Briefly describe the key features of the soviet invasion in Afghanistan (6 marks)?
There are four reasons for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: 1a) To prop up the democratically elected (albeit after a fairly fraudulent election) Communist regime that was coming under pressure from the emerging Mujaheddin. 1b) For ideological reasons, the CPSU - communist party of the Soviet Union - did not want a "fraternal", i.e. communist, country to fall to "bourgeois elements". Part of Marxist orthodoxy is that communism is "inevitable", so it was their duty to help a communist regime in trouble. 2) For strategic reasons. Afghanistan is an important crossroads between India and Pakistan, and Iran & Turkey. It also gave the Soviets "Global Reach" - the means to reach anywhere in the World, something the US had had since the end of WWII. 3) For historic reasons: Russia had always wanted access to the Indian Ocean and to the trade routes of that part of the World, Afghanistan got them to within a few hundred miles of the ocean. 4) To control their own population. The USSR was home to many millions of Muslims and having a backwards, but fervently religious, country on its doorstep that could be used as a springboard for Iranian style Islamic revolts was a great concern.
Why did the Soviet invade Afganistan?
Russian does not had direct access to hot water seas. ( Best trading routes ). So invading or annexing Afghanistan would have helped them to get closed and in the later plan, Pakistan or specifically Baluchistan was the real target.Baluchistan has the world deepest sea port which is currently developed by Chinese collaboration through CPEC.Knowing this, you can understand why Pakistan acted on behalf of America during Russian occupation of Afghanistan.Russian is planning to become a partner in CPEC with china to get that hot water sea access.
Why did the Soviet Union fail in Afghanistan and why can’t the USA and NATO stop the Taliban?
Failure of USSR in Kabul:The cold war initiated from second world war culminated in 1980’s when USSR moved to Afghanistan to consolidate its likened regime. USA wanted to check Soviet’s expansion program so it militarized Pakistan to counter the attack of USSR. Enters Pakistan and Islamic Jihad. Both USA and Pakistan trained Talibans and facilitated them with military equipment and provided them logistics to fight against Soviets. Pakistan nurtured Taliban nurseries and became International Recruiter of Taliban along with USA. The result was: Failure of USSR and consolidation of Taliban militia in Afghanistan for coming decades. Pakistan was fearing that if USSR succeeded to conquer Kabul, it would attack Pakistan in the pursuit of hot waters. So, it naturally became a strong ally of USA.Note the interest of Pakistan. It helped USA so that USSR could not reach Pakistan.Failure of USA in Kabul:The nurseries nourished by Pak. and USA had now reaped and thus, Taliban took control of Kabul. Happens 9/11 and Talibans claim the responsibility. Now Pakistan, the main hub of Taliban is made again a front line to counter the very same terror, it matured.Pakistan becomes the Ally of USA and provides route to NATO forces and air bases to USA. Talibans are attacked in Afghanistan, but huge chunks of them flees to Pakistan to escape American Attack. USA thus has an ineffective operation against Talibans.Why would Pakistan help USA win the war on terror in Afghanistan?Most of Pakistani consider American war as an unjust war and praise the resistance of Afghan Taliban. USA doesn’t offer a deal that Pakistan can not reject. Pakistan want to install its own govt. in Kabul and sees Indian hegemony as a threat to its existence on both of its borders.
Why did Pakistan support the USA in 1970s against the soviets? Even though USA supports India strongly now?
