Anti Soviet Mujahideen example essay topic

The worst case scenario for the United States in the late 70's and early 80's 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 Za gros 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 led to the emergence of Al-Qaeda and the September 11th attacks. On December 24th 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On that day began a war which wreaked incredible havoc and destruction on Afghanistan for 10 long years.

The Soviets stormed in with thousands of troops at the request of the troubled Afghan Communist regime. The Russians believed this be a neat surgical military operation. They were wrong. (Boggs) The only resistance to the Soviet invasion were men known as the 'mujahideen' known to many as freedom fighters. They are multinational; some even from America, doing everything in their power to repeal the Soviet horde. The Soviet invasion frightened neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, so they unofficially allied with the United States.

The U.S. provided the weaponry, training, etc., Saudi Arabia recruited the fighters (mujahideen) which were sometimes based in Pakistan. They all agreed on the need for armed resistance against the Soviets. The U.S. decided to tap the religious vein of the rebels, creating a zealous religiously driven guerrilla organization; well armed and trained by CIA officers with the goal of returning Afghanistan to Islamic purity. The Mujahideen tactics were mostly composed of ambushes for Soviet convoys. They also implemented hit and run tactics against the Soviets. (Jalali, 20) The main battles were fought for convoys.

Soviet forces were dependent on convoys for various reasons. Afghanistan had undeveloped industry making no possibility to manufacture spare parts in Afghanistan. Railways were nonexistent, so everything not airlifted was brought in through trucks on the dangerous roads. Gas and oil pipelines were frequent targets to the mujahideen so fuels also had to be brought in on supply trucks. (Nyrop, 27) Soviet convoys were also vulnerable due to the surrounding terrain. The roads were very narrow and steep in Afghanistan.

The limited road network, thin, icy air and insufficient armor on vehicles all slowly leaded to the Soviets demise. There were other reasons for rebel attacks on convoys. By disrupting convoys, the Soviet outposts were negatively affected, forcing them to increase their protection; Thereby reducing the number of troops ready to battle rebels elsewhere. After the Mujahideen cleared the convoy from the few surviving Russians, they would sweep the convoys of all weapons, food, clothing, money, and other useful items. (Tamarov, 59) 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) To combat the Soviets effectively the mujahideen were in great need of sophisticated weaponry. Many of the mujahideen were equipped with 'Enfield' bolt action rifles, left over from the previous imperial conflict 65 years earlier: World War I. (Fortier) In addition to the Enfield's were the captured Soviet weapons, and not to forget the CIA's generous weapons donations.

At that point in time the United States desperately wanted to strike back at the Soviets for our loss in Vietnam. To keep the war going, the CIA, in charge with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan's military intelligence agency, funneled millions of dollars to the mujahideen. It was the remotest and safest form of warfare: the US and Saudi Arabia provided funds, and America also a very limited amount of training. (Afghanistan) To prevent any link to the Soviets, the CIA did not supply the rebels with American weapons. Instead, weapons for the Afghan mujahideen were bought with U.S. laundered funds in Saudi Arabia from China and Egypt. Specifically, the CIA bought Soviet weapons.

There were two reasons for this. If mujahideen were captured by the Soviets, the rebels' weaponry would not give rise to the idea of American support. Also by using the same weapons as the Soviets, the mujahideen could again re-supply and rearm themselves by looting the weakly defended Russian convoys. (Boggs) After the Reagan administration armed the mujahideen with fully automatic rifles, they felt ready to introduce deadly Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to aid the mujahideen in battling Soviet aircraft. Relatively simple to operate with a nice short length of 5 feet, 2.75 inches in diameter, and at 34.5 pounds fully armed; this was a lightweight champion.

The Stinger is able to be fired from as far away as 5 miles and is very capable of bringing down military helicopters, air-fueling tankers, and low-flying warplanes. The leading supporter from the operation came from Congress, Senator Paul Tsong as who complained that the United States must supply the rebels with high-tech weapons if they were to challenge the Soviet Army. Whereas another Senator, Dennis De Concini constantly worried that the rebels which were dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, who loathed the West almost as much as they hated the Soviets; might possibly share the deadly Stingers with terrorist groups. Nonetheless, Congress approved the deal, and the CIA shipped a sleek batch of 300 Stingers to the rebels in 1986 and 700 more the following year. 'We were handing them out like lollipops,' an American intelligence official later told the Washington Post. (Silverstein) Before the Stingers' arrival in Afghanistan, the mujahideen had virtually no defense against the Russian Army's MI-24 Hind gunships, which supported massive firepower and carried up to eight combat troops.

