I don’t get it. This guy’s a traitor, but Carter and Brzezenski, and those during the Reagan and Clinton administrations who were in the least nodding and winking at the Taliban, are geopolitical geniuses.

But don’t let me remind you of all this (I’m a Paultard, after all). Here’s Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: US Policy Toward Afghanistan, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on South Asia, 14 April 1999. “In 1996, the Taliban first emerged as a mysterious force that swept out of so-called religious schools in Pakistan to a blitzkrieg type of conquest of most of Afghanistan against some very seasoned former-mujahideen fighters. As a so-called ‘student militia’, the Taliban could not have succeeded without the support, organization and logistics of military professionals, who would not have been faculty in religious schools. The US has a very close relationship with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, in matters concerning Afghanistan, but unfortunately, instead of providing leadership, we are letting them lead our policy. This began during the Afghan war against the Soviets. I witnessed this in the White House when US officials in charge of the military aid program to the mujahideen permitted a large percentage of our assistance to be channeled to the most anti-western non-democratic elements of the mujahideen, such as Golbodin Hekmatayar. This was done to placate the Pakistan ISI military intelligence. In 1997, responding to the pleas of the Afghan-American community and the recognized Afghanistan ambassador, I led an effort to stop the State Department from permitting the Afghanistan embassy in Washington from being taken under the control of a diplomat loyal to the Taliban. Instead, of permitting a new ambassador who was assigned by the non-Taliban Afghan government that is still recognized at the United Nations, the State Department claimed ‘we don’t take sides’, and forced the embassy to be closed against the will of the Afghanistan United Nations office. During late 1997 and early 1998, while the Taliban imposed a blockade on more than two million people of the Hazara ethnic group in central Afghanistan, putting tens of thousands at risk of starving to death or perishing from a lack of medicine during the harsh winter months, the State Department undercut my efforts to send in two plane loads of medicines by the Americans and the Knightsbridge relief agencies. State Department representatives made false statements that the humanitarian crisis was exaggerated and there was already sufficient medical supplies in the blockaded area. When the relief teams risked their lives to go into the area with the medicines – without the support of the State Department they found the hospitals and clinics did not have even aspirins or bandages, no generators for heat in sub-zero weather, a serious lack of blankets and scant amounts of food. The State Department, in effect, was assisting the Taliban’s inhuman blockade intended to starve out communities that opposed their dictates. Perhaps the most glaring evidence of this administration’s tacit support of the was the effort made during a Spring 1998 visit to Afghanistan by Mr. Indefurth and U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson. These administration representatives convinced the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance not to go on the offensive against a then-weakened and vulnerable Taliban. And instead convinced these anti-Taliban leaders to accept a cease-fire that was proposed by Pakistan. The cease fire lasted only as long as it took the Pakistanis to resupply and reorganize the Taliban. In fact, within a few months of announcement of the US-backed ‘Ulema’ process, the Taliban, freshly supplied by the ISI and flush with drug money, went on a major offensive and destroyed the Northern Alliance. This was either incompetence on the part of the State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies or indicative of the real policy of our government to ensure a Taliban victory. Can anyone believe that with the Taliban, identified by the United Nations and the DEA as one of the two largest producers of opium in the world, that they weren’t being closely monitored by our intelligence services, who would have seen every move of the military build up that the Pakistanis and Taliban were undertaking. In addition, at the same time the U.S. was planning its strike against the terrorist camps of Osama bin laden in Afghanistan. How could our intelligence services not have known that Osama bin Laden’s forces had moved north to lead the Taliban offensive, where horrendous brutality took place. In addition, there has been no major effort to end the flow of opium out of Afghanistan, which is the main source of the revenues that enables the Taliban to maintain control of the country, even though the US Government observes by satellite where the opium is grown.”

Drum on January 16, 2008 at 4:08 PM

he was the most anti-Islamist Congressman on the Hill at the time and an evangelical. Very sad.

Debbie Schlussel on January 16, 2008 at 4:29 PM

Indeed, the best sort. And who else but Nixon to go to China.

Drum on January 16, 2008 at 4:37 PM

he was the most anti-Islamist Congressman on the Hill at the time and an evangelical. Very sad.

Debbie Schlussel on January 16, 2008 at 4:29 PM

Of course he was. Who else but Nixon to send to China.

Drum on January 16, 2008 at 4:40 PM

Watch Kos Kids have a ball over this one.

BlackCapitalist on January 16, 2008 at 4:42 PM

Well, can you blame them? We’ve been on a roll recently.

He might take a page from the Larry Craig playbook and shout from the rooftops: I am not a traitor!

Drum on January 16, 2008 at 4:49 PM