It is often put forth that the CIA and the Pentagon “created” the Taliban by funneling arms and anti-Soviet propaganda into Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. From my surface level research that seems simplistic. I was hoping someone could delineate this history somewhat more finally. Thanks.
This is pretty well answered in a related question from a couple of days ago:
The answer that u/SuperKamiGuru1994 gives covers the rise of the Mujahideen, as well as other currently relevant topics.
I think u/jogarz gave a great overview of the history of the Mujahideen, Taliban and Al-Qaeda and also addresses some common misconceptions: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/p5ltmh/what_caused_the_mujahideen_to_schism_into_alqaeda/