Now Even Being an Active Anti-American Terrorist Doesn’t Make You Off-Limits for The Obama Administ

[DinoDoc]

Yeah, imagine America funding someone like Osama Bin-Laden!!!

Oh hang on.

Evidence or GTFO, Mike.
The story about bin Laden and the CIA — that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden — is simply a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. The real story here is the CIA did not understand who Osama was until 1996, when they set up a unit to really start tracking him. - Peter Bergen

http://articles.cnn.com/2006-08-15/world/bergen.answers_1_tora-bora-bin-money?_s=PM:WORLD

[Imran Siddiqui]

It might be an American peculiarity to be outraged at such things, because in the rest of the world governments are not expected to take specific moral high grounds. The do not divide other governments and other organizations into "good" and "bad", but into "currently useful" and "currently useless".

This is true. The US has always been a bit uncomfortable with realpolitik.

[MikeH]

I said "someone like"...

They certainly funded the taliban.

[giblets]

Kissinger in his book says it's a specifically American trait of confusing politics and morals. Nothing (other than Watergate) Nixon did was unusual for a leader of any other country, and look how the USA remembers him.

He's remembered for Watergate more than anything else. Also, I don't see why anyone who cares about morals would want to ignore morals when making policy.

[Hauldren Collider]

I said "someone like"...

They certainly funded the taliban.

To take down the soviet union. Hard to say which one is worse--the commies or the islamists? To be honest, I think the commies were worse.

[Berzerker]

HEY!!!

We gotta stay in Afghanistan or Al Qaeda might set up more monkey bars

[DinoDoc]

To take down the soviet union. Hard to say which one is worse--the commies or the islamists? To be honest, I think the commies were worse.

The Taliban didn't exist then. He's referring (or at least should be) opium eradication programs.

[Hauldren Collider]

DinoDoc, we funded the Mujahideen, which was a predecessor organization to the Taliban.

[DinoDoc]

DinoDoc, we funded the Mujahideen, which was a predecessor organization to the Taliban.

That would be the Northern Alliance, not the Taliban.

[onodera]

To take down the soviet union. Hard to say which one is worse--the commies or the islamists? To be honest, I think the commies were worse.

Commies caused you to land on the moon. Islamists caused you to get groped when boarding a plane.
Also, would you rather live in a socialist state or an Islamic state?

[notyoueither]

Commies caused you to land on the moon. Islamists caused you to get groped when boarding a plane.
Also, would you rather live in a socialist state or an Islamic state?

I'd rather live without the threat of major war in Europe and global thermonuclear war.

Go **** yourself with dreams of past glories, and try to understand why people would prefer a few miscreants over extinction.

Thank you.

[notyoueither]

Seriously. These ****ing Russians, even seemingly serious ones like onodera, are like Germans after WWI.

"We were betrayed."

Guess what, muffin. You lost. The only win for your side was a horrible outcome for humanity. Either scorched Earth or a planet barren of oppotunity. The sooner you give up on the dream, the sooner you and everyone else will be better off.

[Aeson]

Commies petered out after half a century and observed MAD. We probably will be wishing for the good old days after a few centuries of the new boogeymen. Especially if they ever get their hands on any of the new toys.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

bah... people who never lived in communism have no idea... at least where I am from it was great, actually way better than right now for large majority (90%+)... but well... OK we were better than the Russian version, but still from what I can see even for them it was not quite as bad as it may seem... and definitely not as bad as the west "remembers" ...

was there, is gone... I have very good memories from the period though and looking forward for the next "adversary" if they will be so good not to trigger MAD like USSR.

[onodera]

I'd rather live without the threat of major war in Europe and global thermonuclear war.

Go **** yourself with dreams of past glories, and try to understand why people would prefer a few miscreants over extinction.

Thank you.

Hey, wake up. It's not Serb you're talking to. Confrontation with socialism led to no major wars, improved working conditions, lent support to feminist and civil rights movements, and led to breakthroughs in science. It also triggered atrocious witchhunts by McCarthy, but that is also the only result of the War on Terror so far.
Every country needs competition, and the only way to use it for your improvement is to pick a competitor whose values are at least in some ways superior to yours.