Rashid quotes the US State Department as saying in February 1997 "the Taliban will probably develop like Saudi Arabia. There will be Aramco, pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that." (Taliban, 179) And the world will live as one
I do not, however, think it impossible that someone from the Clinton state department would say such a thing - competence was not their thing either. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
But the interest was there, and Rashid isn't the only one to have made claims about a CIA role in the creation of the Taliban. Most agree that the Pakistani ISI played the crucial role, but that the CIA was there with money, some weapons, and a supportive posture. And the world will live as one
Turkmenistan has no oil, only gas. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
