US-trained Afghan militants produced blowback against America as imperial power

Evidence

What shifted during this period was that nonstate actors who resorted to terrorist tactics in their war against the West became a thorn in the Americans’ side. Beyond al-Qaeda, many of the militants who had fought in Afghanistan either returned home or traveled to Bosnia, Kashmir, and elsewhere to carry on the holy war. Their training and war experience with the CIA and the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI gave them the knowledge they needed to use violent tactics to advance their goals. This was a rather inconvenient outcome for the United States. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing attempt brought home the point that the forces the United States had enabled through the Afghan war could create blowback. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 269 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The mujahideen are significant not only because they illustrate yet another instance of the United States’ willingness to encourage Islamism when it suited its larger political goals but also because the foundations of al-Qaeda emerged from the mujahideen resistance to the Soviets. A young businessman from Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden, began assisting the mujahideen in the 1980s. Bin Laden became increasingly involved in the war over the course of the decade, raising funds and recruiting additional fighters. His involvement in the war led him, along with an Egyptian physician named Ayman al-Zawahiri, to create the radical Islamist organization al-Qaeda (“the Base” in Arabic) as a means to organize and finance the Afghan resistance. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 257 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The US trained the mujahideen from which al-Qaeda later emerged — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 396; CIA-trained Afghan militants later turned their violent skills against the United States — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 411; US imperial operations generate the very blowback they then label terrorism (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• CIA-trained Afghan militants became the later anti-US threat #corroborates (0.95)
• CIA-trained Afghan mujahideen produced the terrorist attacks against America #corroborates (0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 269
• US support for the mujahideen inadvertently seeded the creation of al-Qaeda #expands (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 257
• Jihadists believed their Afghan war defeated the USSR and emboldened attacks on the US #expands (0.82) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1787
• The US once allied with Islamist forces before treating them as enemies #expands (0.80)
• US-backed mujahidin enabled the Taliban power that later justified wars #expands (0.78) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 543
• U.S. covert support in Central America produced blowback against the United States. #exemplifies (0.75)
• American arms, Saudi funding, and Muslim demographics defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan #expands (0.72)