Russia's Strategic Opportunity-Russia-Putin-Guerrilla Warfare-Foreign Policy-Afghanistan-Agha Humayun Amin-A.H Amin

2ND SEP 2003


Russia's Strategic Opportunity

A.H Amin

Many years earlier when the old USSR had stumbled into Afghanistan the USA had manipulated the Muslims of Afghanistan and many other parts of the world to wage a Jihad against USSR ! Some 13,310 Soviet soldiers and airmen , many of them Muslims from Central Asia and Caucasus were killed , thanks to sophisticated weapons supplied to the Afghan Mujahideen by USA ! 4,730 dead in 1980 , 1981 and 1982 ,1984 in the year 1982 , and 2,343 in 1984 !1000 Stinger Missiles and 250 launchers were provided by USA against Russian aerial power ! The smugglimg of Heroin in USSR and to the Red Army was institutionalised as a policy to weaken the resolve of the Soviets ! When all this was achieved the Afghans were dumped by USA and today US aerial bombing in Afghanistan thanks to the likes of daisy cutters etc is a deadlier US gift to Afghans ! Today the USA hunts the same Mujahideen used by it to fight against USSR like partridges in Paktia and Spin Baldak !

The Quixotic US venture in Iraq stands out as a grand strategic opportunity for Russia to undo the unipolar world order and avenge the Afghan War ! All that is required is a statesman with Lenin's strategic insight and coup d oeil to start a grand strategic process of revival and reassertion !

While the USSR involvement in Afghanistan was essentially a haphazard hastily initiated affair to assist a pro Soviet regime , US invasion of Iraq strategically speaking is a well planned venture which has the potential to destabilise Russia and many other power centres by dominating the Middle East Oil and to stage further adventurist moves against Russia' soft under belly i.e the Central Asian Republics etc.Thus once Russia enters the arena as an active player assisting anti US forces waging a just war of liberation against USA it would not only be guarding its own strategic interests but also gain the good will of the Islamic world whose masses are led by tinpot dictators and kings who have already literally prostrated themselves in front of USA symbolically changing the direction of their grand strategic geopolitical Kaba from Mecca to Washington D.C .

Today the USA is stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan in a far more irrevocable way than USSR in Afghanistan ! This is the ideal moment for Russia and China to act as friends of freedom fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan ! Bury the dead past , strike a deal with Chechnyans and settle strategic scores with a power which has a major role in demise of USSR !

Sentiments of the populace,terrain , global strategic situation and logistics all favour the Russian role ! Iran can be the frontline state similar to Pakistan ! By striking another deal with Tajiks and Uzbeks partitioning Afghanistan the Russians can also arrive at a strategic understanding with the Pashtun anti US forces ! Today the Russians are no longer Godless communists but Christian people of the book like Muslims ! By aiding the anti US Iraqi resistance the Russians would be having a guaranteed share in a post US liberated Iraq and a more democratic post monarchist Arab world !

While the Soviet Union lost many billion dollars in Afghanistan , the total costs varying from 20 to 80 billion USD here in Iraq and Afghanistan by a mere half a billion USD per year the Russians can achieve miracles in turning the scales against anti US forces !

2003 is Russia and any other power which wants to undo the unipolar world orders golden opportunity ! The US occupation of Iraq must not succeed ! If it succeeds unipolar world order would become a permanent reality for at least half a century !