Americans tend to have a sympathetic heart and a naively idealistic attitude toward any group that lays claim to the underdog status of “freedom fighters.”
This country managed to burn itself very badly by providing billions of CIA dollars during the 1980s to Afghanistan’s “mujahedeen” warriors. Our politicians fell all over themselves in their hell-bent rush to see who could fund this anti-Soviet Afghan war with the greatest level of generosity. A very sophisticated public relations campaign on behalf of these Afghans was designed to suppress all doubts about their morals and ethics. It worked marvelously.
Until 9/11. Then the Afghan mujahedeen became America’s worst enemies in the form of the Taliban.
These days it is the Libyan rebel movement based in Benghazi that occupies an exalted hero status in our media and in the hallways of our government. They have been “recognized” (whatever that is supposed to mean) as legitimate by NATO. Alas, our newest set of “freedom fighters” appears to have terminated their own battlefield commander and a couple of his aides with the most extreme prejudice.
