The aim of this essay is to investigate ‘To what extent did the American funding in the Afghan war against the Soviets lead to the formation of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda?’ This essay would be focused on both monetary and weaponry funding by the USA government to the Mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan. To keep the scope of this investigation manageable several types of sources will be used, however, only two of them would be evaluated. These sources were chosen since they expressed a variety of first-hand and second-hand sources.
The first source, ‘Good Muslim, Bad Muslim’ by Mahmood Mamdani was published in The United States by Pantheon Books in 2004. It is an educational book wherein the author sheds light on American policies during the …show more content…
This episode focuses on the Afghan war and the funding of the Mujahedeen. This series was first launched in 1998 . The purpose of this documentary series is to introduce and provide an overview of the different steps in the cold war. This episode includes firsthand accounts of several key players of US foreign policy at the time of the CIA and Soviet intervention, including President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski (USA National security advisor) and Mikhail Gorbachev. This makes it very valuable to a historian as one can get firsthand accounts of why and how the funding took place. Another value of the source lies in this episode’s comprehensive overview of the Afghan war with points of view from all three parties involved. One of the major limitations of the source includes its commercial objective. The documentary series was primarily marketed to be sold to the western hemisphere, hence, there is an underlying bias supporting the actions taken by the CIA. Another limitation for this source includes the fact that it was released in 1998, too close to the end of the cold war. Many intricacies in relationships regarding the funding of Mujahedeen would not be completely revealed at this point in
The first source, ‘Good Muslim, Bad Muslim’ by Mahmood Mamdani was published in The United States by Pantheon Books in 2004. It is an educational book wherein the author sheds light on American policies during the …show more content…
This episode focuses on the Afghan war and the funding of the Mujahedeen. This series was first launched in 1998 . The purpose of this documentary series is to introduce and provide an overview of the different steps in the cold war. This episode includes firsthand accounts of several key players of US foreign policy at the time of the CIA and Soviet intervention, including President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski (USA National security advisor) and Mikhail Gorbachev. This makes it very valuable to a historian as one can get firsthand accounts of why and how the funding took place. Another value of the source lies in this episode’s comprehensive overview of the Afghan war with points of view from all three parties involved. One of the major limitations of the source includes its commercial objective. The documentary series was primarily marketed to be sold to the western hemisphere, hence, there is an underlying bias supporting the actions taken by the CIA. Another limitation for this source includes the fact that it was released in 1998, too close to the end of the cold war. Many intricacies in relationships regarding the funding of Mujahedeen would not be completely revealed at this point in