The Lions of the Panjsher; Alternate Blowback.
RIP Charlie Wilson, and Ahmad Shah Massoud
Submitted 10Feb2010
I was rifling through some old papers and came across old notes covering the situation in Afghanistan in the very early 1990’s. Since I am snowed in, I looked up a few of the names on the pages, applied some 20/20 hindsight, and connected a few dots. As I was getting this post together, the announcement that Rep Charlie Wilson has died came over the news feed, so the post will begin around him. Without him, who knows what would have occurred in Afghanistan and even in the Soviet Union. With him and perhaps if a few events were different, we don’t have 9/11, nor do we have the problems in Afghanistan. No one can know exactly how an operation the size of his will turn out.
Charles (Charlie) Nesbitt Wilson, a certified Cold Warrior, died today, 10FEB2010. We was the Democrat Congressman from Lufkin, Texas from 1973 to 1997. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1956, 8th from the bottom of his class, and with the second highest amount of demerits in the history of the school. The man, as a congressman, was a liberal but he did not hate America like our current Democrat/Progressives do today.
His baby was called Operation Cyclone; a proxy war between the Soviet Union and an interesting set of allies led by the United States. The cast of characters against the Soviets in Afghanistan were the US, Pakistan, Britain, China, and Saudi Arabia. The point of the operation was to train and arm Mujaheddin to entangle the Soviets in a protracted and painful war as the US had in Vietnam. We are all familiar with the blow-back and problems this very necessary Cold War victory brought us.
The two people who may have been able to prevent the terror attacks of 9/11 and other al-Qaeda attacks are Abdullah Azzam and Ahmad Shah Massoud. Azzam was the bad while his political and leadership rival Mossoud was the good. Both Azzam and Massoud were murdered by their enemies. Azzam was murdered in 1989, Massoud just days before the 9/11 attacks. Both were enemies of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Hekmatyar survived them both.
Abdullah Azzam was the man that brought bin Laden to Afghanistan. Azzam believed, after the Soviet retreat, that the jihad and the trained fighters in Afghanistan should proceed to Palestine and take the fight to the Israelis, and then continue to reclaim all former Muslin lands. Muslims should never fight Muslims, he preached. That puts him in direct disagreement with Al-Zawahari who wanted to take the jihad to the apostate Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and then to the rest of the World. In between these two views is bin-Laden. In the early summer of 1989 bin Laden and al-Zawahari formed ‘the base’ aka al-Qaeda to take the jihad from Afghanistan against the rest of the World. It is argued that had Azzam not been murdered in November of 1989 he could have perhaps been a moderating force on bin Laden and countered al-Zawahiri’s radicalism. Azzam was still a radical and a terrorist; had he lived, the pattern of jihad would have been different.
Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of the Panjsher, was the Northern Alliance leader who attracted initial American support by devising the 4 phase strategic plan to fight the Soviets. First was to establish a guerrilla force supported by the people, second was active defense of the Panjshir northern province, third was a strategic offensive in all of northern Afghanistan and fourth was the application of these principals in all of Afghanistan. His plan succeed, after the fall of Kabul he was named Defense Minister. This was not to last. The civil war then brought the Taliban into power and Massoud was back to the guerrilla fight in his native Panjshir. The Bush administration had already identified the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Afghanistan as a terror hot spot that had to be dealt with. Massoud would be the moderate Sunni that could, with the help of the US, topple the Taliban and perhaps save Afghanistan from itself. He says it best in his own words, 3 years before his assassination on 09 SEP 2001:
A Message to the People of the United States of America (1998)
I send this message to you today on behalf of the freedom and peace-loving people of Afghanistan, the Mujahedeen freedom fighters who resisted and defeated Soviet communism, the men and women who are still resisting oppression and foreign hegemony and, in the name of more than one and a half million Afghan martyrs who sacrificed their lives to uphold some of the same values and ideals shared by most Americans and Afghans alike. This is a crucial and unique moment in the history of Afghanistan and the world, a time when Afghanistan has crossed yet another threshold and is entering a new stage of struggle and resistance for its survival as a free nation and independent state.
