Exactly, Ebbie. But maybe none of that (9/11 and subsequent invasion and occupation of Afghanistan) would have happened had we made sure that the Afghan civil and material infrastructure and civil society had a strong foundation before withdrawing our help, instead of just abandoning them to the utter chaos that was all that was left of Afghanistan by the time the cold war ended (and we no longer needed the Afghans to do our fighting for us).

On the other hand, I tend to suspect that invading Afghanistan and planting a bunch of permanent military bases where the oil pipeline is supposed to go was the real plan all along, 9/11 or no 9/11, Taliban or no Taliban.