Essay about America's Involvement in the Soviet Afghan War

In the period after World War II, from the late 1940’s up until the 1990’s, the United States and their allies were engaged in a “cold” war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Except for minor proxy wars between countries supported by the respective sides, no major wars were fought between the U.S. and the USSR. Nonetheless, tensions were extremely high for many years and the two superpowers constantly went back and forth trying to best the other. Likely the most well-known of these competitions was the Space Race. Battling for cosmic supremacy from the late 1950’s to 1969, the two countries traded many victories over the years and pushed each other to their technological apexes.

In response to the September 11 attacks, the United States should declare war on the responsible group. As a nation, we should do only the actions that bring about the best consequences, and the best consequences would occur by bringing the responsible group to justice. In this case, killing the Taliban and its supporters is the right action because it produces the greatest amount of good.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 1979, the goal was to help Afghan communist forces set up a communist government. The Soviet Union felt Afghanistan had key resources and a foothold in the Middle East to spread communist ideas. The result would be a war that the Soviet Union wishes it never got involved in and likened to their “Vietnam War”, meaning winning a number of battles but not the war like what happened to the U.S. in Vietnam. The background of the war, outcome of the war, and impact on the United States are key to understanding the Soviet-Afghan War.

accurate and hit the target wherever they aimed. Eventually the U.S. realized they weren’t going

Air support had planned to bombard enemy positions for 55 minutes; however, miscommunication between Texas 14 and higher led to a short bombardment and a total of six bombs being dropped. TF HAMMER was unsuccessful in entering the valley due to a heavy amount of small arms fire and mortar attacks. The lack of air support triggered by bad communication frustrated Afghan and Special Forces alike and led to Afghan trucks being hit heavily by pre-registered mortar fire on known choke points by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. Unity of command is crucial in conducting a successful military operation: communication flows smoothly through a unified command, but unfortunately for a non-unified command, the reverse effect holds true.

But opposition intensifies with various mujahideen groups fighting Soviet forces. US, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia supply money and arms to the mujahideen. 1985 - Mujahideen come together in Pakistan to form alliance against Soviet forces. Half of Afghan population now estimated to be displaced by war, with many fleeing to neighbouring Iran or Pakistan. 1986 - US begins supplying mujahideen with Stinger missiles, enabling them to shoot down Soviet helicopter gunships.

When the soviet union invaded afghanistan the war lasted for 9 years 1979-1989. Between 1 million to 1.5 million people were killed in that war and millions of people when to a diffrent countries such as pakistan or iran as refugees. The United States supported Afghanistan by supplying arms to the Mujahadeen. Ronald Reagan sent billions of dollars to the Mujahadeen so he can help Jihad against the Soviet Union. “Reagan believed this defense shield could make nuclear war impossible. Reagan deployed CIA special activities division paramilitary officers to train, equip and lend the Mujahideen battalion against the Soviet army”. Reagan’s objective was winning the Cold War and the rollback of communism. The United States also offered financial and

The production team also made sure the weapons and vehicles were historically correct as well. To me, those are two of the things I would notice when it comes to viewing historically re-enacted war movies. I have seen too many movies where the weapons or vehicles that are from the wrong era ruin the movie and therefore destroying its historic value. However, in this movie, the production team hired a company called Cinema Weaponry who furnished and restored some 250 weapons for the Air Calvary soldiers including M-79 40mm grenade launchers, M-60 machine guns, 45-calibur pistols and M-16E1 assault rifles. The Vietnamese used anything from French and Russian surplus rifles including the MAT-49 submachine gun and PPS-43 rifles. Since few actual AK-47 were around, they made custom replicas of the Ak-47s. Over all, the costume and prop departments for this movie did an extraordinary job to simulate and recreate the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965.

Afghanistan is a country with extreme climate, in the summer, temperatures rises at 50º c and there are also huge dust storms, this wasn’t an easy war to fight. The United States, Canada,

They were provided food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and many more of their needs. They helped them grow food, provided medical services as needed and even provided schooling. Land was given to them to run, taxes were also set a reasonable rates. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a supply line used by the Communists to transport people and goods from the north to the south. Helicopters a new military asset was use to quickly transport soldiers in and out missions. That left many civilians without food or shelter. By spraying some of their 12 gallons of Agent Orange. They hoped it would cut off their food supply, it also destroyed the forest and farmland. That exposed millions to toxic chemicals. VC and NVA made it difficult to know the difference between civilians and military combatant. The tunnels that stretch through North and South Vietnam was for safe travel. The Communist aided that provided safe haven, food, and support in local villages across south vietnam. January 21, 1968, the NVA driving the Marines into underground bunkers. Sheltering in rat-infested underground bunkers that lacked food and supplies. Khe Sanh ultimately defeated the NVA by resupplying the Marines manning the base, bringing in food, ammunition, and

The Taliban began to take down the local warlords and feudal system and began to make a name for themselves in the region. This brought the support of neighboring Pakistan, with the ulterior motive of attempting to establish a friendly, stable government in Kabul. The fighting caused a sudden influx of refugees to Pakistan’s border regions, which interfered with Pakistan’s trade. The Taliban eventually gained control of Kandahar, where they acquired their new weapons, and Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Despite the Taliban’s successes, they had opposition from warlords in the north such as Massoud. Massoud originally had control of Kabul but lost this when the Taliban invaded, pushing him north. Once he was forced to flee, he began to receive outside support from countries such as Russia and Iran. They both feared the growth of the Taliban, and Russia had reason to believe the Taliban was

Many people believe that the persistent armed conflict in Afghanistan is was beginning to resemble another famous war that the United States has been in: The Vietnam War. Some people have coined it “Americas Second Vietnam” There are many similarities between the two wars, the majority pertaining to Counter Insurgency (COIN) operations and campaigns.

The USSR turned a country with people who hated Communism, into a Communist country. When the USSR heard people in Afghanistan were rebelling, troops were sent into Afghanistan to scare the Mujahideen (Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). “The Soviets then attempted to eliminate the mujahideen’s civilian support by bombing and depopulating the rural areas” (Afghan War). “Their tactics sparked a massive flight from the countryside; by 1982 some 2.8 million Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan, and another 1.5 million had fled to Iran” (Afghan War). But the mujahideen outmaneuvered the Soviets by eventually neutralizing Soviet air power through the use of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles supplied by the United States (Afghan War).

Afghanistan had a bigger advantage than the Soviet Union because Afghanistan has more allies than Russia and their allies are some of the largest armies in the world like the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Russia put billions of dollars into this war and had over 100,000 troops but lost. Having lost tens of thousands killed and wounded, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow continued to supply and arm the communist regime of Dr. Najibullhs, but this was not enough, and Kabul fell to the Mujahideen in 1992 (Institute for the Study of

In 2001 the Twin Towers were destroyed by two planes and also there were two other planes one was supposed to hit the White House and the other the Pentagon. This started the war in Afghanistan. It’s been eight years since this incident, and the United States and President Obama still want to keep this war going. Next year they are going to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. There are three reasons why they shouldn’t send them: one for their safety; two Afghanistan should keep their business to themselves; and three it’s going to affect the economy big time.