Soviet-Afghan War Essay

Theoretically, it holds that the United States (US) invaded Afghanistan as a self-defense strategy following the 9/11 attacks. Practically, however, as US foreign policy is about conquest, self-protection and resource-extraction, it seeks strategic dominance of geographical space to sustain its global relevance. The rationality of the US suggests the need to continuously accumulate capital, resources and military proficiency to ensure autonomy. Therefore, a pragmatic reading into the motivation behind the invasion of Afghanistan negates the self-defense theory. Rather, the shifting coordinates of power within central and southern Asia crafted the perfect criteria for US intervention. This work explores the motivations and systemic cover-ups designed by the Bush administration in ordering military troops into Afghanistan in 2001. It will hold that this invasion was not just a War on Terror, but rather a tactic to ensure US prevalence within the region, and henceforth, the rest of the world. Thus, why did the US invade Afghanistan?

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan just to see themselves as the big “Losers” of the war. The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was a serious blow to the prestige of the Army, to national pride and faith in the soviet political leaders. The scars it left on many of the remaining soldiers created social and political problems. A reform of the military was necessary. In the midst of all these turmoil, “there was also corruption and inefficiency within the states bureaucracy” (p.3 smitha.com) and nothing seemed to get done. The soviet people and some Eastern European countries were fed up of all these ongoing problems the Soviet Union was facing. The soviet people were fed up with the high communist party which stood ground and dominated the entire soviet politics, as this was the only party in the states since Stalin’s regime. The party had become rigid and corrupt which discouraged younger party members who saw little chance of advancement. At this stage corruption was the order of the soviet system of government which buoyed lack of commitment to the government.

For over 2 centuries, Afghanistan has known virtually no time without war. Beginning around 326 B.C. with the conquests of Alexander the Great, to the Persians, British, Russians and most recently, America and our NATO allies, Afghanistan has been cultivated into the country that it is today through a trial by fire. Regardless of this relentless onslaught of foreign military power, the Afghan people have tirelessly defended their homeland with no outside power ever being able to subdue them completely. Following the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country fell into civil war, torn even further apart by fiercely dedicated tribal warlords. This power vacuum led to the rise of a group called the Taliban. Led by a one eyed man

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.

This wouldn't be a surprise then that the American forces personally trained these Islamic groups. However the Americans did not know that one day they would be fighting against them. Pakistani intelligence had established training camps all along the Northern Pakistani border with Afghanistan which acknowledged that the United States of America was in fact training the Mujahideens and supporting them with what they need, whether that would have been weapons, food etc. (To what extent is Al-Qaeda a creation of the

In 1979, the USSR took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and tried to gain control over the whole country and its people. The invasion was a failure, costing thousands of lives and having serious consequences.

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

As Russian forces pushed into Afghanistan seeking to conquer the nation, spread communism, and secure oil routes, the United States suspected Russia may be successful in its conquest. Moreover, President Carter’s administration took notice and produced presidential findings, allowing the United States to indirectly and mildly support Mujahidin rebel forces, who sought to confront the Russian forces and win back Afghanistan. President Carter utilizing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funneled small weapons and funding to associates within the Pakistan intelligence community who in turn provided the items to the rebel forces (Coll

In 1978, a communist government gained control of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union supported the new government, but the unrest of Afghan citizens with this regime was so great it prompted a “Jihad” or holy war(Jacobson, 31).

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Islamic fighters rushed to Afghanistan to support their brothers and fight against the communists. Most Arab nations and the U.S. facilitated the

Numerous offensives were very common, most in the early stages of the war. The mujahideen were also heavily bombarded by massive air and artillery barrages lasting several days at a time. But to the Soviets disadvantage, the rebels most always had sufficient warning and left before they could bombard the area clean. When the Soviets left, the rebels would simply return. (Jalali, 77)

This paper will be explaining the similarities, and differences, between the Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan. There are many topics that bring these two wars together. However, I am only going to be talking about public support, policy objectives, military strategy, weapons, fighting spirit, links to home, and death totals. These topics have a lot of information about them, but there is too much to write about every little detail, so I will cover the broad overview of them. Each paragraph will be about one of the topics. There will also be a discussion about insurgencies and counter insurgency operations. These are two big topics in Vietnam and Afghanistan since almost all of the enemy in both wars were, and are, comprised of insurgents and different types of militia groups.

There are so many, of reasons the Soviet Union lost their war in Afghanistan. The Taliban did not wholey defeat the Soviet Union and their retreat and subsequent withdrawal was caused by multiple factors. First and foremost was that the domestic issues in Soviet Union had demanded it. The war began while Brezhnev was still in power, continued under Adropov and Chernenko, but ended under Gorbachev. In fact, Gorbachev attempted to end the war in 1985 when he was first elected, but was unable to do so. After the disaster in Priyapyat , the Soviet Union "opened up". This new transparency brought increased criticism to the efforts in Afghanistan. Additionally, this "war by proxy" between the Soviets and Americans was seen as an anachronism in the age of Glasnost and Perestroika. The Soviets merely admitted that they were in no position to win a war in that country ,as the British had done twice and the Americans will do in the near future and if they perservered it would be at the expense of their more pressing domestic issues as well as new international

On May 25th, 1997, Pakistan recognized the Taliban as the Government of Afghanistan, the following day, Saudi Arabia also made this recognition. In August of 1998, the United States had become suspicious of the Taliban forces, and the U.S. fired five missals at Afghanistan because of suspicions that the Taliban was behind the bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa.

New Zealand involvement in the Afghanistan War, related to the war in Afghanistan which has occurred from 1978 – referred to as the second Afghan Civil War ("Afghanistan Key facts and figures,"). Afghanistan is very complex place, with many different ethnic groups and languages, this is due to the geographical location of Afghanistan, a bit of a intersection of sorts culturally, the conflict that mostly influenced the beginning of what would eventually get New Zealand involved in the Afghanistan war was when Russia was pushing for more control and bordering on Afghanistan –this lead to communism with the Soviet Union, then the communism movement collapsed, and the eventual taking over of control of Afghanistan occurred by the Taliban– The Taliban were in control from around 1992 . But from 1996 to 2001 was the period commonly referred to as the “Taliban period” ("Taliban Facts, information, pictures,")– when the Taliban were most dominant. The Taliban originated from northern Pakistan, and were resistance fighters known as Mujahideen, who fought against the Russian Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan ("Taliban Regime,"). The Taliban are a Islamic fundamentalist political organisation that formed a government, and ruled the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, initially looking like saviours to the people as they fought and won against a Russians, but once they took over they inflicted strict and harsh policies upon the people of Afghanistan, and were well