Mistakes made in Afghanistan by the left.

Responding to Asadi

“While "mistakes" might have been made, the major players were not the "left" in Afghanistan that brought it to the condition we see today, the major cause of its condition today is the US using the Pak Army and the ISI and the mullahs. “

The left was solely responsible for the mess in Afghanistan was never my point. BUT and I will say this again, the policies the left adopted starting from the removal of Sardar Daud including ill advised Land reforms etc. contributed to providing openings to the Mullah, Pakistan and the US. As I said in my post, Pakistan was going to resist a left regime in Afghanistan because of the problems in both NWFP and Baluchistan. The Pak army had always blamed the leftist and the nationalists for the troubles in both provinces and the left control of Afghanistan was not acceptable to Pakistan army.

You are ignoring the complete political process that goes behind the radical changes in any country. Pakistan and the US response to the left oriented changes, was predictable. Did the leftist in Afghanistan expect any favors from Pakistan? No, they knew what the Pakistan response would be. It took Pakistan almost a year to develop a coherent policy and all the while, the Left in Afghanistan was still fighting with itself.

You cannot ignore the political reality that the left had a very small political support base in Afghanistan. Both Khalq and Parcham were not mass supported there was NO grassroots support for the revolution. They enjoyed support in the Officers corps but not in the cadre or the conscripts. Their support in the westernized middle class was limited. They had no support at all in the countryside. Their first political priority should have been to broaden their base. They never did anything in that area. Instead they followed polices that alienated even the tribes that used to ignore changes in Kabul.

There was practically no reaction to Sardar Daud when he ousted Zahir Shah. In 1964, Zahir Shah turned the country in to a constitutional monarchy, and limited Loya Jirga authority the tribal chiefs, feudal lords or the mullah had no problem with that.

The left primarily ignored the political realities in Afghanistan. As I said in my previous post, the Left used cookie cutter approach of land reforms and nationalization. That just meant picking up unnecessary bones with the feudal and the tribal chiefs. They needed to wait and the best strategy for them would have been to open schools, Health centers, and community activities to build their base in the society. They lost the first round and never recovered from there.

They believed that the SU would help them change everything and that was pure stupidity.

“The fault was not with the left, and the lefts policies didn't fail in Pakistan or any other place, the fault was with a much better organized and powerful opponent who using the local thugs”

Asadi, that is a convenient excuse, this is not even a political response, but it just assumes that the left followed popular policies in Pakistan or in other countries, referred in my post.

The first and foremost reason to Nationalize or takeover of the Industries or lands is to cut the political opposition’s feet off. The Marxists believe (roughly) that the Capitalists, and occasionally the feudal, provide the money and financial support to the political parties in bourgeois societies. Therefore, the Marxists in the SU developed this thesis to Nationalize industry and Banking so the opposition to the New Left oriented regimes is without money and political patronage thus making it hard for the regime opponents to launch a counter political movement to remove the left oriented regimes from the power. The SU cloaked the whole thing in political ideology but in reality, this approach had nothing to do with Marxism and the Marxism never advocated this approach.

In every country, the SU forced this approach; the country ended up in major political trouble and landed in the reactionary hands. You can analyze this in whatever way you want and I can help you but that is the reality. The Nationalization or extreme land reforms created immediate enemies of the nationalist, progressive or the left oriented governments in all countries where they followed this cookie cutter approach ignoring the ground realities.

Look when you take radical political and economic actions the reaction would be extremely political and economic too. Before a regime takes radical actions, it needs to see what the response would be and where that response would come from. The anticipation, preparations and developing political base for support is part of the political process. The SU forced Egypt, Syria, Chile, India, and some more countries to take actions without thinking of the response from the impacted parties. And all these countries are now following the rightist policies. In Pakistan, the misguided pro china left forced Bhutto in to nationalization and land reforms without any preparation and now we know where Pakistan is.

“Now, when the US seeks escalation into Pakistan of its farcial WOT, look how it reacts to any attempts to "consider the countryside"- suggesting that it all be ignored and no deals made....”

The US is following exactly the Policy that SU adopted in Afghanistan. Protect the cities and attack the countryside where the opposition is located. You clearly seem to be totally lost in anti US rhetoric. This is not an intellectually correct approach. You should be able to see how actions and reactions are developed. The US will work in its National interest and the groups opposing the US would work in their interests. You need to be able to look at both sides of the fronts to see the realities. The afghan issue is not a static picture that only has white in the back. It was not a static picture when the SU was there and it is not a picture now.

“This my friend was the anatomy of the problem: the US wanting to punish the SU in its own backyard, “

Yeah that was it. How that changes the facts that the leftist and the SU made mistakes that allowed the US to punish SU in its own backyard? That is what politics is all about.

“the SU deeply trapped in the US farcial (cold) world war, understanding this and then intervening, thus falling into the US trap, before this even when Afghanistan went with a begging bowl to the US, the US ignored them.”

The US was supposed to do this. The Soviets were not children they knew what was going on.

This is elementary! When you have political, ideological, and economic clashes, you will develop strategies to destroy the opposition. I just don’t see how that confirms that the US was the only bad party.

This is a pretty long post. I will post it on ilog here on Chowk or on my blog(I will PM you the link) and we can discuss it there if you prefer that.