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N-Syte on 22 December 2007
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Nintendownsmii said:
white devil said:
I feel too far removed to get into this conversation again, but I would like to respond to accusations that Clinton should have gotten bin Laden.

Yes, he should have. But if we are going to talk "what if"s, it needs to said that we armed and supported Osama bin Laden in Soviet-Afghan War. There is alot Clinton should have done, though he didn't realize what a threat he could be, but if we're gonna go there Reagen and Bush Sr. are even more guilty, for supplying the man with arms and resources. Ironic really, since it was also Reagen and Bush Sr. that supported Saddam Hussein.

 He didn't know how much of a treat he is??? Yea, he had no idea a man who had once tried to blow up the WTC, blew up an embassy, and the uss cole could be a threat to the usa... gimme a break.

Total agree on regan and bush sr. though. 


I find this line of reasoning lacking.  So if a country is once an ally of the US, can it never be an enemy?  If a former ally does become an enemy, does it mean we were wrong to ever ally with them in the past?  Were the Allies wrong to align with Stalin's murderoous regime against Axis forces, only to enter into a mutliple decade long conflict with them soon after the war?  

During the Soviet-Afghan war the US had a much greater interest in stopping the spread of communism than it did in dealing with what may or may not become a future terrorist threat.  The difference is, during the Clinton years, bin Laden had delcared himself a sworn enemy of the US.  His interests were known.  At the time he was no longer the "enemy of our enemy".  While it would be nice if the "good guys" always rode in on white horses and the "bad guys" dressed  in black capes, it is rarely so nicely wrapped.  Reagan atleast had a good reason to support the Mujahideen.  He figured the Marxists were more dangerous than the insurgents.

I don't know that we should look at Reagan's decision to side with bin Laden to block Soviet victory over Afghan forces and equate it with Clinton's missed opportunities to take out bin Laden, no strings attached.