen like newfound brothers-in-faith, Crusaders if you will, and today some of the same "crusaders" are fighting America. How history repeats itself... :)
she isnt saying anything everyone isnt already aware of.
pakistan was paid to support the taliban, and it did.
now it is paid to fight them.
merceneries don't get to question policy. that exit passed up long time ago. very hard to suddenly turn independent when you are sitting on the blenders blades.
bottomline is, no one cares if US is the big bad guy, it doesnt change anything. these things arent about morality and friendship.
Yea, true. Many regret taking American offer for financial support back then because it complicated the situation, had Pakistan supported Muhajideen independently, then the situation may have been somewhat different. Might have won even w/out the American/Saudi support, it just would have taken a lot longer....
Then there are those who don't regret it and instead say that America did it out of choice and was not asked for it, so it cannot turn around n pin this on Pakistan because Pakistan/Afghanistan did not go running to it asking for help to fight the soviets.
^ absurd w/o US and saudi money the red army wud have crushed those bandits within weeks ....and in any case it was a voluntary withdrawal by red army and they won 99% of battles in afghanistan, and even in the withdrawal they smashed many afghan bandit units
Yea, true. Many regret taking American offer for financial support back then because it complicated the situation, had Pakistan supported Muhajideen independently, then the situation may have been somewhat different. Might have won even w/out the American/Saudi support, it just would have taken a lot longer....
Then there are those who don't regret it and instead say that America did it out of choice and was not asked for it, so it cannot turn around n pin this on Pakistan because Pakistan/Afghanistan did not go running to it asking for help to fight the soviets.
Opportunity vs Misfortune
half of pakistan was scared ****less when soviet troops came into afghanistan
not only India was a Soviet Ally but there were rumors that soviets will expand into Balochistan
so Pakistan didnt support Afghan Muhajadeen out of some blind support to USA but also out of self preservation
US, Pakistan and KSA were behind the mujahideen .. they later split into factions along ethnic and georgraphical lines in afghanistan and had numerous warlords jockeying for power. Pakistan then took the pashtun groups and supported them to become united and control afghanistan.
yes these ppl were trained, armed and funded way before taleban as an entiry came into being, but the entity named Taleban is a gift of benazir and naseerulla babar
basically the warring faction in afghans is a brainchild of usa force who occupied and mined literally all the territoy for their own battles with russia.
unless, rational minded approach is not taken and world's muslims won't unite, nothing will change. it will get worse off.
the kind of faith version of cruel and unfair "Islam" or "muslimhood" which arabs and extremists, fundamentalists and fanatics follow, is not the true Islam.
and by that token, that is who these elements should be treated - as nothing.
simply as nothing. no mercy for the utterly amoral type of people which they are.
as for the west, the west cannot be beaten at its game, unless muslims come forward and act wisely as one.
Hillary is talking about US funding of Afghans against USSR. But it was not US strategy to create Pakistan. US had stopped taking interest in Afg affairs after USSR withdrawal.
Taliban is the creation of mullah-infested ISI. They are students of Maulana Samiul Haq's madressah system.
They were created by ISI to take control of Afghanistan, at the expense of all non-Pashtun people of Afghanistan.
The strategy has back-fired on creators, and now common Pakistanis are paying the price.
Hillary is talking about US funding of Afghans against USSR. But it was not US strategy to create Pakistan. US had stopped taking interest in Afg affairs after USSR withdrawal.
Taliban is the creation of mullah-infested ISI. They are students of Maulana Samiul Haq's madressah system.
They were created by ISI to take control of Afghanistan, at the expense of all non-Pashtun people of Afghanistan.
The strategy has back-fired on creators, and now common Pakistanis are paying the price.
You seem to have not read the first post and commenting.
Read the bold sentence in first post.
*Whats this got to do with strategy to create Pakistan???
*
(Please read your post before or after hitting 'submit reply' and edit any irrelevant comments. Thanks :-)
