In hindsight, giving arms and funding to religious fundamentals/extremists seems like a bad decision.
What were the alternatives (if there were any?). Was control over Afghanistan particularly significant to the soviets, and the denial of it therefore particularly important? Was the Soviet-Afghan war particularly central to the decline of the USSR (what with it turning into a money pit)?
I'm sorry if this seems like several questions, I didn't know how else to phrase it.
I have just finished My Enemy's Enemy- the book about Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakatos that was the source for the film Charlie Wilson's war. The short answer is that the Russians probably would have crushed the Muj without the Americans. They had absolutely no compunction about mass murder, war crimes, mass punishment etc- they basically fought the war by displacing the populace, either into a grave or Pakistan. The contribution of the CIA and Wilson fired billion of dollars into the war, and set up complex logistical chains across the world to supply the Afghans. The stinger missiles were really the cherry on top.
It is important to realise that this effort was not a thought out, government wide policy. Charlie Wilson was an LBJ type of Texas democrat who genuinely made the whole thing happen in a back room, because he wanted it to- I cant overstate this- he used every trick, favour, back scratch and bribe in the book, and no one really caught on until too late. As to the effect on the USSR? who could say? It certainly wasn't positive for them, but I'd be very hesitant to say that losing the Afghan war led to the fall of the USSR.
Afghanistan had been on Russia's mind for years, first during "The Great Game" between Russia and England in the 19th century when both empires clamored for land and influence in central Asia. The Russians kept an eye on Afghanistan from when the Brits occupied and fought in it in the 1800s through the Cold War. When a Communist-leaning government took power in the late 70s, the Soviets were very interested in keeping them standing, espcially after the pro-American Iranian government was overthrown next door.
Now, not all Muj were extremists. In Afghanistan, like it still is today, many groups fought for their local warlord and were not a centralized fighting force. Some groups fought for religious ideals, some fought for their warlord, and others fought for their villages and to be left alone. To say that American support won the war for the Muj overexaggerates the amount the Americans helped and insults the Afghan's fighting ability. Soviet tactics of regularly flattening villages with artillery and airpower certainly killed many fighters, but also wiped out civilians, which is no way to win a counterinsurgency fight. Afghans would still have flocked to fight the Soviets regardless of American support.
I wouldn't say the Soviet-Afghan War led to the fall of the USSR, but it certainly helped. Glasnost and Perestroika arguably had much greater effects on the downfall of the Soviet Union.