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[MUSIC]

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Let's now look at the way the resistance

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to modernity and modernization efforts
plays out in Afghanistan.

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In particular, once the Soviet Union gets
involved

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and you have, we have this massive Islamic
resistance.

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And you will soon find out that the, this
video is

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not without reason called Jihadi
Gangsters,

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because we're dealing with a criminal

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economy that is developing in conflict and
that's something that we see not

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only in Afghanistan, but that's a common
characteristic of conflict.

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So, the war economy that grows as a result
of the civil conflict

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becomes one of the determining
characteristics of the setup of the

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mujahideen resistance.
So, pay attention 

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to that aspect.
We have already encountered Mohammed

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Daoud, the cousin and brother-in-law of
the last king.

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Here we see a stamp commemorating his and
if

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you look carefully at the stamp you
already see

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what is going to happen, because the stamp
commemorates

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him as the president of the Republic of
Afghanistan.

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And that's exactly what he does.
Zahir Shah is on a trip to Europe 

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in July 1973 and Daoud uses the
opportunity

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to get back into power, and deposes his
cousin.

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And declares a republic, with himself as
president and prime minister.

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So it's the classical

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autocratic setup as we encounter all too
often in these kind of events.

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His ability to do so is following a
disaster, disastrous drought

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that has struck Afghanistan from
1971 till 72.

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And in particular, the very
insufficient government response to

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that drought and the famine that has
developed out of it.

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So we see again, state failure producing
an opening for the enemies of the

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state and that's perhaps a general lesson
you might

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want to remember, is when we see that
states are

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unable to perform what they're supposed to
do, they this

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weakness is often exploited by enemies
both internal and external.

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The 1964 constitution that we discussed in
the last video had as one of

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its provision the exclusion of the members
of

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the royal family from all public
offices.

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And it was, it doesn't take too much
creativity to know or to

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surmise that it was a provision directly aimed
at Daoud, and excluding him from politics.

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And it's clearly a situation in which he
did not, an ambitious man like

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him and a fervent nationalist like him did
not find congenial.

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So he was bidding his time until he found
an opening and that's in the 73.

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He finds it.

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So we see him pursuing a relatively
cautious modernization

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program internally.
Basically taking up this

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story where he left it off in 63.

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So he's not rapidly trying to change the
country but

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its he does instigate a policy of
modernization.

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But as in his last reign, he again starts

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a relatively ambitious foreign policy
particularly with respect

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to, he rekindles that
antagonism with Pakistan over

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that Pashtunistan issue that we have come
to know.

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And so, the two things for you to remember
is that he's cautious with

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respect to domestic reform, but extremely
ambitious

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with respect to his almost jingoistic
foreign policy.

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And

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we have now in 1973, he promulgates a new
constitution reflecting that

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change from a monarchy to a republic, the
country gives itself a new flag.

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And it's based now on, ...
geared towards the

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the autocratic power of Daoud, and his,
rule now is based on

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two planks.

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One is this, the renewed strength of
friendship with the Soviet

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Union, and the reliance on the Soviet
material, and military aid.

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And secondly as I mentioned, his

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perennial obsession with the
Pashtunistan issue.

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So he wants to attack that issue once
again, and here

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we see that map that we have now come to
know quite well.

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And he sees a particular opening to reopen
that issue due to, if you

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remember from the last week's lecture,
Pakistan had just gone through

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this traumatic defeat in 1971 at the hands
of India, which had

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brought the loss of Bangladesh, the
secession of Bangladesh.

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You know, half of the population is gone.

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A third of the

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army is gone, a quarter of the air force,
etc.

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It's a very traumatic loss for
Pakistan and

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therefore Pakistan goes through a period
of great internal turmoil.

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So Daoud thinks this is a good moment to
reopen that issue at that point

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of Pakistani weakness.
And again don't forget

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that Pakistan is, at that time the, the
rump

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Pakistan that remains the former West

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Pakistan, is internally divided across
along ethnic lines.

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And it's now experiencing renewed ethnic
nationalism internally.

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In particular with respect to the Beluch
minority that is now striving to,

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to gain autonomy, if not independence, and

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that's clearly something that also
interests Iran.

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So,

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Iran supplies, helps Pakistan in
suppressing that revolt, but

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it's clearly an additional factor that
weakens Pakistan.

