DBWI: The US Supports Afghanistan?

What would have happened to the make-up of central Asia if the USA had supported the Afghani mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of that country? How would that have changed the political framework of that area--would Pakistan have remained independent of Soviet influence, and would India not have radicalized with such a threat on its borders? And I suppose this is stretching into the realm of implausibility, but would it have any effects on the modern day world stage as a whole?
 
maybe if the mujahideen had managed to keep afghanistan independent as instead of becoming a SSR, then maybe Islamic Extremism won't of metastasized to the rest of the central asian SSR's
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
maybe if the mujahideen had managed to keep afghanistan independent as instead of becoming a SSR, then maybe Islamic Extremism won't of metastasized to the rest of the central asian SSR's

And what is so extreme about simply wanting to have your country and have it make it's own laws? You guys have never studied Modern Islam and have no idea of the real effect the Great Transforming, started mainly by moderate and progressive muslim clerics in the Silk Road Synod, has had and is still having on World Islam. Google Taliban and Osama bin Laden and see what kind of bullet you dodged here w/o even knowing it.
 
I suppose the big question is if the Afghan rebels could hold out long enough to make the war untenable for the USSR.... rather like the VC vs. the US back in the 60s. What exactly would the US give to them? I suppose they'd buy up Soviet weaponry wherever they could and give it to them.. they certainly wouldn't be so foolish as to give them our latest and greatest technology at the time. I suppose they'd also supply them with Soviet handheld AA missiles to fend off the Russian helicopters and jets. But the Afghans would have to come up with a real political victory rather like the Tet offensive, something that would make the war extremely unpopular back home and get the leaders in trouble. That might be harder to do than with the US, since the USSR is such a controlled society....
 

Keenir

Banned
What would have happened to the make-up of central Asia if the USA had supported the Afghani mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of that country? How would that have changed the political framework of that area--would Pakistan have remained independent of Soviet influence, and would India not have radicalized with such a threat on its borders? And I suppose this is stretching into the realm of implausibility, but would it have any effects on the modern day world stage as a whole?

well, India and Pakistan almost re-united back in the '90s....so would it succeed this time?
 
I think one benefit of the fall of Afghanistan and Pakistan is the "radicalisation" of India as the original poster puts it. I presume he's a Marxist disgruntled at the fact that the images of the shootings in the streets when the Soviet backed "revolutionaries" overthrew the Pakistani givernment shocked the Indian government out of it's idealistic Marxist haze. Without all the US aid that got pumped in in the early 80's India certainly wouldn't have pulled up it's socks. Now people grumble about the fact that everything seems to be "made in India" but the country is far more prosperous than it ever was when it had the luxury of relative isolation from the Cold War- in any case the important thing is that India has retained it's democratic government...the only thing that's radicalised is that the people getting elected aren't corrupt two-bit communists.

And imagine what the Cold War would have been like without Indian manpower. The Soviet troops propping up their Pakistani and Afghan client states now found themselves in two bloody guerilla wars. Furthermore, with India driven into the arms of the West the free world now had an ally who could counter the Soviet numerical superiority with numbers of their own.

Remember- with a million-strong Indian army facing them across the Indus the Soviets were now forced to be very, very careful. In effect, opening the South Aaian front of the Cold war tied down vast numbers of troops. Every Soviet conscript sitting in garrison in Lahore was one less sitting in Warsaw or East Berlin. The horrendous expense of keeping up troop numbers on all those fronts contributed hugely to the Soviet financial collapse.
 
maybe if the mujahideen had managed to keep afghanistan independent as instead of becoming a SSR, then maybe Islamic Extremism won't of metastasized to the rest of the central asian SSR's

Bright day
OOC: It was not meant to be be a Soviet republic, the Soviets just went in to shoot the idot in Kabul and prop up their local proxies.
 
Bright day
OOC: It was not meant to be be a Soviet republic, the Soviets just went in to shoot the idot in Kabul and prop up their local proxies.
OOC: i know, but i was think after 2 or 3 years of iraq-like occupation the Soviets get sick of palying proxie and eat Afghanistan
 

ninebucks

Banned
The Sovietisation of Pakistan completely realligned the Cold War Great Game politics of the region. India shattered their ties with Moscow and redirected their friendship towards the PRC. In 1992 the two nations signed the Treaty of Gangtok, finally formalising their borders, and now, in 2007, the Sino-Indian Free Trade Area is the largest common market of its kind IN THE WORLD. SIFTA has, no doubt, helped both nations achieve their full potential and it is unlikely that a TL in which China and India remained adverserial towards each other would support economic success to the extent to which we see today.
 
Well, to be honest, the U.S. did support the Afghan rebels slightly. Remember all of that fuss Representative Charles Wilson kicked up in Congress when that Saudi prince or oil heir or whatever was executed by the Soviets?
 
Personally, I believe that we might not have had the debacle of the entire Iranian War. Apparently Daniel Pearl has released documents from the Pentagon which show that the Straits of Hormuz Incident in 1986, was an attempt to prevent the Soviet takeover of the Iranian oilfields, and to prop up the regime of the Shah of Iran. As a member of Generation X, I can clearly remember the draft riots of 1990. I remember the 1991 images of a Savak agent shooting a suspected "Communist sympathizer" in Tehran. I remember all too clearly the assassination of President Bill Clinton in 1995, along with that of Jesse Jackson in San Francisco, CA. The illegal bombing of Iraq wouldn't have taken place in 1996. President Al Gore might have been actually been able to run for office in 2000, and seek a second term.
 
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