The pakasan army was centrally involved, both in the first round of arming the existing forces. They were volunteers despatched by the moslem brotherhood and people even more radical moslems than them on their fringes in egypt. Now the saudes are very reluctant, normally, to allow their own people to actually do anything. So a request was sent by washington that we are desperate for a saude prince to lead the jehad. From their point of view, they saw this attempt to have a southy prince leading it as a total diversion. But then they said, hang on. We have a friend of ours whom we've grown up with his name is
Legendary socialist scholar Tariq Ali on the long history of Afghanistan: the 19th and early 20th-century wars against the British Empire; the communist coup, Soviet invasion, and US-backed mujahideen war; the rise of the Taliban; and the 2001 US-led NATO invasion through the recent US defeat and withdrawal. Plus, a lot about Pakistan.
Pre-order Ali's forthcoming book The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold versobooks.com/books/3939-the-forty-year-war-in-afghanistan
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