The first time the rebels used the Stingers in action, they destroyed three Hinds, and they defeated nearly 275 Russian aircraft before the Soviets finally withdrew in 1989. 'The Stingers neutralized Soviet air power and marked a strategic turning point in the war,' says Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA officer who was involved in the Afghan operation. (Silverstein) Unfortunately as predicted, the Stinger missiles lost in the black market pose a major threat to airliners. Already in 2002 stingers have been reportedly used by a terrorist group that attempted to shoot down an Israeli plane taking vacationers from Kenya.

(Havely) Aviation experts say developing and deploying stinger missile defense devices on commercial airliners would cost more than $2 million for each aircraft. The cost would have to be passed on to passengers and airlines say that is not commercially practical. The company also says that defense systems have been installed on several executive Gulfstream jets and are used to protect a number of heads of state. (Havely) Using the supplied weaponry and training, the mujahideen took full advantage of each situation. Although the Soviets were easily capitalized on by the rebels, they were also very brutal, destroying entire villages in which they suspected mujahideen lived in.

Reports of gas and poisoned water supplies violating the Geneva Convention were all too common. The Soviets also dropped mines from aircraft and again, heavily bombarded the entire country of Afghanistan. The Soviets had some of the most advanced weapons of the time. One of the Soviets main vehicles in the Soviet Afghan was the T-64.

This tank was equipped with armor piercing as well as high explosive shells. A 7.62-mm coaxial machine-gun was mounted to the right of the turret. Also equipped was an infra-red searchlight which was mounted on the left of the main armament. Two or three boxes of 12.7-mm ammunition were mounted on the left side of the turret. A snorkel was available and was carried on the top of the turret at the rear and at the very rear of the turret is a detachable stowage box. The T-64 had superior mobility than its predecessors.

The 5-cylinder, diesel engine had an output of 700 hp. The sides of the hull and upper part of the suspension were provided with gill type armor panels (which sprang outward when shot to reduce the effectiveness of high explosive anti tank rounds.) The 12.7-mm anti-aircraft machine gun had electric elevation with manual controls being provided for emergency use. The 12.7-mm antiaircraft machine-gun of the T-64 can also be aimed and fired from within the tank. It has a radiation detection system, an anti-radiation liner, and a collective NBC filtration and overpressure system.

(FAS) The Soviet T-64 tank was by far one of the most effective battle tanks of the time. Now although the Soviets may have had these advanced weapons systems, the mujahideen still had one major advantage over the Soviets; this was their fighting spirit. The mujahideen believed that they were fighting for their god Allah in a holy war against the Russians. They believed that even if slaughtered in combat they would be allowed to enter heavens gates with 72 virgins for all of eternity.

Needless to say, many had no fear of death. With these beliefs, they never gave up fighting; ambushing, attacking, and most of all demoralizing. (Afghan Books) Fight after fight the Soviets slowly grew weaker. More and more Soviet soldiers began questioning their cause. This low morale finally worked its way up for the Soviet command to give the order to strategically withdrawal. The only problem was, the Soviets did not desire to show weakness and admit defeat.

They did anyway. Only three years after the Soviets withdrawal, the mujahideen overthrew a left-wing government left behind in Kabul by the Soviets themselves. It wasn't long at all before the various once allied rebel factions turned on each other and Afghanistan fell yet again into chaos, leaving hundreds of captured soviet military weaponry unused Stingers unaccounted for. (Raman) The United States was seen in the Islamic world as a beneficiary to the Muslim defeat of the Soviet Bear in the mountains of Afghanistan. After the collapse of the Socialist Republic the following American administrations focused on the problems of Eastern Europe. Rather than overseeing the reconstruction of Afghanistan and continuing contact with local agents, the CIA changed their focus point and left Afghanistan as if nothing had happened.

After the Mujahideen defeated the Soviets Osama Bin Laden transformed them into a framework for his Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization known as "al-Qaeda". The veteran Mujahideen from outside Afghanistan were angry at their countries that had allied with the U.S. This was because their home nations urged the CIA not to return their passports and vital documents to them, exiling them to live in the ashes of a war torn nation. Al-Qaeda origins come out of the Services Office, a clearinghouse for the international Muslim brigade opposed to the Soviet invasion. In the 1980's, the Services Office-run by Bin Laden and another Palestinian religious scholar-recruited, trained, and financed thousands of foreign mujahideen, from more than 50 countries. (QA) By the time the Soviets pulled out, Al-Qaeda had grown with thousands of members and associates. Bin Laden claims that Al-Qaeda's goal is to 'unite all Muslims and to establish a government which follows the rule of the Caliphs.