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So we see,

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despite this weakness of Pakistan, you see
the,

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the Soviet Union leaning on Daoud to
counter

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rapprochement with Pakistan
because they are

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not interested in a war with Pakistan.

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So we see in 1976 he recognizes
the Durand line.

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And so formally we would expect now the
country being

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back on a path towards consolidation, so
he could now

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attend more to his, to the internal
reforms that he wants to do.

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But it's at this time now in 1978 that
the communist

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party on which he relied to
sustaining them in

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power is now staging a coup against Daoud.
And it's a

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bloody coup, they kill him and most of his
family, and it's

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a coup that is staged by leftist officers
in the armed forces.

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And here, it's perhaps useful to remark
that in

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the past years, many, many officers had
been trained

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in the Soviet Union and had used this
pier

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to become acquainted with
leftist ideas obviously.

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So there's a very strong communist
movement

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in the armed forces.

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And remember also what we said about the
university graduates, there's not

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much else where a secular

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socialist-oriented minority in a place
like

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Afghanistan would organize themselves but
in the armed forces or in the

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state bureaucracy because there's no,
nowhere

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else where they could find employment.

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So what we see here now is the, as it
comes to be known the

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Saur Revolution, which is named after the

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month of April, where the revolution took
place.

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As you can see from the imagery of

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the stamps celebrating ...
this revolution.

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It's a classical communist takeover in in
an underdeveloped third world country.

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It's a coup staged by the

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PDPA, Popular Democratic Party of
Afghanistan

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as the local communist party is known.

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But it's important to remember now and
this is

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actually the flag this country gives
itself and you see

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obviously this is the Soviet imagery that
they, they

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use both in the stamps, the propaganda,
the flag now.

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But it's important to underline
here that this is an

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internal event.

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There have obviously being strong
communist 

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presence in Afghanistan for the years
past.

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Certainly since 73 which was a revolution,
which was a left-leaning

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revolution already when the Republic was
pronounced, but it's not a puppet

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putsch.

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It's a putsch done by the Afghan Communist

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party itself, and there are strong
internal divisions within

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that party so we cannot see this party as

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... almost by remote control from
Moscow.

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And that is important as we see the story
unfolds now.

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So, in the Saur Revolution days not much
Soviet participation whatsoever.

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The

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communists who come to power now, they are
drawn from precisely that small

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alienated secularly educated minority

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group that we referred to earlier on that
have

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been raised in the state, new state
educational institutions.

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Many of whom have been trained in the
polytechnics of the Soviet

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Union had supplied Afghanistan with some
of them had been trained in the

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Soviet Union.

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Many of them had also been trained in
Western Countries, so it's 

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that, the type of educational through
which this minority went through.

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And the thing that I would like you to
stress, to you, is that this small

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minority with not much of a social base,

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has now this enormous ambition to change
this rural,

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backward, traditional Afghanistan in a
very short

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period of time, into a modern socialist
society.

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You see here, some of the some images

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that reflect this social, this aggressive
social engineering that

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is now undertaken by this small minority,
and

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that is the story I'd like you to
remember.

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It is a small minority using a very

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weak institutional basis of a state to
carry out

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an extremely ambitious social engineering
project.

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And as you can imagine, this runs into
social

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resistance that its institutions are not
geared to cope with.

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That's the story of the conflict that we
were now dealing with.

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It relies on three prongs to carry out
this

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ambitious project of social engineering.

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First is classical, it's repression
through its institutions of coercion,

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primarily the army and the police.
Secondly it's Agrarian reform.

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Through which it win hopes to win other
the rural population.

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So  it's two prong.

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It's abolishing the usury and
the exploitative rural credit schemes that

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existed and distributing land.

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Here we see in this picture, the land
distribution at the time.

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And again, remember that land distribution
in

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this type of social policies, where things
had

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at the time, were undertaken by all

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sorts of other states, not just communist
states.

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You remember the White Revolution in Iran.

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It's the same kind of thinking, to change
the

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rural population, change the dynamics of
this rural economy.

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And thirdly, they relied on mass
educational campaigns with the idea

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that once people were made literate, they
would be more perceptive

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to modern ideas and leave behind the

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traditional, religiously based anachronism
as you're seeing by the elite.

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They ruled by decree, they abolished in 73
the Daoud constitution.

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And on a side note, the communist era is
very rich in constitutional documents.

