Soviet-Afghan War Essay

In April 1978 Afghanistan’s centrist government, led by President Muhammad Daud Khan, was overthrown by Soviet left-wing military officers, led by a man named Nur Muhammad Taraki. The Soviet Union was in support of the communists in Afghanistan and against the anti communist, “Muslim guerrillas”. The Soviet Union wanted to replace Afghanistan’s existing government to spread communism. The war ended up straining the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly to the breaking point. The United States was not in favor of the Soviet Union trying to invade Afghanistan. This ineffective war lasted eight years, cost many lives and a lot of money, and was often compared to the Vietnam War. The Muslim rebels eventually succeeded

Babrak Karmal replaced by Najibullah as head of Soviet-backed regime. 1988 - Afghanistan, USSR, the US and Pakistan sign peace accords and Soviet Union begins pulling out troops. Red Army quits 1989 - Last Soviet troops leave, but civil war continues as mujahideen push to overthrow

The war in Afghanistan started in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks because of a terrorist group called Al- Qaeda, and its leader, Osama bin Laden, the one who planned the attacks. It was a very long and hard conflict that lasted approximately thirteen years. Canadian troops got involved for more than a decade fighting to make Afghanistan a better place for their citizens. The Canadian forces completed several key military operations, including “Medusa operation”, and more with the help of their allies before ending the conflict successfully on their own terms.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the eventual civil war both effected America in many ways. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, they learned that their troops “were of little use in a place like Afghanistan” (Paul) because of the harsh terrain and environment. Using airstrikes, the Soviets began to decimate many of the villages within Afghanistan. It was because of this act of aggression that America started arming the resistance fighters with anti-aircraft missiles. With the assistance of the United States, the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan, which led to internal fighting within the tribes for power.

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

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?

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

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).

The worst case scenario for the United States in the late 70s and early 80s was the threat of the Soviet invasion of Iran and subsequent control of the Saudi Oil fields. The best that could be done to counter a possible Soviet invasion would have been the deployment of parts of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Zagros Mountains of Iran, which would take at least a week with reinforcements arriving much later. This was not acceptable to the Carter Administration, which decided on another course of action - to actively support the anti-Soviet Mujahideen “freedom - fighters” in Afghanistan and help protect the Middle Eastern oil fields. This American involvement in the Soviet Afghan war has

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.

This is when the Americans stopped being involved, it did not matter to them what happened in Afghanistan anymore as they had won against the Soviets. When the war ended, the most affected were the Mujahideens that had stayed once the war had been won. These Islamic warriors had been brought to Afghanistan from across the Islamic world, they had a goal to rebuild Afghanistan in their ideal Islamic image. However once the war ended, everyone who was involved, especially the United States abandoned them, many of these people were brought to Afghanistan by the Americans in order to be fighters but once the Americans were gone they had no way to return home. It is important to understand that Afghanistan was devastated nation at that time. Many of the Mujahideens that were left behind came together to form alliances. What Osama Bin Laden did a that time was become a leader of alliances that were made as he had maintained his funding sources due to him being a Saudi elite. (To what extent is Al-Qaeda a creation of the

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.

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.

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.