To be technical, did the US actually fund the Taliban when it got started? The Pakistani intelligence service did, and the Taliban were only able to take power because of the US-backed Mujahideen alliance rapidly descended into civil war when the Soviets pulled out and the Afghan government fell, but idk.

[–] immuredanchorite@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But wasn't Pakistan also thoroughly a US puppet at this point?

[–] nohaybanda@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago

And still is. The US did a soft coup in Pakistan earlier this year

[–] masquenox@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

All the armaments the US supplied (most of which actually came from China) to the Mujahideen was distributed by Pakistani intelligence services - that is true. However, the US knew perfectly well who the Pakistanis were giving these weapons to - it had been longstanding US foreign policy SOP to nurture and support far-right, reactionary Islamism as a counter to middle-eastern nationalism. That's the reason the "big bads" in the middle-east now are people like Osama and not people like Arafat.