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They produced several
constitutional documents during

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the relatively short period they are
empowered with.

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And that's again in line with general

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communist practice that often had somewhat
more flexible

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approach to the constitutional texts.
They were often amended

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quite rapidly, also in other communist

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countries, and that is what we see here as
well.

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So the policies that they now


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set out, they are primarily concentrated
in a number

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of fields.

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One is, I've mentioned is...
decree no six that they issue

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on  the prohibition on usury and land
credit, the system that existed.

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So they prohibited the mortgaging of land

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to secure as a collateral for
credits.

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And that obviously might have been well
intentioned,

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but it runs into problems because all
these transactions

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are oral in a predominantly illiterate
population.

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So it's very difficult to control them.

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Secondly, they are implemented by
inexperienced governmental staff.

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They rely primarily on school
teachers,

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that are already on the government
payroll.

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And this is exactly the problem I just
mentioned.

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It's the inexistent, or very weak state
institutions on which they

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can rely to carry out this ambitious
social engineering project.

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So these school teachers are not equipped
to carry out as demanding

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and as controversial a task as supervising
the prohibition of land credit.

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And most importantly, it short circuits
the

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traditional access to credit, that local
populations have.

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And again because the state is too weak to
put

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something else in it's place, for example,
through an agricultural bank.

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I mean, this is decided at the central
level, but

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the agricultural bank is not present in
the rural populations.

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That leads to the de facto abolition of
credit lines

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for the rural population and
that creates massive problems.

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So you now

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have, quite predictably, a massive
resistance by

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landlords, by money lenders, who are often

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the tribal populations, the
nomads

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who have historically played
this role.

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Money lenders to the settled
agriculturalists.

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And these two groups find ready allies in
the clergy, in the Ullemah.

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Who are often landholders themselves, who
are

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often the beneficiaries of pious
endowments, the Waqf

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Something that you already we had exactly
the same

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problem in the Ottoman empire, in the
Iranian constitutional revolution.

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So it's, the story repeats itself here.

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So you see now an alliance between
landholders

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those who have access to credit and the
Ullemah,

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who often are, they comprise the same
group.

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And it's, in a sense it's an unholy

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00:16:40,340 --> 00:16:44,530
alliance to defend the traditional
practice of usury.

239
00:16:44,530 --> 00:16:47,360
Which is, if you have any understanding of
Islamic

240
00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:50,550
law, one of the key prohibitions in
Islamic law.

241
00:16:50,550 --> 00:16:57,270
But here you have the religious classes
allying themselves in order to defend

242
00:16:57,270 --> 00:17:02,710
and use an extortionate credit system
that had been in place.

243
00:17:02,710 --> 00:17:06,270
So it's another one of these paradoxes but
it's not limited to Afghanistan.

244
00:17:06,270 --> 00:17:08,960
We see the same ... also in the

245
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:11,310
other places that we looked at in this
course.

246
00:17:12,650 --> 00:17:15,630
And also predictably the mass literacy
campaigns

247
00:17:17,060 --> 00:17:23,680
results in massive resistance, because
again it directly effects the traditional

248
00:17:25,710 --> 00:17:31,490
hegemony that the clergy exercised over
primary education.

249
00:17:31,490 --> 00:17:33,470
So, it directly affects the

250
00:17:33,470 --> 00:17:35,885
professional interests, and also the
normative interests.

251
00:17:35,885 --> 00:17:39,350
They, they don't like what is being taught
in the state schools.

252
00:17:40,990 --> 00:17:44,580
The socialist ideology that
comes with the literacy campaigns.

253
00:17:46,380 --> 00:17:51,570
And certainly last but certainly not
least, the,

254
00:17:51,570 --> 00:17:56,970
the changes that are introduced with
respect to Decree Number Seven,

255
00:17:56,970 --> 00:18:02,040
dealing with the deposition of women, are
very

256
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:07,180
much resisted in the rural population.
So the unveiling of woman.

257
00:18:07,180 --> 00:18:09,700
You saw the earlier picture of the women

258
00:18:09,700 --> 00:18:13,230
demonstrating in the now communist
regime.

