Many remember former President Jimmy Carter, who died on 29 December 2024 at the age of 100, as a peacemaker, a title rarely earned by US heads of state who, regardless of partisan affiliation, expand the global reach of American militarism.

In contrast, the Habitat for Humanity peacenik has garnered what political theorist Corey Robin called a “saintly halo”. That he is the first American president to reach triple digits is as much commemorated as his legacy of peace-building and a commitment to human rights.

Look no further than Carter’s Cold War policy toward Kabul to see how he was anything but a dovish utopian.

It was under Carter (and his cold warrior US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski) that Operation Cyclone was implemented, a secret CIA programme to fund and expand the right-wing ultra-religious Mujahideen forces in Afghanistan.

For Carter’s administration, the goal of bringing the USSR its own “Vietnam” (that is, an unwinnable war that would weaken the country’s morale and economy) was paramount. The Afghan socialist government at the time, which had implemented a programme of land reform and women’s uplift, was free of Soviet influence.

But by pouring weapons, funding and training into extremist movements in Afghanistan, the USSR was provoked into defending its socialist neighbour from a right-wing takeover.

“Why do they joke that Bush did 9/11?” quipped a student in one of my classes. “Sounds like Carter did 9/11!”

Carter might not have plotted the towers’ collapse decades after propping up the right-wing Afghan holy warriors. Still, his administration was the first to foment ‘jihadi’ ideology through its Pakistani and Saudi proxies.

“Extremist” Islam was blamed for the World Trade Center attacks. That this extremism had its roots in Carter’s Cold War-era programmes like Operation Cyclone is obscured by that most reliable of American habits: forgetfulness.

After 9/11, to bring up Osama bin Laden’s connections to the US-backed Afghan jihadis or the Al Kifah centre in Brooklyn, where fundraising and recruiting for the Afghan jihad was a crucial component of Operation Cyclone, was tantamount to terrorism apologia.

This history reveals that Carter was not opposed to George W Bush. Instead, the two shared a presidential ambition: playing the Middle East for US foreign policy ambitions.