Reagan meets with Taliban in 1985, says they are "Moral equivalents of America's Founding Fathers"

----------------------------------------------

Veeeery Interesting..........

I'll bet those damned libruls photoshopped that picture, and made up the entire story, just like they did with that black man's Hawaiian birth certificate!

Why, next you'll be telling me that the Republicans supported Saddam Hussein at one time! Sheesh!!

Soooo many Republicon chickenhawks.

What's up wit dat. Do they all HATE the idea of serving America? Do they all luv the Taliban?

the coffee shop in the morning.

Ronnie looks like he doesn't know what the fuck is going on.... Oh, sorry, that's how he usually looked.

Reagan was only reading from the script that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld wrote.

hmmm.

and that cocaine and opium smuggling, and setting off car bombs in food markets and cutting off testicles, were the moral equivalent as Paul Revere's Ride and the Constitutional Convention.

Reagan really was the stupidest American President, because he made it sound so sincere.

He was talking with the Mujahideen, who were fighting the Taliban....and he didn't say this even about the Mujahideen.

At least not in the Reagan era. The Taliban didn't even exist then. They rose to power after various Mujahadeen warlords managed to drive the Russians out but not to bring peace or stability to Afghanistan. So, yes, the Taliban did fight various Mujahadeen factions in the mid-1990s as they seized power. But now some of those same Mujahadeen warlords (like Haqqani and Hekmatyr)are siding with the Taliban.

Like Bismullah Khan, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Karim Kalili, and Abdul Rashid Dostum, representing the Tajiks, the Hazara, and the Uzbeks.

Haqqani and Hekmaktyar are Pashtuns, and Pashtuns overwhelmingly sided with the Taliban, which was a Pashtun nationalist movement as much as anything else. Non-Pashtuns put aside their differences and allied with each other to form the Northern Alliance to try to stop (yet another) Pashtun takeover of Afghanistan.

The American Experience | Reagan | People & Events | The Iran ...Battling the Cuban-backed Sandinistas, the Contras were, according to Reagan, "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers." Under the so-called Reagan ...
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html - Cached - Similar -

The OP appears to be taking the quote from the contras and applying it inaccurately.

author's interpretation that "For Reagan, they were the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers."

Then they changed their name and their lead singer died.

I wish the Soviet Union Army would have wiped out those feudalist fucks.

/b/

They were just far-right Islamic factions that were working the West and China to impede progress in Afghanistan.

The Soviets were not altruistic, but had that invasion been successful, Afghanistan's subsequent years would have been much brighter than anything the Mujahideen factions or the Taliban had to offer, especially for its female population. The problem with the current war is that the West is now supporting one group of Islamists against another rather than working with people who have something bother to offer (i.e. leftist factions).

"Hey, they weren't altruistic, but they really did want democracy."

Yeah right. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan for economic and political gain. How anyone can defend that action is beyond me. You sound just like the people who justify our invasion of Afghanistan to "free women."

I have to upload that highest tax rate one too

Much as I hate communism, I'd take it over Islamic fundamentalism any damn day.

They were not political entity. "Taliban" translates quite literally as "students." And while there were definitely students involved in the war in Afghanistan that the Reagan-Bush administration supported, the political group did not exist as such until around 1994.

As Mark L. points out above, the quote from Reagan was, in fact, something the Gipper said about the contras. The OP is, at very best, misinformation that does not hold up to examination.

... we like them when we can use them. Its once they get competent and wealthy that we have to 'overthrow' their 'tyrannic regimes' and 'bring democracy' to their countries.


:eyes:

Notice there's a woman in the room who is not in a beekeeper suit, and is not cowering in the presence of the men. We were VERY big fans of the Muj back in the day.

Most of the Taliban at that time would have been students in Pakistani madrasas, learning how to take over and govern Afghanistan once the Mujaheddin were successful. Taliban the word means students.

Considering the Taliban didn't really coalesce into a single movement until 10 years after this pic was taken. In fact the irony is that these mujaheddin chiefs were very likely part of the factional militias that the Taliban rose up to STOP during the civil war after the Soviet left.

So the title should read "Ronald Reagan meets with Afghans who most won't realize aren't Taliban, because Americans have no idea the Taliban didn't exist when this picture was taken." But I guess that title was too long.

The mujaheddin weren't the Taliban, and they weren't the predecessors of the Taliban. Both groups were made up of Afghans, and there were Afghans who were in both groups. That doesn't make them the same thing though. Mujaheddin fought for many reasons - nationalism, anti-communism, ant-foreignerism, adventure, tribal loyalties, prestige, religion, you name it. Just like in most wars. Many later became Taliban, but many became Northern Alliance and fought against the Taliban. I suspect the three on the right are Tajiks, in which case you can bet your ass THEY didn't join the Taliban.

thanks for the insight 14.

But for sure we were thrilled when they blew up girls' schools that the Soviets built.

I guess the Taliban's friends needed that cash for some plane tickets and flight lessons...

Edit to add...

'December 4, 1997: Taliban Representatives Visit Unocal in Texas'


snip...


Representatives of the Taliban are invited guests to the Texas headquarters of Unocal to negotiate their support for the pipeline. Future President George W. Bush is Governor of Texas at the time. The Taliban appear to agree to a $2 billion pipeline deal, but will do the deal only if the US officially recognizes the Taliban regime. The Taliban meet with US officials. According to the Daily Telegraph, “the US government, which in the past has branded the Taliban’s policies against women and children ‘despicable,’ appears anxious to please the fundamentalists to clinch the lucrative pipeline contract.” A BBC regional correspondent says that “the proposal to build a pipeline across Afghanistan is part of an international scramble to profit from developing the rich energy resources of the Caspian Sea.” It has been claimed that the Taliban meet with Enron officials while in Texas (see 1996-September 11, 2001). Enron, headquartered in Texas, has an large financial interest in the pipeline at the time (see June 24, 1996). The Taliban also visit Thomas Gouttierre, an academic at the University of Nebraska, who is a consultant for Unocal and also has been paid by the CIA for his work in Afghanistan (see 1984-1994 and December 1997). Gouttierre takes them on a visit to Mt. Rushmore.

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a120497texasvisit

The same ENRON that let Bush use their jet to campaign in 2000...