DBWI: Soviet Invasion of Afganistan

[Agentdark]

Hey, I know this sounds kinda weird, but I read some where that the Soveit Union considered invading Afganistan in the late 70'
s early 80's. If they had, and probably gotten bogged down in a bloody mountian war, what would the effects have been, do you think the Soviet Union might have even collapsed!

[Straha]

Well if you want a sov invasion of afghanistan you'd need an earlier POD. I suppose no rockefeller presidency from 1969-1977 and no Ford presidency from 1977-1981 would help. You'd need to have a weakling like that peanut farmer from georgia or jerry brown as POTUS.

[Earling]

A bloody mountain war with Afganistan? Thats possibly the most rediculous thing I have ever heard. The Soviets would be in Kabul inside a month and from then on any real resistance would be sporadic and ineffective at best.

How much damage can a few fanatics cowering in caves cause?

[Straha]

A bloody mountain war with Afganistan? Thats possibly the most rediculous thing I have ever heard. The Soviets would be in Kabul inside a month and from then on any real resistance would be sporadic and ineffective at best.

How much damage can a few fanatics cowering in caves cause?
The terrain is highly conducive to guerilla warfare though. A few years of guerilla war then a massive series of muslim revolts in the SSSR leading to them virus bombing lartge parts of central asia sounds likely. The strain from the civil war would probably cause the soviets to fall by 1985 at the latest.

[mattep74]

Maybe if they invade Afghanistan would be a more prosperous nation today and more like the eastern europeans nations than a country from Africa without any chanse of surviving without foregin aid

[Gamingboy]

Dude. What would the Afghanis have had to possibly fight back. I mean, the Red Army would be fighting guys with decades-old equipment and "commanded", if that were the right word, by mercenaries and the sons of high-up Arab bussiness leaders. The Russians would be in Kabul within a few months at most, but more likely just a few weeks.




As an aside, I'm wondering how that would have affected the 1980 Olympics. I mean, they were set to take place in Moscow. The USA wouldn't have called for a boycott, would they?

[rowmaster]

What effect would this have on the Soviet Intervention into Iran?

[Straha]

What effect would this have on the Soviet Intervention into Iran?
Well unlike OTL's situation where it ended up with a partitioned Iran we'd see Iran AND afghanistan in anarchary.

[Agentdark]

Woah, could that possibly mean the terrorists are even more powerful?

[Evil Opus]

Hey, I know this sounds kinda weird, but I read some where that the Soveit Union considered invading Afganistan in the late 70'
s early 80's. If they had, and probably gotten bogged down in a bloody mountian war, what would the effects have been, do you think the Soviet Union might have even collapsed! A country like Afgahnistan couldn't have caused a Soviet collapse.

[Rasputin]

The Soviet Union is half-collapsed as it is, with 11 of the original 15 SSRs independent. And even then the name 'Soviet Union' means as much as the 'Socialist Republic of India' does, so it can hardly be considered a colossus. The Soviet Union was struggling long before the 'contraction' in 1995, so compared to all the other troubles the USSR was having to keep up with, invading Afghanistan would be no more than a drop in the bucket.

I certainly can't see it having many long-term consequences. The Soviets move in, mop up, and leave, just like in Eastern Europe. Sure, there'd be protests, but when weren't there?