Teribus, I welcome and applaud your new more controlled style of posting. Still a bit long, but readable, and with no personal insults.

No one would question the harm done by the USSR in Afghanistan. But it takes two to decimate a country. The mujahideen insurrection would have been easily suppressed without US support, avoiding the extreme destruction you detailed and the subsequent Taliban takeover.

You're entitled to your opinion that the US government backed a rebellion halfway around the world for humanitarian reasons, i.e. because they thought a destroyed country would be better than a country living under communism. I continue to think that the US government doesn't care what system rules another nation, as long as they play ball with the Free World corporate team. The Taliban tried to do that with the Unocal pipeline negotiations, and their system was acceptable as long as they did, as are the theocratic monarchies in several Muslim nations and the communist regime in China.