259
00:18:13,230 --> 00:18:16,672
None of them was wearing a veil.
You have now the prohibition

260
00:18:16,672 --> 00:18:18,290
on polygamy.
You have

261
00:18:21,230 --> 00:18:25,520
severe restriction on mard, the dowry
traditionally being given to a woman into

262
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:30,200
marriage.
Which in the Afghan context often was 

263
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:35,735
 a cover for the literal the virtual
selling of brides into marriage.

264
00:18:35,735 --> 00:18:41,580
Which something we see to this day,
which

265
00:18:41,580 --> 00:18:46,886
results in a very exposed
and precarious social

266
00:18:46,886 --> 00:18:50,150
position for the women who are sold in
this manner.

267
00:18:50,150 --> 00:18:55,490
So that's something that the modernizing
leftist government seeks to address.

268
00:18:55,490 --> 00:18:59,700
And that obvious encounters massive
resistance.

269
00:19:01,870 --> 00:19:02,370
So,

270
00:19:06,110 --> 00:19:10,750
these are the policies that this socialist
government wants to do.

271
00:19:11,820 --> 00:19:16,272
The thing to remember also is that the
Afghan government

272
00:19:16,272 --> 00:19:21,040
the Afghan Communist Party reflects
the general structure of Afghanistan.

273
00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:26,100
So like most other institutions, it's also
divided along ethnic lines.

274
00:19:26,100 --> 00:19:30,450
You have the Pashtun wing which is
predominantly Tajik and Dari speaking.

275
00:19:30,450 --> 00:19:31,270
And you have

276
00:19:31,270 --> 00:19:33,030
the Khalq wing, which is

277
00:19:33,030 --> 00:19:36,540
predominantly Pashto speaking and Pashto
ethnic.

278
00:19:36,540 --> 00:19:44,260
And you have the, this is reflected also
in the power structure of people who hate

279
00:19:44,260 --> 00:19:50,080
each other with a vengeance, but are
now locked into this communist government.

280
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:57,910
You have Taraki and Amin, who together,
struggled to maintain this government.

281
00:19:57,910 --> 00:20:02,820
And ultimately you have the, an internal
putsch in the communist government.

282
00:20:02,820 --> 00:20:08,630
Amin ultimately murders Taraki, and its
that murder that

283
00:20:08,630 --> 00:20:11,870
then convinces a very reluctant Soviet
union to interfere.

284
00:20:11,870 --> 00:20:13,490
It's the story to which we come in a
minute.

285
00:20:15,550 --> 00:20:23,634
But let's stay for a minute at the massive
resistance that I hinted at.

286
00:20:25,140 --> 00:20:30,030
What happens to these large numbers of
people in the rural population

287
00:20:30,030 --> 00:20:35,130
who do not like the social engineering now
being imposed by a government and a

288
00:20:35,130 --> 00:20:40,350
state that hither to was basically
non-existent to them?

289
00:20:40,350 --> 00:20:40,600
And it's

290
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,800
what you would expect from a fierce
mountain people.

291
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:48,110
They take to the mountain and start
resisting, violently.

292
00:20:49,130 --> 00:20:51,970
And they are helped in that endeavor by

293
00:20:51,970 --> 00:20:56,120
the availability of a safe haven in
Pakistan.

294
00:20:56,120 --> 00:21:00,690
Pakistan obviously is not at all unhappy
about that situation.

295
00:21:00,690 --> 00:21:02,410
They have not forgotten the

296
00:21:02,410 --> 00:21:05,620
aggressive posturing of Afghanistan with
respect

297
00:21:05,620 --> 00:21:06,470
to the Pashtunistan issue.

298
00:21:08,430 --> 00:21:11,000
And we have also in, if you remember

299
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,210
all, the lecture last week about
Pakistan.

300
00:21:16,434 --> 00:21:23,642
We now have a military coup in Pakistan
with Zia-ul-Haq, who came to power

301
00:21:23,642 --> 00:21:30,539
and who is himself strongly committed
towards an Islamic vision of society.

302
00:21:30,539 --> 00:21:33,579
So he opens, he receives these people

303
00:21:33,579 --> 00:21:37,759
who are now fleeing government repression
with open

304
00:21:37,759 --> 00:21:40,419
arms and allows them to set up

305
00:21:40,419 --> 00:21:45,360
staging grounds and training camps on
Pakistani territory.

306
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:50,140
And all this happens before the arrival of
the Soviet Union.

307
00:21:50,140 --> 00:21:51,830
This is important to remember.

