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(www.nationalreview.com, July 22, 2014)
Putin’s Grand Ambition
By Tony Shaffer
ttps://www.nationalreview.com/2014/07/putins-grand-ambition-tony-shaffer/

What does the American decision to equip anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan in the 1980s suggest about
the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner with a surface-to-air missile by Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine last week?
Quite a bit, it turns out.

During the Cold War and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, there was a big internal debate within the U.S. intelligence and policy community about
the prudence of giving advanced FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles to anti-Soviet forces.

Obviously, the moment that Soviet helicopters and military aircraft started falling from the sky, and
the Stinger was found to be the tool the mujahideen had used,
there would be no way to deny U.S. involvement in the conflict.
The U.S. government decided it was worth it, and in 1985 the Stingers were introduced in the country to great effect.