Stinger shoulder-launched missiles are being sold in the bazaars of Kabul for $200,000 according to foreign observers in that city. The geniuses in the Reagan administration (who we now have with us at the top of the government, like Paul Wolfowitz) gave Islamic extremists about 400 stingers in the 1980s to use against Soviet helicopter gunships.

     While this move may have been brilliant militarily, it was highly problematic with regard to long-term U.S. security. These deadly weapons have floated around arms markets ever since. Kuwait bought a fair number before 1990, so presumably some of those were confiscated by the Iraqis when they invaded. That's what we needed, Saddam with stingers. (Though it is not as if the original warlord recipients of this Reagan largesse were much better).

     The recent use of old Soviet SA-7s by al-Qaeda terrorists to attempt to shoot down a US fighter jet in Saudi Arabia (last winter) and now an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa reminds us of how absolutely devastating those weapons could be in the wrong hands.