A Brief History of Afghanistan (Part 2)

Continuing on -

Daoud had seized power with the help of a political party named the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) – a pro-Moscow communist party. The PDPA had aided and collaborated with Daoud in exchange for government posts.

In 1978 the PDPA seized power from Daoud in a military coup. Immediately following the PDPA coup, the Soviet Union took an active interest and dismayed by the clumsiness of the radical faction of the PDPA, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and handed power over to Karmal, the leader of the more moderate faction of the PDPA.

Once inside Afghanistan, the Soviets found themselves forced to commit more and more troops and material to prop up the unpopular PDPA government. Several Islamic fundamentalist groups sprang up and began waging guerrilla warfare, many of them operating from camps set up by the CIA and Pakistani Intelligence within Pakistan, from which they could strike into Afghanistan, and then retreat over a guarded border.

For its part, the United States government paid little attention to the PDPA coup in Afghanistan; its attention was instead focused to the west, where a popular revolution had overthrown their most valuable Middle East ally, the Shah of Iran. Once the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan, however the United States got involved.

At that point the United States began aiding the Islamic fundamentalists waging war on the PDPA and the Soviets. The CIA provided military training to the Islamic guerrillas, called the Mujahadeen. They provided billions of dollars worth of weapons, including sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that allowed the guerrillas to take on modern Soviet tanks and jet planes.

The Soviet military gradually became worn-down and discouraged. They were able to occupy and hold all of the major cities, but they were unable to subjugate the countryside. Soviet causalities began to mount dramatically, and with the CIA’s providing the Mujahadeen with Stinger missiles, even their control of the air became a costly affair.

At the same time the CIA was supplying the Mujahadeen weaponry, the Saudis and Persian Gulf Emirates also contributed billions of dollars, and thousands of Arabs responded to the Mujahadeen’s call for jihad, or holy war, against the secular Soviets.

One of the Arabs that responded was the wealthy Saudi, Osama bin Laden – who quickly became one of the CIA’s most important operatives in its proxy war against communism.

In 1989 the Soviet Union withdrew, leaving the PDPA government to fend for itself. The CIA soon lost interest in its mercenary forces once the Soviets had withdrawn. The various Mujahadeen factions then began fighting amongst themselves as well as with the remaining PDPA forces. It wasn't until 1992 that Mujahadeen fighters were able to topple the remnants of the PDPA government – ending the attempt to bring communism to the people of Afghanistan.

The collapse of the PDPA government did not mark the end of Afghanistan’s civil war. Different Mujahadeen leaders then occupied and ruled different cities and regions of the country and they continued to fight each other seeking to enlarge their new fiefdoms at the expense of their neighboring rivals.

Hoping to end the civil war which threatened the stability of their own country, Pakistani Intelligence aided in the creation of a new Islamic fundamentalist movement, the Taliban.

The Taliban came from the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Its leadership and the bulk of its initial ranks, were made up of young students, primarily Pashtuns, motivated by religion and the belief that they were ordained to bring stability and the ways of Allah to their war torn land.

They fought against the contending Mujahadeen factions inside Afghanistan, and when they mounted a military push to conquer the country, they were initially well received by some parts of the Afghan population. Their ranks were joined by rank and file Mujahadeen fighters and young idealists from inside the country, and city-by-city they were able to occupy most of the country.

In 1996 they captured the capital city of Kabul, and had forced most of the remaining Mujahadeen leaders into a small pocket in the far north of the country. These leaders subsequently formed a defensive coalition termed the Northern Alliance.

Once in power the Taliban sought to create a theocratic state based on their interpretations of the Koran and an effort was made to purge the country of any signs or remnants of secular or Western influence.

Then came the current war.

Following the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City, the United States accused its former ally, Osama Bin Laden of the crime. Bin Laden had left Afghanistan following the defeat of the Soviets, but had returned there after falling out of favor in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. government demanded that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden. The Taliban’s response was to demand proof of Bin Laden’s guilt, and after receiving none, they refused to hand him over.

Within a few weeks, the United States began bombing Afghanistan as well as providing active support to the Northern Alliance leadership. Following weeks of bombing, and several failed offensives, the Northern Alliance succeeded in breaking out of its northern enclave, seizing the city of Mazar–E–Sharif, and then moving on to take Kabul. This set in motion a series of defeats for the Taliban, which began surrendering and abandoning almost every major city in the country, and retreating into the mountains.

At least hundreds, and more likely thousands, of people have been killed by U.S.-led forces, and many more are dying as the Northern Alliance and Taliban continue to fight it out. It’s hard to say how much longer the Taliban will continue to fight or when the U.S. will end its war.

What is the solution for Afghanistan? What will end the suffering of its people?

I do not know. Something tells me this country needs to be left alone for a change.