"More than just flood [Afghanistan] with weapons, they would have to train the Afghans to become a formal light infantry force. For that, Gust Avracados tapped CIA agent Michel Vickers. Vickers began a slow trickle of CIA paramilitary agents into the country to begin to help the Pakistani ISI turn nearly a half million Afghan fighters into a highly mobile Soviet-killing machine. Avracados also managed to persuade officials from Egypt, China, and Israel to get in on the game. He is also one of the people who convinced [then Pakistani president] Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to frame the conflict as more than just a regional one. This was not an Afghan war of independence, this was a religious war of Islam vs Godless Communism. ...Al-Haq himself pivoted to be more of an Islamic conservative using the American president Ronald Reagan as an example for how to interject religion into politics."
- Joe Kasabian
soundcloud.com/isaiah-john-254