US involvement

AFGHANISTAN has been the end of many an imperial dream dating back many centuries. No more formidable empire found its nemesis in Afghanistan, however, than the Soviet Union, which got bogged down in an Afghan adventure in the 1980s that left its army and its finances demoralised and bedraggled. The CIA and Americans correctly saw the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan as a blunder that they could take full advantage of. As is a way of diplomacy, former enemies became friends including some particularly unsavoury elements. Unfortunately, the fall of Soviet Union found Americans believing too much of their own rhetoric and, with extraordinary sloth, they allowed the anti-Communist elements they had themselves armed to become an enemy, not only ideologically antagonistic but extraordinarily well-armed. Aiding and abetting the arming of a future enemy on such an alarming scale led directly to a series of anti-American terrorist attacks across the world peaking in the events of September 11, 2001. With America dragging the UK into a conflict that we shouldn’t got involved in. Sadly our military people were killed and injured by an enemy armed by the US.