In Afghanistan it was meant to be like clockwork — as well as in Czechoslovakia in 1968. When on Christmas day 1979, Soviet troops opened fire, the West is resigned to the fact that in a few months “blush” Afghanistan, and after — and the entire Persian Gulf. But instead the Soviet Union collapsed, including some backroom games of the USA and large-scale trafficking in heroin.
2 Feb 1989. Afghan Kabul leaving the last Soviet soldiers. They are demoralized, exhausted with hepatitis and typhus. Their houses are not greeted as heroes, and they join 470 of the thousands of injured and sick soldiers, nameless wretches, whom the Kremlin, the government spent from 1979 to 1989, more than $ 2.4 billion. The country will embrace the “Afghan disease” (a sort of American “sobering up after Vietnam”).
In the second half of the 70-ies of the Moscow’s prestige has risen to unprecedented heights. After the American failure in Vietnam and the oil crisis, which covered primarily the Western world, the Soviet Union felt confident enough to recklessly enter into the treacherous Afghanistan. The USSR didn’t care that in the modern history of this mountain, divided into different Nations and tribes, the country has never been conquered. Last attempt to capture it was taken by the British during the third Anglo-Afghan war in 1919, and their attempt failed.
“If we had evaluated the experience of the British, resulting in war on the vast, bare and mountainous terrain, we would not have chosen the tactics of using infantry and armored divisions, said after the war General Boris Gromov. It was necessary to give preference to infantry and patience. No carpet bombing.” Gromov also said that “it was a mistake to ignore the impact of the Mujahideen, who were brought to their side large-scale and financed CIA”. In General, the Soviet army “forgotten”, lost in the scheme of warfare for good viewing of the European plains and hybrid methods of occupation that were used in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (in 1968).
However, after the first Soviet troops in Kabul on Christmas day 1979 and the imminent capture of the city, the situation looked optimistic. However, as confirmed 25 years later the Americans in Iraq, the rapid advance of the enemy in the Eastern country — a dubious achievement.
The Soviet advance in Afghanistan slowed down after a few weeks. Mountain ranges over the major cities was controlled by the Mujahideen, Islamic fundamentalists, United in a paramilitary organization. The rejection they have caused even the pretext used for the Soviet invasion (a fake request of the Afghan leadership to “help”). As soon as the country began to provide “fraternal assistance,” the unpredictable Communist Prime Minister Nur Mohammad Taraki was replaced by the more reliable Babrak Karmal (in 1978 -1979, he was Ambassador to Czechoslovakia). The number of Soviet groups in a hostile country, larger than France, has reached 120 thousand people, which were divided into five divisions, four brigades and four separate regiments.
But most of the Afghan territory and hilly uplands and plateau — was controlled by the Mujahideen, who secretly got a sniper rifle and missile complexes American production.
The United States, which in 1981 was headed by the energetic Ronald Reagan intervened in the conflict indirectly, however, their investment in this war ($3.2 billion) as a result of exceeded Soviet. American money came to Afghanistan without the knowledge of Congress through the CIA directly into the hands of the Mujahideen.
“These people are the moral equivalent of the American founding fathers”. This wonderful phrase uttered in 1985, not some idealist and a radical, and Ronald Reagan, with whose consent there have been other disgusting from a moral point of view. In particular, there was a trade of Afghan heroin.
Today it is well known that under the guise of the CIA and the Pakistani inter-services intelligence opium from the fields of the Mujahideen were supplied to Pakistan, where he was treated and then sold. Presumably, the proceeds from the sale of drugs brought from half a billion to a billion dollars. By the way, in 80-e years the American Management on struggle against drugs has not carried out any major operations to combat trafficking in heroin.
Already in 1981 or in 1982, Soviet generals, it became clear how many problems basicnet in Afghanistan: Soviet troops did not help even the legendary Mi-24, because the Mujahideen had “neutralized” it is not less effective weapon — anti-aircraft missiles with infrared guidance system FIM-92 “stinger”.
Moreover, when in 1983-1984, the number of the Mujahideen has begun to exceed the Soviet forces to victory in Afghanistan began to seem just a utopia.
The war, which was to confirm the Soviet dominance for 70 years, opened a post-war depletion of power, which failed to create a viable economy. In March 1985, after the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev to power and the beginning of perestroika, the Soviet economy began to fall apart, that had an impact on the war in Afghanistan.
After 1986 it was important just to wriggle out of the situation, avoiding shame. But as it turned out, it was inevitable, and the Kremlin’s decision to permanently leave the country, which broke off his teeth, affected only threats from the US and Canada that they will stop shipments of grain to starving after the poor harvest of 1988, the Soviet Union.
The agony of Moscow ceased on 15 February 1989, but peace in Afghanistan never reigned. It is not there today. The strengthening of the Mujahideen, which in 1996 merged into the Taliban (not a terrorist organization — approx. ed.), resulted in the growth of fundamentalism, and its symbol today is “al Qaeda” (banned in Russia as a terrorist organization — approx. ed.). And the United States their game has returned like a boomerang.