308
00:21:51,830 --> 00:21:56,500
And also before the arrival of Soviet
Union, we see the arrival of American and

309
00:21:56,500 --> 00:22:00,360
Saudi financial aid channelled through
Pakistan to these groups.

310
00:22:03,710 --> 00:22:08,850
The one thing to note here is that
in December

311
00:22:08,850 --> 00:22:14,560
78, Amin and Taraki are presenting the two
wings of the communist party.

312
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,680
Go to Moscow to renew the treaty of
friendship

313
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,610
and alliance that Afghanistan had with the
Soviet Union.

314
00:22:21,610 --> 00:22:25,690
And there's now a new, it looks like

315
00:22:25,690 --> 00:22:29,040
a standard renewal of this treaty that
had existed

316
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:34,400
in some form since 1921 when King
Amanullah concluded it for the first time.

317
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:38,420
But there's now a new provision inserted,
and that calls

318
00:22:38,420 --> 00:22:43,909
for Soviet military assistance in case the
Afghan government needs it.

319
00:22:43,909 --> 00:22:49,112
And that should signal

320
00:22:49,112 --> 00:22:54,350
to everybody, in particular the Pakistanis
and the American

321
00:22:54,350 --> 00:23:02,770
backers, that their interference would
result in the arrival of the Red Army.

322
00:23:02,770 --> 00:23:07,650
But that warning is received but ignored
by the Pakistanis.

323
00:23:09,790 --> 00:23:14,100
And it's also, we need to remember, that
already since the 60s,

324
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:20,320
and dramatically increased over the period
of the republics in 73.

325
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,660
We have already very large numbers of

326
00:23:22,660 --> 00:23:26,820
Soviet civilian and military advisers in
the country.

327
00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:30,400
So, the arrival of the Red Army as

328
00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:35,470
an invasion force is certainly a very
dramatic incident

329
00:23:35,470 --> 00:23:37,940
but it's... not the

330
00:23:37,940 --> 00:23:40,140
beginning of the Soviet presence in the
country.

331
00:23:45,340 --> 00:23:49,355
That is now the background.
We now see it as I already hinted

332
00:23:49,355 --> 00:23:55,257
at, we have an internal power struggle in
the Afghan communist party.

333
00:23:55,257 --> 00:24:00,607
And then from March 78 onwards, they are
leaning on to the

334
00:24:00,607 --> 00:24:05,850
Soviet Union to send military troops to
help them suppress

335
00:24:05,850 --> 00:24:10,842
this eternal uprising.
And let's not forget

336
00:24:10,842 --> 00:24:15,714
that the Pakistani's who had received
these refugees, had

337
00:24:15,714 --> 00:24:20,673
allowed them to train on Pakistani
territory and already by the

338
00:24:20,673 --> 00:24:25,806
end of 78 we have 80,000 trained
refugees who

339
00:24:25,806 --> 00:24:31,660
are then becoming trained and then sent
back as guerrilla forces.

340
00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:36,754
And in January 79, you have the first
dispatch

341
00:24:36,754 --> 00:24:41,680
of trained guerrillas under Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
who

342
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:46,930
then returned to Afghanistan to fight.
So it's it's a rapidly

343
00:24:46,930 --> 00:24:52,510
deteriorating security situation for the Afghan, 
the communist government.

344
00:24:52,510 --> 00:24:55,130
And then you having in March 79,
major

345
00:24:55,130 --> 00:24:57,970
uprisings, particularly Herat, and some of
the other big cities.

346
00:24:59,630 --> 00:25:02,160
And the Afghan formal army

347
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,600
is not doing particularly well, with
respect to this.

348
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:09,310
It suffers under, with widespread
defections and desertions.

349
00:25:09,310 --> 00:25:11,640
And it's effective army loses about
a

350
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:17,170
third of its nominal strengths to these
desertions.

351
00:25:17,170 --> 00:25:22,540
And also the communist government had
instigated a large 

352
00:25:22,540 --> 00:25:27,599
purge of the, of its generals.
60 out of 62 generals were purged.

353
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,700
They were replaced by junior officers
from, from colonels or major rank.

354
00:25:33,700 --> 00:25:38,240
And that obviously unsettles an existing
army, however effective it might

355
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,380
have been and it probably wasn't very
effective to start with.

