cher@ihuxi.UUCP (Mike Musing) (09/07/84)
> You missed my point. Soviet foreign policy is to surround the USSR > with satellites and exploit advantages. Afghanistan is not an indication > of some mythical yearning for a warm water port, as the conservatives had > us believe in 1979. Rather, it was a chance for the Soviets to consolidate > their leadership in what was already a satellite. Chances are those who > suggested going in have long since fallen from power within the USSR, since > it was at least a bad miscalculation. > > One needs to look at reality, not rhetoric. > > Mike Kelly Just to look at reality for a change: 1) Soviet foreign policy is to surround EVERYTHING with satellites. 2) Afghanistan was a souvereign monarchy, now it is a base for Soviet troops and Soviet expansion. It is a step in strategy aimed at world domination. 3) Who's "fallen from power"?!! Chernenko is Brezhnev's protege, there were no big shakeups in Soviet government. "Chances are" the resistance will be squelched, and the bemedaled veterans of the war will be sent on to Pakistan and other places. 4) Miscalculation or not, they've moved closer to Persian gulf, hence closer to your pocket and throat. And that's real. Mike Musing
russ@ihuxi.UUCP (Russell Spence) (09/07/84)
>> You missed my point. Soviet foreign policy is to surround the USSR >> with satellites and exploit advantages. Afghanistan is not an indication >> of some mythical yearning for a warm water port, as the conservatives had >> us believe in 1979. Rather, it was a chance for the Soviets to consolidate >> their leadership in what was already a satellite. Chances are those who >> suggested going in have long since fallen from power within the USSR, since >> it was at least a bad miscalculation. >> >> One needs to look at reality, not rhetoric. >> >> Mike Kelly > > Just to look at reality for a change: > 1) Soviet foreign policy is to surround EVERYTHING with satellites. > 2) Afghanistan was a souvereign monarchy, now it is a base for Soviet > troops and Soviet expansion. It is a step in strategy aimed at > world domination. > 3) Who's "fallen from power"?!! Chernenko is Brezhnev's protege, there > were no big shakeups in Soviet government. "Chances are" the > resistance will be squelched, and the bemedaled veterans of the > war will be sent on to Pakistan and other places. > 4) Miscalculation or not, they've moved closer to Persian gulf, hence > closer to your pocket and throat. > > And that's real. Mike Musing I amazes me how many misconceptions people in the U.S. have about Russia's motives and policies. I think that there needs to be alot more study of Russia and alot more education for the public about the Soviets attitudes. The Soviets motives and the reason for their actions in Afghanistan are not so simple. I have talked to Russian studies majors and done a little reading on the subject and would like to try to clear some things up. Since WWII the Soviet Union has in general not invaded countries to make them sattelites. The invasions in Eastern Europe were perpetrated on countries that were already satellites and were done to restore order. While they supported the invasions of Vietnam, Korea, etc. they didn't actually send troops and the leaders of the actual invading countries still kept quite a bit of autonomy from the Soviets even though they were still communist (thats right, not all communists are Russians). The invasion of Afghanistan was NOT done primarily to get a warm water port or to grab yet another satellite (though these side benefits may have affected their decision) it was primarily done for national security reasons. Wait! before you send those flames, let me explain WHY the invasion of Afghanistan was necessary to maintain the national security of the Soviet Union. First you must understand that there is a very large number of Muslims in the Soviet Union, that live primarily in the southern part, which in part shares a common border with Afghanistan. Before the invasion you will recall that there was a big movement to restore orthodoxy to the Muslim religion (remember Iran?). This movement was spreading into Afghanistan and easily could have spread from there to the Muslim population of the Soviet Union. This was a grave threat to the security of the Soviet leaders. Because of the nature of their government (I'm not condoning it, just trying to explain it), any revolt in any sattelite is very dangerous, because if it isn't put down it will lead the other sattelites to follow suit. This is what prompted the invasions of Czech. and Hungary in the '50's. They were already sattelites, but they had tried to gain a little too much autonomy. You may think that the soviets shouldn't be afraid of a few Muslims but you must remember that the percentage is very high (something on the order of 40% I think, I am sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong). It is interesting to note that there are 100 languages spoken in the Soviet Union and Russian is the least spoken of all 100. Also, in almost every provence of the Soviet Union road signs are in two languages, the local language and Russian. This shows the magnitude of the differences in culture within the Soviet Union, and you can bet that one of the Soviet leader's greatest fears is that one of these groups will become nationalistic and try to split off. In my opinion the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to keep radical Muslim feeling from spreading into their country is no worse than us invading someone like El Salvador to keep radical communist feelings from spreading to the U.S. The reason that we are so concerned with their actions is because of the strategic importance of the area, however as you may have noticed the Soviets have spent most of their time trying to defeat the Muslim rebels instead of planning new invasions or taking advantage of their newfound sattelite. Does this give you any indications of thier motives? If they had just wanted more sattelites or warm water ports they could have invaded long ago. Sorry if this sounded a little choppy but I tried to keep it short. -- Russell Spence ihnp4!ihuxi!russ AT&T Technologies Naperville, IL