What effects did the Soviet war in Afghanistan have on the United States?

I know about the boycott of the Olympics, but what else? Was the U.S. sort of dragged into a conflict?


What implications did this have? Also, do you know of any websites where I can find more information about the United States' involvement and policies during this war?





Thanks.|||Does 9/11 ring any bells. It was a direct result of the Soviet/Afghan war.





Washington, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it needed a local rebel army to fight the Russians because it was scared to get US troops involved in case it turned into another Vietnam (Or even a nuclear war) so it trained and armed the local Islamic resistance groups to fight the Russians by proxy.





These groups eventually became the Taliban and the wider structure around them became Al Quaida.





Both groups were initially pro US, but after the war Washington screwed them over. It was supposed to help them to rebuild their country even better than before and to help them to transform it into an independent Islamic homeland. But Washington just pulled out and left them to starve. This resentment made them turn against the US and open to people like Osama Bin Laden who eventually got them to fly planes into US landmarks.





Funny isn't it? That an army that America built to fight the Soviet and then abandoned became the biggest threat to US lives after the fall of the Soviet Union.|||Poor judgment on the behalf of Charlie Wilson(another Texas Chicken Hawk) secured the replenishment and supply the Jihad militants against the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan caused many problems we have today.Western military adventurism in any "STAN has often


ended in disaster for the West from the British during the reign in India to more recent examples of the Soviet and USA.To suggest that Soviet


incursion caused the collapse of the Soviet is a simple minded level of misinterpretation of what dynamic was involved.|||as this was the time of the cold war, the USA supported afghani


fighters including taliban. now the USA have to carry the


consequences and have inflicted the rest of the world with this


plague.|||Yes, the American involvement in the Soviet caused the breakup of the soviet russia and created the taliban which in turn helped alqaeda which in turn did 9/11 which in turn created about around 4-5 million refugees in pakistan.... :)|||The Russians "departed" Afghanistan after 10 years with nothing achieved, the US should have learned from that.|||The American athletes couldn't go to the Olympics. Among other things, like those mentioned by some of your other Answers.|||proved that the Afghans cant be messed about with with impunity.However, it's going to take a new lesson in bloody noses to re iterate that again.|||Try reading Charlie Wilson's War.|||9/11 and the rise of Osama Bin Laden