1. These threads glorifying the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan pop up like clockwork complete with orientalisms like calling every Afghan who resisted the invasion a "religious extremist" & conflating Afghan mujahideen with Arab Maktab al Khidamat. https://twitter.com/nwbtcw/status/1170738501660401667
2. The mujahideen were not a monolith; it was a popular resistance to Soviet Invasion that sprung up from all walks of life. Most wouldn't fit into whatever is meant by the War on Terror term "religious extremist."

Regime Change in Afghanistan by Saikal & Maley
3. Besides the US, PAK & Saudi Arabia, China & Iran were also prominent foreign states providing the mujahideen aid. The PRC had strategic reasons for countering the USSR's attempts to cling onto it's sphere of influence.

Regime Change in Afghanistan
4. USSR aid to AFG was a resounding failure that did not relieve poverty & infrastructure aid was used to maintain the state & USSR investments. The impact is similar to NATO aid now.

Aiding Afghanistan: A History of Soviet Assistance to a Developing Country by Robinson & Dixon
5. Over the course of Soviet involvement in AFG, education deteriated, especially under the invasion & especially for women.

Aiding Afghanistan & Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan by Lina Abirafeh
6. The mujahideen didn't do 9/11. AQ isn't the muj. Maktab al Khidamat, the org that preceeded AQ, never received US funds; US funds were funnelled by the ISI to 7 Afghan muj orgs.

Al Qaeda, The Islamic State & The Global Jihadist Movement; The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters
7. People spreading this misinformation are at best confident in their ignorance & at worst knowingly lying.
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