I have spent the past 20 years, most of my youth and adult life, alongside my compatriots, at the service of the Afghan nation, fighting an uphill battle to preserve our freedom, independence, right to self-determination and dignity. Afghans fought for God and country, sometime alone, at other times with the support of the international community. Against all odds, we, meaning the free world and Afghans, halted and checkmated Soviet expansionism a decade ago. But the embattled people of my country did not savor the fruits of victory. Instead they were thrust in a whirlwind of foreign intrigue, deception, great-gamesmanship and internal strife. Our country and our noble people were brutalized, the victims of misplaced greed, hegemonic designs and ignorance. We Afghans erred too. Our shortcomings were as a result of political innocence, inexperience, vulnerability, victimization, bickering and inflated egos. But by no means does this justify what some of our so-called Cold War allies did to undermine this just victory and unleash their diabolical plans to destroy and subjugate Afghanistan.
Today, the world clearly sees and feels the results of such misguided and evil deeds. South-Central Asia is in turmoil, some countries on the brink of war. Illegal drug production, terrorist activities and planning are on the rise. Ethnic and religiously-motivated mass murders and forced displacements are taking place, and the most basic human and women’s rights are shamelessly violated. The country has gradually been occupied by fanatics, extremists, terrorists, mercenaries, drug Mafias and professional murderers. One faction, the Taliban, which by no means rightly represents Islam, Afghanistan or our centuries-old cultural heritage, has with direct foreign assistance exacerbated this explosive situation. They are unyielding and unwilling to talk or reach a compromise with any other Afghan side.
Unfortunately, this dark accomplishment could not have materialized without the direct support and involvement of influential governmental and non-governmental circles in Pakistan. Aside from receiving military logistics, fuel and arms from Pakistan, our intelligence reports indicate that more than 28,000 Pakistani citizens, including paramilitary personnel and military advisers are part of the Taliban occupation forces in various parts of Afghanistan. We currently hold more than 500 Pakistani citizens including military personnel in our POW camps. Three major concerns – namely terrorism, drugs and human rights – originate from Taliban-held areas but areinstigated from Pakistan, thus forming the inter-connecting angles of an evil triangle. For many Afghans, regardless of ethnicity or religion, Afghanistan, for the second time in one decade, is once again an occupied country.
Let me correct a few fallacies that are propagated by Taliban backers and their lobbies around the world. This situation over the short and long-run, even in case of total control by the Taliban, will not be to anyone’s interest. It will not result in stability, peace and prosperity in the region. The people of Afghanistan will not accept such a repressive regime. Regional countries will never feel secure and safe. Resistance will not end in Afghanistan, but will take on a new national dimension, encompassing all Afghan ethnic and social strata.
The goal is clear. Afghans want to regain their right to self-determination through a democratic or traditional mechanism acceptable to our people. No one group, faction or individual has the right to dictate or impose its will by force or proxy on others. But first, the obstacles have to be overcome, the war has to end, just peace established and a transitional administration set up to move us toward a representative government.
We are willing to move toward this noble goal. We consider this as part of our duty to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence and fanaticism. But the international community and the democracies of the world should not waste any valuable time, and instead play their critical role to assist in any way possible the valiant people of Afghanistan overcome the obstacles that exist on the path to freedom, peace, stability and prosperity.
Effective pressure should be exerted on those countries who stand against the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan. I urge you to engage in constructive and substantive discussions with our representatives and all Afghans who can and want to be part of a broad consensus for peace and freedom for Afghanistan.
With all due respect and my best wishes for the government and people of the United States,
Ahmad Shah Massoud.
It is impossible to conclude what would have occurred had Massoud not been murdered, I believe he may have been the only man in South West Asia that could stop al-Qeada and the Taliban, and finally deliver a free Afghanistan to Charlie Wilson.
Tags: cold war
