Disillusionment and provocations
A byproduct of the Gates nomination was my stumbling across this interview, that really makes me wonder if Jimmy Carter was such a great guy after all, and makes a few more things I wouldn’t put past our own government. 1998 interview with Carter’s NSA, Zbigniew Brzezinski, translated from French:
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
B: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
I guess this has come full circle now that pro-Iranian elements have managed to draw the U.S. into Iraq.
Or, how about this:
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
I don’t know, man. Ends and means, whatever… I don’t think I would like for the U.S. to be treated the way Afghanistan was, even for a “good cause”.
