When you get to 1996-present, then I'll gladly talk about Afghanistan more. As for now, I love it when people say we funded AQ or the Taliban during Operation Cyclone (speaking of that op, it is my belief it was the right move at the time). During the operation, neither of those organizations existed and AQ' predecessor was funded almost entirely by Bin Laden's wealth (they also got weapons via Saudi Arabia). Not to mention we had an agreement with the ISI to only give our weapons and money to Afghan mujahideen.