356
00:25:41,380 --> 00:25:44,010
So given that background, the communist
government

357
00:25:44,010 --> 00:25:47,200
is now repeatedly leaning on the Soviet

358
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:51,030
Union to lend its formal military support

359
00:25:51,030 --> 00:25:53,280
through the dispatch of formal fight,
combat troops.

360
00:25:54,390 --> 00:26:00,240
And, that is resisted by the Soviet Union,
and

361
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:05,440
it's the note that the KGB

362
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:10,180
head Yuri Andropov writes, and

363
00:26:10,180 --> 00:26:14,790
gives to his colleagues in the Politburo
in 19th March 79, it proves to be very

364
00:26:14,790 --> 00:26:19,680
prophetic.
So the Soviet Union knew exactly the

365
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,390
risks of an involvement.

366
00:26:21,390 --> 00:26:24,870
And it was not at all an involvement it
was keen to enter in.

367
00:26:24,870 --> 00:26:28,579
So I'm quoting the head of the KGB in 7,
in March 79.

368
00:26:29,730 --> 00:26:33,350
We must consider very, very seriously the
question of those

369
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,090
the question of whose cause we will

370
00:26:37,090 --> 00:26:41,420
be supporting if we deploy forces into
Afghanistan.

371
00:26:41,420 --> 00:26:44,510
It's completely clear to us that
Afghanistan is not ready at

372
00:26:44,510 --> 00:26:49,550
this time to resolve all of the issues it
faces through socialism.

373
00:26:51,030 --> 00:26:55,580
The economy is backward, the Islamic
religion predominates

374
00:26:55,580 --> 00:26:58,990
and nearly all of the rural population is
illiterate.

375
00:26:58,990 --> 00:27:00,500
We know about Lenin's teaching

376
00:27:00,500 --> 00:27:02,980
about the revolutionary situation.

377
00:27:02,980 --> 00:27:04,670
Whatever situation we are talking about in

378
00:27:04,670 --> 00:27:09,270
Afghanistan, it is not that type of
situation.

379
00:27:09,270 --> 00:27:14,650
Therefore, I believe that we can suppress
a revolution in Afghanistan only with

380
00:27:14,650 --> 00:27:19,520
the aid of our bayonets and that is for us
completely inadmissible, end of quote.

381
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,860
So the Soviet Union knows the risks,
both

382
00:27:27,860 --> 00:27:30,820
in terms of its reputation and in

383
00:27:30,820 --> 00:27:34,280
terms of the practical realities of
setting through and

384
00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:37,820
following, exceeding to that demand of the
Afghan communists.

385
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:40,710
And ultimately, the only reason it does

386
00:27:40,710 --> 00:27:44,730
is through the internal politics that then
exist

387
00:27:44,730 --> 00:27:47,190
in the communist party and here, I

388
00:27:47,190 --> 00:27:49,300
already hinted at, it's a very complicated
story.

389
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:57,650
And I quote Rasanayagam who describes it I
think quite well.

390
00:27:57,650 --> 00:27:58,150
I'm quoting.

391
00:27:58,150 --> 00:28:00,862
The events surrounding the deposition
Amin by Taraki can

392
00:28:00,862 --> 00:28:03,252
only be described as a bizarre combination

393
00:28:03,252 --> 00:28:06,220
of cloak-and-dagger politics taking place
in a

394
00:28:06,220 --> 00:28:08,650
cowboys and Indians scenario, end of
quote.

395
00:28:09,830 --> 00:28:16,000
So I spare you the details, but basically
Amin kills Taraki and the

396
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,870
Soviets are not happy with that decision
and they fear the complete fall of the

397
00:28:20,870 --> 00:28:25,070
communist regime and the loss of prestige
that would entail with respect to their

398
00:28:25,070 --> 00:28:30,890
other allies.
So it's the murder of Taraki by Amin

399
00:28:30,890 --> 00:28:37,290
and the fear to reorientation of, of
socialist Afghanistan's foreign policy.

400
00:28:37,290 --> 00:28:40,800
It's the feared realignment with the West.

401
00:28:42,210 --> 00:28:47,210
Or, even worse, the collapse of the
communist government by, led now by

402
00:28:47,210 --> 00:28:52,640
Ahmin that forces a very reluctant Soviet
Union to swallow

403
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,770
that bitter pill and enter into this
military engagement that they fully well

404
00:28:57,770 --> 00:29:03,980
know is going to be very, very difficult
if not disastrous.

