That and funding the mujahideen were big whiffs.
Blowback keeps happening. IIRC, the modern Central American drug gangs were born of US funding and training of anti-Communist forces in the 1980s.
Remember it next time someone says, 'let's send arms to those insurgents!' Obama dialed it back, partly for that reason (AFAIK). Biden apparently has embraced a policy of 'restraint', with the idea that outcomes from US intervention often are counter-productive.
(I don't support it - instead, accept the challenge and find better interventions. Quitting is a bizarre solution IMHO. People still need freedom, and need help.)
Then we could have incentives -- hey, go to this mosque, not that one and we'll pay you $20 more a week.
It would be cheaper than what we do now and would be a lot more effective than dropping bombs on wedding parties.
We do sometimes buy off governments, effectively, via foreign aid.
Gave weapons to Syrian rebels.
Gave weapons to Libyan rebels.
> Gave weapons to Syrian rebels.
That was the main place they limited supplying arms, IIRC. For example, (again IIRC) the US wouldn't send portable anti-aircraft weapons.