America and the “Mujahideen”, when Brzezinski said: God is on your side!

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Ever since the September 11 attacks, America has played the role of the No.1 victim of terrorism on earth. Its mighty, dominant media reshaped the world and everything in it on the basis of the good guys/bad guys and with-us/against-us dualities, assuming that terrorism and terrorists are an absolute evil in front of the benevolent American who fights relentlessly against terrorism. America launched its wars and invaded countries and peoples under that banner.

But is America today the solid fighter against terrorism and terrorists in the world? It is true that it undertakes sporadic raids on some of ISIS or al-Qaeda targets here or there, every month or two, but does that mean it is a real principled combatant of terrorism? Modern history tells us: No, America does not have the right to claim that it is the No.1 fighter against terrorism in the world, as it is trying to portray itself. America has never been principled in its dealings with terrorism but has always dealt with terrorism and terrorists from a pragmatic, opportunistic standpoint. America utilizes terrorism when it’s advantageous to it or directed against its enemies, and fights it when it becomes harmful. Terrorism to America, like everything else, is a matter of business and trade, profit and loss. 

In this context, Zbigniew Brzezinski must be remembered: The Polish who was born and raised during the rise of Nazism in Germany and World War II that eventually resulted in the fall of Poland, his country, under the hegemony and influence of the Soviet Union. His early life created in him a deep hatred for communism, the Soviet Union, and Russia, which appeared in all stages of his academic and professional career, from the beginning of his settlement in America until he reached the position of National Security Advisor under President Jimmy Carter.

With this background, Brzezinski took over the Afghanistan file after the Soviet invasion in 1979, becoming actually the founder, spiritual father, and director of the “Islamic Jihad" program in Afghanistan. The American program for the manufacture and sponsorship of the “Mujahideen” in Afghanistan is a long story indeed and needs more than one article or two. We will not go into its details here, but we will highlight an incident in its course that could be the climax in a cynical black comedy play when Brzezinski toured the “Mujahideen” sites in the Khyber Valley area and delivered an enthusiastic sermon to them, which he concluded by saying: "God is on your side” amid the chants of “God is the Great” from the enthusiastic Afghans! The video is on YouTube and in it, Warren Christopher, who will become Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, appears alongside Brzezinski!

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With Carter's defeat in the US elections in 1980, Brzezinski's direct involvement in Afghanistan ended, but the entire file was moved on to another maniac no less enthusiastic about the "Mujahideen"! That is Ronald Reagan, the war-loving right-wing President (who, despite his ignorance and meager intellectual level, is considered by the Americans as one of their greatest leaders). He is the one who devoted America's huge military, intelligence, and financial capabilities to support all kinds of "Mujahideen" in Afghanistan with the aim of defeating the Soviet Union there. Reagan's enthusiasm for the "Mujahideen" reached its peak when he received their leaders in the White House several times between 1983 and 1987 and laid red carpets for them, and even used romantic language in describing them as "freedom fighters!" He went so far as to dedicate the launch of the space shuttle Columbia in honor of them and said: "The struggle of the Afghan people represents man’s highest aspirations for freedom"! As for the battlefield, he went as far as providing the "Mujahideen" with the most advanced missile technology in the world at the time, namely Stinger rockets, which was able to shoot down Soviet helicopters.

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Because the archive cannot be erased, the meetings of Brzezinski and Reagan with the Afghani “Mujahideen” will remain a witness to America's opportunism, immorality, and role in creating terrorism and producing terrorists whom it thought could be controlled and manipulated as it wanted. In the world of unprincipled American pragmatism, there is absolutely no problem if the likes of Yunus Khalis, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Haqqani, and the rest of their comrades become “freedom fighters” as per Reagan, even though they are the ones who soon bred the Taliban, Bin Laden, and Al-Qaeda… all the way to ISIS, which is demonized by America today!

When America remembers the September 11 attacks, it should also remember its own men who gathered, financed, trained, armed, and organized the "Mujahideen" in Afghanistan. America should remember Ronald Reagan, William Casey, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, before it remembers the names of the three thousand victims of the New York towers.