We didn't make these monsters. (Scan).(Taliban)(Brief Article)

Ever since the September 11 attacks, it's become a matter of faith on the American Left that the United States somehow created the terror-loving Taliban regime.

The United States made mistakes under its last three Presidents, and it's possible that a different foreign policy could have stopped the Taliban from emerging. But America's errors were almost entirely sins of omission. Here's what happened:

The anti-Soviet mujahedin funded by the U.S. consisted of seven factions. Some were fundamentalist Muslims who envisioned an Islamic state along the lines of Saudi Arabia. About as many had a cosmopolitan orientation and wanted a Westernized state similar to Turkey. The Taliban were not among the mujahedin factions at all, and all of the Taliban's important leaders, including Mullah Omar, were out of the country, mostly in Pakistan, during the war against the Soviets. Some American aid surely did seep into Taliban organizations, but only as one group among many.

Partly because of their ideological diversity, the mujahedin failed to unify when the Soviets withdrew in 1989. Afghanistan lurched from regime to regime as living standards deteriorated.

Anxious to control the lucrative Afghan trade ...