IN JANUARY 2001, David Hicks travelled into Afghanistan. This much was known by his father, later that year:

http://www.fairgofordavid.org/htmlfiles/documents/interview.htm

Lest we forget, the Taliban “government” was not our enemy at the time, although we all saw the documentaries on ABC/SBS showing the Taliban’s utter contempt for our idea of humanity.

Colin Powell arranged a gift of $43 million to the Taliban in May 2001, months after David arrived. So Hicksie was not wandering into “enemy territory” as far as any government was concerned. Indeed we were willing to turn a blind eye to the Taliban’s machinations as long as the prospect of Unocal’s Afghan pipeline deal remained a possibility.

There is a reason for everything if we just look. The birthing of the Taliban is a cardinal turning point in the tar-pit of lies that we, our govenment and Hicks are enmeshed in.

The Taliban had its unforseen beginnings during the reign of President Jimmy Carter. Carter was, and is, a good bloke. But he fell in with the wrong crowd during the panic of the oil crisis of those days (there is a parallel here with our own Iraqi escapade).

Carter’s foreign policy nerd was Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski the brainstormer had this terrific idea of luring the (evil enemy) USSR into Afghanistan, where they might meet the fate of the old British Empire. And so they did — with a lot of help from the CIA.

The trouble is that the CIA did such a good job of filling the local yokels with spite, venom and hatred, that it will take generations to undo. Those CIA wonks laid it on thick. They added dollops of jihadist hatred to fuel the anger towards the invading Russians. They threw in a twist of violence to spice up the wrathful passages of the Koran.

It worked, but the death-toll amongst the Afghanis was considerable and many children were orphaned. A generation of young men was taken in by the only organisation that could take care of them — the madrassas.

There, without a woman’s touch, they grew up with this chilling CIA propaganda for their education:

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Washington Post, March 23, 2002

In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.

The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist code.

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Yes, it was those young men who grew to become the narrow-minded, unyielding, mysoginistic foot soldiers of the Taliban, who scratched out many a face. There is nothing natural about mysoginism. There is nothing else in the modern history of Islam to give a clue to the armed clash of civilisations of which we are encouraged to be afraid.

I submit that organised radical Islamic fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. It was MADE IN THE USA. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It continues to be a tool of geopolitical nerds and dog-whistlers.

David Hicks? Who’s he? Just a pawn – a mere sideshow in a carnival of freaks. How dare we let this young Australian be used as a hostage to our ignorant fears? How dare we let a foreign power use him as a human shield? Oh Australia, where is your spirit? Where is your intellect?

What would our own Australian Bard say?

when I take a look along the way
That I ‘ave trod, it seems the man knows best,
Who’s met wiv slabs of sorrer in ‘is day,
When ‘e is truly rich an’ truly blest.

Livin’ an’ lovin’; learnin’ to fergive
The deeds an’ words of some un’appy bloke
Who’s missed the bus — so ‘ave I come to live,
An’ take the ‘ole mad world as ‘arf a joke.

Maybe President Carter’s bard should have the last word:

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HOW JIMMY CARTER AND I STARTED THE MUJAHIDEEN

Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur (France), 1998

QUESTION: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

BRZEZINSKI: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

QUESTION: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

BRZEZINSKI: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

QUESTION: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

BRZEZINSKI: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

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Mark thee well.