I just saw a documentary on French-German Arte: "Afghanistan 1979 the war that changed the world"
I know that not all of our contributors will be interested in geopolitics, but perhaps Vizzer, Ferval, Islanddawn to call but some...
I was so lucky to find the documentary immediately in English:




It is esssential about the role that the Soviet-Union and the US have played in that conflict. The US to weaken the SU supporting the muhadjin via Pakistan, but that inconscious or conscious at the source of the immerging Taliban, al Qaida, Isis...
Saudi Arabia from the 80th on supporting Salafism on the international theatre (And they have dollars thanks to our oil consumption). But later surpassed by the Isis?
I remember in the nineties in Ghent on the stand of Saudi-Arabia in an international exhibition, hundreds of Korans and everybody got one...even praise of their religion and all...
If you read this about Saudi-Arabia, Indonesia and Salafism, it will not for tomorrow till the Salafist idea will become moderate?
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/saudi-arabia-salman-visit-indonesia/518310/
Source for The Atlantic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic

Kind regards, Paul.

Article by Michael Wood on how Saudi Arabia has used its' economic muscle to promote Wahhabist Islam:

Radical Islamism

Triceratops wrote:

Article by Michael Wood on how Saudi Arabia has used its' economic muscle to promote Wahhabist Islam:

Radical Islamism

Triceratops,

thank you very much for this link from Michael Wood. I have a high estimate for this man and saw nearly all his series on the BBC.
He goes indeed to the core of the matter. The solution have to come from the moderate muslims and that will not be a nice intermuslim struggle. As for the secular West their point of view is fully known. And that's for the Sunni. I have the impression that the Shia became more moderate?

Kind regards from Paul.

Next time I'm in the library, I'll see if this is available;

Ghost Wars

Operation Cyclone, the CIA's covert operation in Afghanistan:

Operation Cyclone

Triceratops,

thanks for again an interesting link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Coll

Will have look in the local library, otherwise looking on the second hand...
It can be a successor book to the documentary I provided, the story of the CIA in Afghanistan from 1989 till 9/11/2001.

Thank you also for bringing to my attention: Operation Cyclone.

Kind regards, Paul.

Not directly relevant to your op perhaps, Paul, but this photo-essay does touch upon that period. Although superficial and lacking any analysis, the photography I think justifies its inclusion for that alone.

Ferval,

thank you for the article. Indeed splendid photographs. And it is history as we discussed in the time on Historum. Only facts and no analysis, perhaps it can be not said all in the New York Times?
In the documentary that I mentioned (and so lucky also available in English), it was obvious that the Americans were supporting the rebels (where the Taliban later came out) with all possible help including the most sophisticated material as the one person Stinger rocket. Had the North Vietnamese had such stuff in the time the Americans were doomed with their helicopters in Vietnam...only to say that it were not the muhaidjeen, who have conquered the Soviet army...The Americans and perhaps most Berzinsky wanted to cripple the Russians in the frame of the Cold War.

Kind regards, Paul.