Middle East Crisis part 2 Afghanistan

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

MIDDLE EAST CHAOS  PART 2

AFGHANISTAN

 

The modern history of the middle east has been overshadowed or clouded by the ideological conflict of the cold war. The policy of the USSR, "The Brezhnev Doctrine"' was to support communist governments that were already in existence and to support and encourage any new communist movements worldwide. The policy of the United States and the western powers was to do all that was possible to block communist and USSR expansion worldwide.

The Soviet Union was the first to publicly warn of the danger of Islamic fundamentalism. The Soviet Union hosted the fifth largest Muslim population in the world during the cold war years.

Afghanistan has a long history of being the crossroads of east and west. It was on the silk road and the gateway to China. We will try to start our observations in the modern era starting in the 1970"s.

The end of the monarchy, and the beginning of the Republic of Afghanistan took place by a non-violent coup by Prime Minister Mohammad Sardar Daud Khan on July 17, 1973. His attempts to carry out economic and political reform met with little success. In April 1978, the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), a Soviet-backed Marxist group led by Nur Mohammad Taraki and others, assassinated Daud and his entire family. The country was then named the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Taraki was assassinated in 1979 and replaced by Hafizullah Amin who proceeded to replace religious and traditional laws with Marxist-Leninist ones. While the PDPA held strong control of Kandahar, the rest of the country began to increasingly resist. The PDPA asked for Soviet assistance and the USSR sent in military advisers and also helped to modernize the infrastructure. The PDPA became more repressive and tortured and murdered thousands of the traditional elite, killing over 10,000 and imprisoning over 14,000 more.

In the wake of the Iranian Revolution the US sought rapprochement with the Afghan government. This was not acceptable to the Soviets. In February 1979 the US Ambassador was kidnapped and ultimately murdered when Afghan forces tried to rescue him. The US then reduced assistance and terminated a small military training program.

By early 1979, the Soviets had 1500 advisers in the country and some 20 Soviet advisers were captured and publicly lynched and mutilated. In December 1979, the USSR invaded with 100,000 troops which was assisted by another 100,000 Afghan troops. The Carter administration began to support the resistance. The Reagan administration continued the support. The US through Pakistan's ISI, and Saudi Arabia supplied up to $40 billion in military aid to the Mujahedeen. The 10-year Soviet occupation resulted in the death of between 850,000 and 1,500,000 Afghans; 6 million fled to Pakistan and Iran; 38,000 fled to the United States and many more to Europe. The Soviets lost between 14,000 and 24,000 troops. The fear of militant Islam and the policies of the cold war had placed the Soviet Union in an untenable situation, they began their withdrawal in 1989. The Soviet assistance completely ended in 1992. Their experience was much like the US.'s in Viet Nam. Reforms were begun by Gorbachev with perestroika and glasnost. The Soviet foreign policy and the Soviet system itself were up for reexamination. Interestingly, this was a low point in the history of the USSR, but also a high point in US Soviet relations.

After the fall of the Communist government, the Afghan political parties agreed to a peace and power-sharing agreement (the Peshawar Accords) creating the Islamic State of Afghanistan. All the parties agreed to this accord except Gullbuddin Heckmatyar's Hezb-e Islami who was supported by Pakistan. The interim government was hardly organized before outside forces supported by Iran and Saudi Arabia began fighting for control, Iran supported the Shia Hezb-i Waldat forces, while Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite, Ittibad-I Islami faction.  Unrest escalated with different factions, supported by Pakistan, Iran, Saudi-Arabia, Uzbekistan, and regular state forces. In 1995 most of these groups were defeated by the government forces under Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In 1994 , the Taliban under Mullah Omar took power in parts of southern and central Afghanistan. In 1995 with military assistance from Pakistan and financial help from Saudi Arabia they began an offensive against Kabul, but were defeated by Massoud.  In September 1996 they seized Kabul, Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum fled and created the Northern Alliance. They controlled about 30% of the country with a moderate Islamic government. The Taliban then created the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They imposed the strictest form of Islamic law on all who lived in the areas they controlled. They executed many Shia's including Iranian diplomats.

Pakistan supplied troops and supported Taliban and Al Qaeda forces to attempt to defeat the Northern Alliance. In early 2001 Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels asking the international community for assistance. He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" He claimed the Taliban was loosing popular support of the people and without outside support from Pakistan the Taliban would not endure. On September 9, 2001 Massoud was assassinated by suicide bombers inside Afghanistan. Two days later 3000 American's were killed by Al Qaeda operatives in the United States.

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda were mostly supported by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both Sunni Muslim countries. By 2001 of the estimated 45,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda  fighters only 14,000 were Afghans. This started out as the last confrontation of the cold war and transitioned into a Sunni-Shia conflict for control of this remote backward country. This was the opening battle in this war that escalated into a major international crisis that has been ongoing with no end in sight.

Part 3 to follow