' Bin Laden has stated that the only way to establish the Caliphate is by force. Al-Qaeda's goal, therefore, is to overthrow nearly all Muslim governments, which are viewed as corrupt, to drive Western influence from those countries, and eventually to abolish state boundaries. (Al-Qa " ida, 1) These ideas formed this organization around 1988. It is obvious that Osama bin Laden's ideals of the caliphate all derive deeply from his beliefs. These deep rooted beliefs of his, are known to us as Islam. Many don't know what Islam is, Islam is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be.

That is why Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to numerous smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization. Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world view, as long as they did not oppose the principles of Islam. Each ethnic and racial group which embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged.

The sense of brotherhood and sisterhood was so much emphasized that it overcame all local attachments to a particular tribe, race, or language. All of which became docile to the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam. (Ross) The global civilization thus created by Islam permitted people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to work together in cultivating various arts and sciences. Although the civilization was profoundly Islamic, even non-Muslim 'people of the book' participated in the activity whose knowledge belonged to everyone.

The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the mind and thought of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became one of the firsts to pioneer science and learning. For eight hundred years Arabic remained the major intellectual and scientific language of the world. During the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim dynasties ruling in various parts of the Islamic world bore witness to the expanding of Islamic culture and thought. (Wuthnow) In Islam the main religious leader is known as a Caliph, Muhammad was the first Caliph and founder of Islam. The Caliph in power had a political organization that was entirely centered around him.

He was a political and military leader and he was the source of revelation. When political or social difficulties came up, not only would they center on Muhammad, but sometimes through revelation be mediated by Allah himself. (Hooker) The Caliph rested his state on the support of the Arab tribes, gathering around him a circle of tribal chieftains with whom he consulted regularly. While he ruled as a caliph, enemies of him defined his regime as a form of kingship. (Tuninga) The Umayyad caliphate established in 661 was to last for about a century. During this time Damascus became the capital of an Islamic world which stretched from the western borders of China to southern France.

Not only did the Islamic conquests continue during this period through North Africa to Spain and France in the West and to Sind, Central Asia and Trans Oceania in the East, but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded Islamic world were established. (History of Islam) The Islamic empire was once great, and Osama bin Laden wishes to restore his land to its previous state, by whatever means possible. With the ideals preset, all bin Laden and Al-Qaeda needed was money to help complete these goals. Al-Qaeda is funded in several ways. Bin Laden, whose family runs a large construction company in Saudi Arabia, has provided funds from his inheritance, and he established companies to provide income and charities that act as fronts. Credit-card fraud, Protection schemes, and diamond and drug smuggling are other possible sources of money.

Donors sympathetic to Al-Qaeda's mission-many from the Persian Gulf region and reportedly including disaffected members of the Saudi royal family-channel funds to the group. US and international efforts to block Al-Qaida funding has hampered the group's ability to obtain money. Al-Qaeda operated approximately 12 training camps in Afghanistan, in which it has reportedly trained as many as 5,000 militants. These militants have supposedly created cells in 50 countries.

Some of these trainees may be 'sleeper' agents, who live undetected among local populations waiting for the perfect moment to strike. With plans of exiling the Westerners off the Muslim soil, obtaining top quality weaponry is on the top of Al-Qaeda's list of importance. As a result of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union, Al-Qaida unfortunately possesses significant military equipment, including SCUD-B missiles, which fleeing Soviet troops left behind, and Stingers that the Mujahideen received from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Many reports have also claimed that Bin Laden has attempted to purchase nuclear material and ready-made warheads from entities in Russia, unspecified chemical weapons from entities in Iraq and Sudan, and biological agents in the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia. There is no evidence to support these claims, particularly those reports regarding possession of nuclear weapons.

(Fortier) Al-Qaeda members have also been familiarized with modern communications and have been reported to use encrypted e-mail, cellular phones which may be used to detonate a nearby explosive, satellite communications, and training manuals on CD-ROMs. Al-Qaeda is dangerous, and must be stopped by our government. Although supplying the rebel mujahideen with weapons and training may have seemed like a good idea at the time, it is obvious that those and the CIA's following actions sparked deadly repercussions that would take over 6,000 American lives. Our American involvement in the Soviet Afghan war has led to the emergence of Al-Qaeda and the September 11th attacks.

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