405
00:29:03,980 --> 00:29:08,130
So this leads to what in the West is
generally described as the invasion

406
00:29:08,130 --> 00:29:11,070
of Afghanistan by Soviet troops.

407
00:29:11,070 --> 00:29:13,950
Or we not mutually described as a dispatch
of

408
00:29:13,950 --> 00:29:16,780
Soviet support troops to the communist
government in Afghanistan.

409
00:29:16,780 --> 00:29:18,160
Because that what it formally was.

410
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:23,470
It was an invasion brought by invitation
in a sense by one faction in an,

411
00:29:23,470 --> 00:29:28,410
in the communist party.
That invasion

412
00:29:28,410 --> 00:29:33,250
begins in on the 27th of December 79.
And within

413
00:29:33,250 --> 00:29:37,790
two days they establish control
in center, in the

414
00:29:37,790 --> 00:29:40,720
center and in the process of which they
kill Mr. Amin.

415
00:29:42,700 --> 00:29:49,220
And as you can see on this map, it's 
the arrival of Soviet

416
00:29:49,220 --> 00:29:52,290
troops and their initial consolidation
follows a

417
00:29:52,290 --> 00:29:56,930
pattern that stays almost constant
throughout the conflict.

418
00:29:56,930 --> 00:29:58,620
And if you remember what we discussed

419
00:29:58,620 --> 00:30:01,850
in the last video, follows the pattern
that

420
00:30:01,850 --> 00:30:05,060
the British experience already in the 19th
century.

421
00:30:05,060 --> 00:30:08,800
That is the Soviets establish control
over the main

422
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,840
roads, the main communication lines and
the main cities.

423
00:30:13,140 --> 00:30:16,730
They have no control over the rural
countryside and at

424
00:30:16,730 --> 00:30:20,330
no point seek to establish control over
the rural countryside.

425
00:30:20,330 --> 00:30:23,770
But the control over the cities is at

426
00:30:23,770 --> 00:30:29,150
no point challenged and that holds right
up to the end of communist rule in

427
00:30:29,150 --> 00:30:34,650
Afghanistan in 1992.
And that's a surprising finding

428
00:30:34,650 --> 00:30:40,200
for most of you, because the corollary of
that observation is that also

429
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:45,860
all the destruction we see in the cities
must have happened after 92.

430
00:30:45,860 --> 00:30:50,190
The cities remain relatively peaceful and

431
00:30:50,190 --> 00:30:54,820
certainly unaffected by major fighting
right up to

432
00:30:54,820 --> 00:30:59,390
1992.
That's an interesting part when we come to

433
00:30:59,390 --> 00:31:04,611
our assessment of the, mujahideen forces
and

434
00:31:04,611 --> 00:31:09,690
... our moral, and
political assessment of their

435
00:31:09,690 --> 00:31:15,250
efficiency, not efficiency their impact
on the national development

436
00:31:15,250 --> 00:31:16,010
of Afghanistan.
So

437
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:24,940
we see now the Soviet Union is present in
Afghanistan.

438
00:31:24,940 --> 00:31:28,780
They install a more

439
00:31:28,780 --> 00:31:33,770
congenial leader in the Communist party,
Babrak Karmal.

440
00:31:33,770 --> 00:31:38,660
And again, that changes now a few times in
the next years, until we finally have the

441
00:31:38,660 --> 00:31:44,360
last communist ruler Najibullah, who we
will return to.

442
00:31:46,460 --> 00:31:51,601
And we now see a Sovietization of Afghan
policy domestically,

443
00:31:51,601 --> 00:31:56,206
from 1979 till 89 when the Soviets depart
again.

444
00:31:56,206 --> 00:32:01,409
And that is a forced modernization along
the Soviet

445
00:32:01,409 --> 00:32:06,210
model.
Here's a stamp that is trying

446
00:32:06,210 --> 00:32:12,350
to propagate a non-smoking

447
00:32:12,350 --> 00:32:13,310
 in Afghanistan.

448
00:32:13,310 --> 00:32:16,770
It's just an image that shows you the
way that it's stressed.

449
00:32:16,770 --> 00:32:21,600
It's a clear modernization campaign, more
than it would be

450
00:32:24,250 --> 00:32:26,300
in a different kind

451
00:32:26,300 --> 00:32:29,430
of place which would be already more
modernized itself.

