America's policy vis-à-vis Islamic movements

[varun]

Taliban was once supported by US establishment...till 9/11

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040604&fname=yogi&sid=1

America's policy vis-à-vis Islamic movements has undergone major upheavals in the course of the last four decades. In the 1960s and 70s the American establishment saw conservative Islamic movements such as the Ikhwan ul-Muslimun in the Arab world and the Jama'at-i Islami in South Asia as a powerful counter to leftist, anti-monarchical and nationalist forces.

It is rumoured that some of these movements even received generous American financial support. The close collaboration between the American establishment and Islamist organizations was best exemplified in the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. The CIA pumped in millions of dollars to arm the mujahidin, whom Ronald Reagan once hailed as the 'moral equivalents' of the founding fathers of the United States.

Today, America's policy on Islamic movements has turned full circle. In order to counter the radical fringe of Islamism that it had so fervently courted till recently, America is desperately scouting around for 'liberal' Muslim allies who can sell an alternate vision and version of Islam that fits into the American scheme of things. This explains the sudden flurry of conferences and publications on 'liberal Islam' and the setting up of NGOs in Muslim countries with liberal American financial assistance...

[forgethell]

1. Countries have

no permanent allies, only permanent interests. I forget you said it, but the leadership of most countries consider it to be true. Or at least seem to me to act like it. Why should the US be different??