When Wikipedia Sucks

As many of you probably could have guessed, I take a particular pride in correcting people. It's a horrible, horrible habit, and I've had to really work to tone it down. However, particularly when something asinine is said, I get a sense of unrivalled glee from correcting it. Observe the error:

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in a call to arms by religious leaders all over the Muslim world to liberate the country from pro-Soviet rule. Bin Laden eagerly sent money, supplies, and weapons to the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Furthermore, under CIA supervision Bin Laden was trained by American special forces in guerilla warfare to counter the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.
(Emphasis added by the Fly)

Now, observe the truth:

It is time to lay to rest the nagging doubt held by many Americans that our government was somehow responsible for fostering bin Laden. It's not true and it leaves the false impression that we brought the Sept. 11 attacks down on ourselves. While it is impossible to prove a negative, all available evidence suggests that bin Laden (search) was never funded, trained or armed by the CIA.

Bin Laden himself has repeatedly denied that he received any American support. “Personally neither I nor my brothers saw any evidence of American help,” bin Laden told British journalist Robert Fisk (search) in 1993. In 1996, Mr. Fisk interviewed bin Laden again. The arch-terrorist was equally adamant: “We were never, at any time, friends of the Americans. We knew that the Americans supported the Jews in Palestine and that they are our enemies.”

As soon as I get home from work, I'm going to go about creating an account at Wikipedia so that I can go in, edit, and correct that statement. If I'm not careful, I'm going to turn out like Mo-Licious when I grow up...

"Okay, I assume you all know why you're here. [ducks a chair thrown at him from offscreen] That's right, you're all angry, sick people."
- Chief Wiggum, "Screaming Yellow Honkers"

Oh, by the way, if you were going to take something away from this post, other than something about my glee at correcting people and my arrogance at such, it should be that while Wikipedia can be a good source for some surface information about a subject, it's not comprehensive, it's not professional, and everything you read there should be taken with a grain of salt. I've corrected several articles there over the last couple of years, and I'm dumb as a sack of hammers. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: you get what you pay for.

UPDATE: And... Done.