[Colonel Flagg]

Nope. We gave Saddam Hussein guns and ammo in the '80s so he could bomb Iran, but he ended up bombing the Kurds. Then he took it a step further annexing our oil in Kuwait, which resulted in our slapping him on the wrist and making him promise to never do it again.

We started the Taliban also in the early '80s when the USSR was getting their butts handed to them in Afghanistan (and we here were calling it their "Vietnam"). Aid was funnelled to the "northern alliance" which was really a bunch of tribal leaders who hated each other, but hated the Russians more. The Taliban was formed out of that group.

By tools I was referring to intellectual property - education, teachers, books - not AK-47s, F17s, RPGs and assorted chemical warheads.

I fully admit I'm living in "DREAMLAND". In retrospect, you are correct, it's the latter that we end up providing.