WMWG Part 1; 1989

1989 ... (Soviet – Afghan War)

·         Soviets were controlling Afghanistan.

·         U.S. didn’t want Soviets in Afghanistan – U.S. gives arms and weapons to Afghanistan to provoke Soviets.

·         Soviets fight with Afghanistan – Soviet Union finally leaves.

·         Soviets left, they put Mohammed Najibullah in control of Afghanistan as president – so he would be the Soviet Union’s puppet government in the Middle East, basically still controlling everything without physically being there. Turns into Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Najibullah was part of the secret police in Afghanistan and was a brutal person that tortured and killed many people.

·         Soviets continued to give arms to Najibullah.

·         March 1989 ... U.S. worked with Pakistan’s intelligence service – ISI – to get the Mujahedeen (the holy people that disproved of the Soviet Union’s puppet government in their Afghanistan) to attack the city of Jalalabad – A DRA (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) stronghold.

·         Osama Bin Laden was one of the Mujahedeen commanders. So the U.S. got involved in Afghanistan and actually helped this guy? I was shocked.

·         Over the next 3 months, neither the Mujahedeen nor the DRA lost or gained any ground – became standoff with many killings.

·         Also during all this fighting, the Mujahideens were a group of people with many different backgrounds, ethnic groups, and religions. So while they were fighting the DRA, there were also many conflicts within this group of people.

·         The Mujahedeen’s withdrew from Jalalabad in July 1989.

·         During this time the Opium trade started because when the Soviets and Afghans were fighting, the Soviets wiped out all of the irrigation systems, leaving nothing able to grow but opium, so many people were getting hooked on this drug.

·         Mujahedeen’s started fighting one another to control the new drug trade – all said to be “in the name of God”.

·         And even though the Soviets had pulled out of Afghanistan, the CIA continued to provide the Afghan holy warriors with 250$ million per year as a counterbalance to the billions spent by the Soviet Union to prop up the DRA.

·         During this time Bin Laden left Afghanistan and went to Saudi Arabia because of the Mujahedeen infighting. He inspired many Arab Jihads to go to the conflict – al-Qaeda training camps instructed them in guerilla warfare.