Answer two from a-d and two from e-h in 2-3 double spaced typed pages. Due February 16th at 5pm. Make sure you indicate which questions you are answering. Do not use quotations!!
a. How did Reagan’s election affect American involvement in the Afghanistan conflict?

b. In the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal, what signs were there of a growing distance between American and Pakistan priorities, and that the ISI was becoming a “rogue elephant”?

c. Why was the CIA opposed to the State Departments goal for a political solution to the Afghan crisis? By early 1991 what differences were there in the Afghan policies pursued by the State Department and the CIA?

d. What were the signs that the US was facing a more potent terrorist threat from the Islamic world during the first Clinton administration? Why was the US so slow in recognizing the dangers of Islamist radicalism?

e. Who were the Taliban? How did they begin? How did US diplomats see the Taliban’s rise?
f. Why was the Clinton administration’s secret war against bin Laden and Islamist radicals undermined by its approach to dealing with the Taliban?
g. Why was the CIA’s plan to capture or kill Bin Laden ineffective? Why were Americans so insistent on capturing the “king without disturbing the pawns”?
h. Why did the Clinton administration reject Richard Clarke’s proposal to declare war against the Taliban?