u/theskyisnotthelimit walks through the large historical milestones in Afghanistan since the 70s. Spoiler: foreign coups and intervention made things worse and worse.

The Mujahideen was an umberalla term for the collection of Islamic fighters from various Afghan ethnic groups that fought against the Soviet occupation. The US funded weapons and training for the Mujahideen.

After the Soviets left, the Mujahideen no longer had a common enemy (and American money also dried up). In the ensuing, abortive attempt at creating a functioning Afghan state, a couple of factions that had been part of the Mujahideen totally rejected that state and, with support from Pakistan's ISI (CIA-equivalent) organised a campaign to take it down. In the chaos that followed, some of these groups then finally coalesced into the Taliban. Obviously, this being just five years after the Soviet withdrawal, many of the Taliban's leaders had fought against the Soviets as part of the Mujahideen, and therefore likely received American-paid guns and training.

It's a bit like saying the French helped create the Confederacy.

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