Integrity Score 380
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Chapter 2 Continues…
Besides the size of the Afghan armed forces on which he was so much dependant were also cut off into half. In 1979 things went out of control after Amin executed Taraki. He realised that he was being unable to stop the revolts and the Afghan armed forces on which he depended was cut into half. It was then that the Soviet General Staff began drafting a plan for intervention, It was on 12 December that Brezhnev, then 80–year old and ailing, met with a small circle of advisers in Kremlin. Overriding the views of several generals, the Soviet political leaders decided to send the Red Army into Afghanistan. The Brezhnev Doctrine (that called for the Red Army to defend fellow Communist regimes) came into effect in this case.
From the late 1979 till February 1989, the Soviet military forces remained in Afghanistan, a period that was also marked by fierce resistance from the Mujahideen who were mainly financed and equipped by the USA, the various Gulf States and the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, the ISI as well as by China and Iran. At this point of time, the United States supported the Mujahideen whom they regarded as “freedom fighters” despite they being Islamic militants. This was basically an opportunist Cold War strategy of aiding the enemies of the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden was among those who received U.S. assistance, as were many of those who later supported the Taleban in Afghanistan.28 For a decade, Soviet troops remained bogged down to Afghanistan. The Soviets sent around 350,000 troops to Afghanistan although there were never more than 120,000 in Afghanistan at any one time and lost perhaps as many as 85,000.29 The Afghans who resisted the Soviets lost about 1.3 million dead and perhaps the same number injured or maimed. Thousands of tons of arms crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The revelation of Brigadier Yousuf indicate that these arms were bought with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Saudi Arabian funds from the USA, Britain, China, Egypt and Turkey among others
To be continued…