How did it all begin in Afghanistan?

This is a translation of an interview that appeared in the French magazine Nouvel Observateur in 1998, ever since it came out members of the establishment have desperately tried to ignore it or argue the man somehow did not mean what he was saying or that he did not understand the translated questions or his answers were mistranslated.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/14/magical-thinking-has-always-guided-the-us-role-in-afghanistan/

I invite French readers to decide for themselves.

And so would follow Operation Cyclone. With American help the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan would be dragged out for 9 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 1 day. Between 562,000-2 million Afghan civilians would be killed, 3 million more wounded, and another 5 million refugees would flee the country.

It was so brave of those Afghans to sacrifice themselves so American technocrats could have a sense of triumph and payback.
"You're a brave man. Go and break through the lines. And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in be in here thinking what a sucker you are."
Thankfully everything went back to normal in the devastated country now run by maniacs after the Soviets withdrew and the Socialist government - whose crime was to give women the vote, let them go school, decide who they married, and introduced land reform to break up the feudal ownership of farmland - collapsed.