Originally Posted by cykoe6

That is somewhat accurate. Anyway perhaps we can agree that the US allowing the Soviet Union to collapse was huge strategic blunder for which the world is still paying for every day? George Bush senior should have done what he could do to support the foundations of the Soviet state so it did not disintegrate. Free market reforms should have been carried out within the existing structure instead of letting the whole system collapse into Mafia clans.

The resulting power vacuum has created chaos all over the globe. The Islamists were quite contained until the USSR collapsed. The Soviets were the tip of the spear against the Islamist threat in Afghanistan and were undermined by the US who supported the wrong side. Now the US is reaping the harvest of that mistake. That does not mean their current efforts are illegitimate, however.