American Involvement

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 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 led

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 Enfields 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 Tsongas 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 DeConcini 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