Stipermanofsteel: During the Soviet war in Afghanistan which lasted from December 1979 until 1988, the US economically supported the Afghan rebels in their fight with the USSR, and that was a good move. Carter refused to do so, and so Reagan undertook the task. Afghanistan was Russia's 'Vietnam' with about 18,000 troops killed. It was soon after that the Soviet system collapsed.

The US did send alot of money to the rebels, of which bin Laden was serving, but that was under the mujehadeen , not al-Qaeda. The latter was created after the end of Soviet occupation.

The mujehadeen were a collective alliance of warlords and other elevated figures that united to thwart the USSR (it also united Muslims, since many volunteers from outside Afghanistan came--among them bin Laden).

After the Soviet collapse, the country was torn by a civil war, and a power vacuum emerged that allowed the Taliban control of much of the country in the mid-1990s.

Bin Laden himself donated large shares of money that he took in from a prosperous contracting business that he owned (and liberals complain about Halliburton :p )

Remnants of the forces that we supported, thus became the Northern Alliance, who were coincidentally the same forces we supported in the October 2001 campaign against the Taliban. Their forces launched offensives from the northeast corner, Panjshir (sp.) valley, and their leader (assassinated Sept. 9, 2001) Ahmad Shah Masoud fought for democracy in his country. These were the true recipients of that capital that we sent. Unfortuanately the US turned its back on Afghanistan and it took 9/11 to face the issue again.