I”ll explain you why Pakistan and it’s intelligence agency ISI supported USA against soviet union in 1970’s and how they did it and how it caused Pakistan so much damage till up to this date.Soviet Union’s actual target in South Asian region was ‘Balochistan’ of Pakistan and it’s deepest sea port in the world. Soviet Union always wanted to get control over dry ports in order to control and do trade, as there own ports are not dry causing a lock issue in cold weather. To come to Pakistan, Soviet Union had to go through Afghanistan.So, Soviet Union planned and actually did an invasion of Afghanistan.This is where USA entered the issue. USA knew that if Soviet Union takes control of those ports, they’ll be all over Indian ocean and nothing would stop them.So, they offered a help to ISI, they told Pakistan that they’ll fund whatever it takes to stop Soviet Union in Afghanistan.What ISI did is that they used Afghanistan people and made them so-called Jihadist.ISI in cooperation with CIA (USA) brainwashed these men, motivated them to fight against Soviet Union in name and greatness of Allah and Islam.And since these extremely brainwashed, motivated and angry men became what we today know as “Taliban Afghanistan”Even the word Taliban is driven from a word meaning “Students”. These people back than supported by USA and Pakistan successfully stopped Soviet Union in Afghanistan and did never allowed them to enter Pakistan. In this way, USA and Pakistan cooperating stopped Soviet Union.But soon it was realized that these men power of up to 30,000 armed men became a threat to USA itself and Pakistan too.India and Iran used them further to create a TTP today known as Tehreek Taliban Pakistan.Whole world knew Pakistan as a nation that funded terrorists. It is true that Pakistan till today support Afghan Taliban and call them proper Jihadist. They still use them to keep USA intact in Afghan war since USA is now ally of India who is certainly Pakistan’s biggest enemy.Hope this helps.
Did Russia really want to attack Pakistan in order to access to the warm waters?
Historically speaking, there’s not a lot of information on whether the USSR wanted Pakistan. It’s unlikely that they had shake-and-bake plans for any such invasion (though, the Red Army had a plan for everything — that’s what military organizations do). Pakistan fell firmly into the Anglo-American sphere of influence and the Soviets weren’t going to start a war over that country.That last part doesn’t mean that it wasn’t something they would never have done under any circumstances, but why bother? It had a fraction of the strategic value of Iran and Iran comes with lots of black gold. And that’s the point. The USSR did have eyes for Iran. Iran was less in the Anglo-American sphere and it was quickly moving further away from it until the CIA-MI6 engineered coup. Before then, it was independent enough to be reasonably fair game.This highlights the “not totally incomprehensible” nature of why the US and Britain engineered the coup. (Not saying it was right, just not beyond the ability to understand given the circumstances in the Mideast). The USSR desperately wanted warm water ports and Iran’s are located right in the most important strategic place on the planet.But even that never happened. The US and UK were never going to sit by and watch that. So, if the USSR were going to go to war, it would be for something that really justified the effort. Iran was kind of, sort of worth it. Pakistan was not.
Why is Russia so interested in controlling warm water ports?
First, let’s think about Russia.Where is Russia? North.What does it feel like in the North? Cold.What happens to water that is cold? Freeze.Therefore, Russia has few ports because there is no place to put a port down. (those ports russia does have are located around the black sea)
Has Pakistan become a peaceful country?
I live in Pakistan and I’ve a bad news for you. Pakistan is a safe haven of 71 banned terror organizations and Pakistan will never ever become a peaceful country because of 2 main reasons:When Army becomes the biggest shareholder in the country and plays a dissimulated role of killing those terrorists and on the other hand funds a large number of terror organization in Pakistan.Strong Army means weak govts. Pakistan has a history of weak rulers appointed by their lords in Britain, USA and Saudia. Thugs are just outlawed on taking high positions in the govt.Speaking of this, Pakistan would only achieve the peace if it starts 2 things:Army should stop interfering in Politics and should stop funding of terror organizations for the so-called benefit of Pakistan.Govt. should speak against the Army, a constitution should be made to take checks on Intelligence agencies and Army in general.Edit: I thought to add this video to explain you the mentality of the ruthless ISI, Assad Durrani (the sick human):
Is Russia interested in Gwadar port as its dream to warm water ports?
Where did you hear this nonsense? I’ve never heard of such idea, it’s ridiculous, just look at the maps. Let’s say Soviet Union were to get access to Pakistani ports. Then what? There are no railroads in Afghanistan and the distance, climate, landscape and hostile locals would make building and maintaining it very difficult. Besides, after Afghanistan comes Pakistan. What were they going to do about that?If Soviet Union would have been so much interested in gaining access to Arabian sea ports, it would have taken on Iran. At least they already had a suitable network of railroads in place and dealing with them would have been no harder task than dealing with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. But in reality this access wasn’t worth the war. Instead of being at the mercy of Turkey they would be even more, much much more dependent on Pakistan or Iran.As for the question - is Russia interested in this port - I don’t think so. Too complicated to access. Iran is easier and they do hope that Assad would regain control.