Blowback and the payback in Afghanistan

Yesterday President Bush gave a speech to the chicken hawk crowd at the American Enterprise Institute. In addition to banging the war drums for an attack on Iran he also mentioned that we need to send more troops back into Afghanistan. As our concentration on Iraq has allowed the situation in Afghanistan to start to disintegrate. Bush has been "shocked" to find that the Iranians may be sending weapons into Iraq. That may be but, those weapons could be coming from other sources too. Like the Russians. Putin has been raising his voice about Bush and the U.S. policy in Iraq and I am sure he has not forgotten what the U.S policy was when the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
We supplied the Osama Bin Ladan and the Mujaheddin with weapons and supplies to fight the Russians. Of course the blowback from that resulted in 9/11 in 2001. Now we are in the region and it would not surprise me that Putin and the Russians are behind bringing in weapons into the region too as we did back in the 1980's. I am sure it would be very tempting for the Russians to make the U.S. position in Iraq and Afghanistan a living hell as the U.S. had done to Russia in Afghananstan.

"Carter advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise." Brzezinski himself played a fundamental role in crafting U.S. policy, which, unbeknownst even to the Mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military intervention." In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Brzezinski recalled proudly:
"That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap..." [...]"The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War"

Unfortunately, Russia is much closer to region than we were back in the 1980's and so it would be much easier for them logistically to supply the weapons. Considering the difficulties we made for the Russians in Afghanistan I think the payback to the U.S. will be a bitch and unfortunately our troops this time may be the ones who will pay the price instead of the Russians.