>Following the Soviet retreat, many of the larger mujahideen groups began to fight each other. After several years of this fighting, a village mullah organized religious students into an armed movement, with the backing of Pakistan, who was being funded by the United States, which found the existing government to be too Russian-influenced, even following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This movement became known as the Taliban, meaning "students", and referring to the Saudi-backed religious schools which produced Islamic fundamentalism along the pacific coast of Asia. With each success the Taliban had, their popularity and numbers grew.
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>The author implies that the US was involved in the creation of the group, but only indirectly at best. From what I've read it was the doing of the ISI.

But didn't it turn out nice? The socialist government is gone, USSR is gone... OK, Afghanistan is FUBAR, opium production is skyrocketing, US has once again proved that nothing is dirty enough if it's for a good cause - but isn't it a small price to pay?