An Unconvincing Thesis

摘要

In intelligence jargon, "blowback" refers to the unintended and unforeseen consequences of clandestine operations that go awry. The term gained popular currency after the rise of al-Qaeda, its declaration of global jihad, and the 11 September 2001 (9/11) attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some cynics assert that the United States reaped what it had sown in Afghanistan during the 1980s by supporting the indigenous mujahedin and foreign Islamic cadres ("Arab Afghans"), who defeated the Soviet army and then formed the core of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.