Al Qaeda's Islamic radicalism isn't a blip -- a one-time outgrowth of the Soviet-Afghan war -- or a byproduct of the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Speaking truth to Muslim power

In a region flooded with munitions since the days of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, almost every home has an AK47 or something similar.

CNN: REALITY CHECK

For ten years, from 1979 to 1988, the United States fought a proxy war with the Soviet Union, supplying the Afghan resistance with arms to fight the Soviet occupiers.

ECONOMIST: Ahmad Shah Masoud