AMERICA’S JIHADIS
“THE REST OF THE WORLD SOON PAID A PRICE FOR IGNORING AFGHANISTAN’S DESCENT INTO ISLAMISM”
Even before the shock of the Soviet invasion settled, a consensus view emerged in American policy circles, and later on with the press and politicians, that Afghanistan could serve as a springboard for impending Soviet plans to reach ‘warm water’. This imagined geopolitical risk was so pervasive that it galvanized steady support for the anti-Soviet mujahideen as well as a beleaguered Pakistan, whose ruling strongman General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq welcomed
