I'm not disagreeing with this, but we can't suddenly pull out of areas we've stabilized for decades and not expect instability and have it come back to haunt us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
Operation Cyclone was the code name for the
United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the
mujahideen, in
Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the
military intervention by the
USSR in support of its
client, the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by the regime of
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring
Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention.
[1] Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken;
[2] funding began with just over $500,000 in 1979, was increased dramatically to $20–$30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987.
[1][3][4][5] Funding continued after 1989 as the mujahideen battled the forces of
Mohammad Najibullah's PDPA during the
civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992).
[6]
Aftermath[edit]
The U.S. shifted its interest from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. American funding of Hekmatyar and his Hezb-i-Islami party was cut off immediately.
[53] The U.S. also reduced its assistance for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
In October 1990, U.S. President
George H. W. Bush refused to certify that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear explosive device, triggering the imposition of sanctions against Pakistan under the
Pressler Amendment (1985) in the
Foreign Assistance Act. This disrupted the second assistance package offered in 1987 and discontinued economic assistance and military sales to Pakistan with the exception of the economic assistance already on its way to Pakistan. Military sales and training programs were abandoned as well and some of the Pakistani military officers under training in the U.S. were asked to return home.
[33]
As late as 1991
Charlie Wilson persuaded the
House Intelligence Committee to give the Mujahideen $200 million for fiscal year 1992. With the matching funds from Saudi Arabia, this amounted to a contribution of $400 million for that year. Afghan tribes were also delivered weapons which the US captured from Iraq in the
Gulf War.
[54]