Reaping What We Sowed

By Janice Castro

AFGHANISTAN'S MUJAHEDIN REBELS INFLICTED CONSIDERable damage on occupying Soviet troops and government forces thanks to mountains of sophisticated weaponry supplied from American and other Western sources. Now that a cease- fire is in place, terrorist groups and outlaw regimes are on a shopping spree in Afghanistan. Governments around the world are worried, particularly those from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to the Central Asian republics that might become targets of more powerful weapons. Iran has deployed two delegations to Kabul, offering to pay generously for American-made Stinger missiles -- the shoulder-mounted rockets can shoot down helicopters and low-flying aircraft. With thousands of Stingers now lying unused in Afghanistan, some are bound to end up in the wrong hands. Says an intelligence operative: "Stingers are by far the greatest and most immediate threat from terrorism."