1984-1994: U.S. govt supplied Afghanistan with militant Islamic textbooks

[lostnfound]

http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1423&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

As highlighted by emperors-clothes.com, according to a front page Washington Post article, but not reported much elsewhere according to emperors-clothes.com (emphasis added):
In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation. The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist code.

<...> Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university's education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.

<...> Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprintings during the Taliban years. Today, the books remain widely available in schools and shops, to the chagrin of international aid workers.

[bahrbearian]

1. MIHOP

[lostnfound]

2. Maybe, or just more of the Kissinger plan to bring down USSR..

but in any case, this ought to be discussed as part of an honest accounting of 'why they hate us'..

[Deja Q]

7. I second that. Nation building (and tearing down) has NEVER WORKED.

That's why tolerance (screw being forced to like each other; just accepting each other and doing business should be good enough.)

We can never change the world. Others had tried. None of them had gotten very far either.

[cornermouse]

3. You reap what you sow.

Or in more common terms, the chickens came home to roost.

[lostnfound]

4. Kick because I can't understand the lack of interest in this one? nt

[Lisa]

5. the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did a piece on this ...

They showed one of the schoolbooks -- with cartoons of how to reassemble an AK-47 after cleaning, and there were little counting games featuring ammo clips, RPGs, etc.

It was kind of like the NRA meets Sesame Street. Very disquieting. The Afghan education minister said that they were trying to rewrite the curriculum, but I would imagine that due to funding and personnel shortages, some of the old books may still be in use.

[burrowowl]

6. The U$ (read corporatistic)

Is not interested in the ideals of America, it is interested in diviing and conquering for the sake of corporations. Weapons suppliers make big bucks.

[Wilms]

8. Why do they hate us?!? n/t

[Solly Mack]

9. damn those chickens...

always coming home to roost

If this wasn't so tragic, it would be funny as hell

the US has put so much shit on the wind and the weather keeps blowing it back...

[Solly Mack]

10. worth a look

kick

[struggle4progress]

11. Taliban. Made in USA. eom

[Rapcw]

12. kick

A good topic