Michael Hughes: Once the Soviets left in 1989, Afghanistan at whiplash speed became an afterthought in the corridors of power in Washington, a forgetfulness that came even easier after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of Gulf War I. The oblivion was especially pronounced at the top, evidenced in a conversation the CIA’s Milt Bearden had with President George H.W. Bush in 1991, when the latter seemed surprised to learn the U.S. covert pipeline through Pakistan was still active. Not only that, the president appeared just as baffled Afghanistan was embroiled in a civil war, according to Bearden’s account of the discussion cited in Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars.
“Is that thing still going on?” Bush 41 had asked.