452
00:32:29,430 --> 00:32:31,000
You would probably see much more of

453
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,680
a juxtaposition between socialist and
capitalist ideas.

454
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:39,970
Here, we see primarily a juxtaposition of
modern ideas against traditional ideas.

455
00:32:39,970 --> 00:32:44,770
That is the theme that dominates the
Sovietization in the next ten years now.

456
00:32:47,130 --> 00:32:52,716
And predictably this situation is
exploited

457
00:32:52,716 --> 00:32:57,714
now by the United States that is after all

458
00:32:57,714 --> 00:33:02,418
locked into a global conflict with the

459
00:33:02,418 --> 00:33:06,997
Soviet Union.
And they see this as an

460
00:33:06,997 --> 00:33:12,717
extremely advantageous opportunity

461
00:33:12,717 --> 00:33:18,723
 to weaken the Soviet army which
is now

462
00:33:18,723 --> 00:33:24,590
bogged down into an unwinnable guerrilla
war.

463
00:33:24,590 --> 00:33:30,134
And we see here now the aid that had
already existed before, Saudi and American

464
00:33:30,134 --> 00:33:36,142
channels through Pakistan, is now
ratcheted up to very, very large levels.

465
00:33:36,142 --> 00:33:37,417
And it's, we see,

466
00:33:37,417 --> 00:33:40,080
it's a completely covert operation.

467
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:45,490
The United States denies any involvement
in this, and that's also where we see that

468
00:33:45,490 --> 00:33:51,250
don't they there are no American or
Western arms supplied.

469
00:33:51,250 --> 00:33:56,890
All the arms supplies are of Soviet or
Chinese origin.

470
00:33:56,890 --> 00:33:58,890
So they're bought somewhere else, and then
brought there.

471
00:34:00,650 --> 00:34:03,132
And it sets the stage

472
00:34:03,132 --> 00:34:09,440
of Pakistani control over the mujahideen
forces.

473
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:12,730
They are operating from Pakistani
territory, and they

474
00:34:12,730 --> 00:34:18,190
receive money, arms and ammunition through
Pakistani institutions.

475
00:34:18,190 --> 00:34:20,940
Primarily the secret service, but also to
some extent the army.

476
00:34:22,260 --> 00:34:24,110
And here on this map you see the,

477
00:34:24,110 --> 00:34:30,900
the rough geographical distribution of the
major mujahideen forces.

478
00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:37,490
And Pakistan establishes, it recognizes
seven of these groups that I

479
00:34:37,490 --> 00:34:39,782
will shortly name you, but you don't have
to remember them.

480
00:34:39,782 --> 00:34:45,060
It's importance is just that

481
00:34:45,060 --> 00:34:48,240
in the relatively little
differentiation we see

482
00:34:48,240 --> 00:34:50,950
among them, all of them are extremely

483
00:34:50,950 --> 00:34:56,230
fundamentalist and extremely xenophobic,
and adhere to an

484
00:34:56,230 --> 00:35:00,940
extremely narrow atavistic notion of
Islam.

485
00:35:00,940 --> 00:35:03,010
There are no moderates among them.

486
00:35:03,010 --> 00:35:06,350
And remember that Iran, the other big
neighboring country, the

487
00:35:06,350 --> 00:35:10,210
other big recipient of a large refugee
population, is at

488
00:35:10,210 --> 00:35:14,140
this time itself locked in, first in a
revolution, and

489
00:35:14,140 --> 00:35:17,950
then in a very, very disastrous war with
the with Iraq.

490
00:35:17,950 --> 00:35:21,710
So Iran at that time is not in a position
to

491
00:35:21,710 --> 00:35:27,360
supply any of the Afghan refugee groups
with arms or political or moral support,

492
00:35:28,630 --> 00:35:33,950
despite the existence
of a large refugee population there.

493
00:35:33,950 --> 00:35:37,980
So Pakistan dominates for the first ten
years

494
00:35:37,980 --> 00:35:40,880
of the Afghan conflict, which is the
conflict

495
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:42,700
of the Soviet Union, is the period where

496
00:35:42,700 --> 00:35:46,690
the Soviet Union is present, Pakistan
controls 

497
00:35:46,690 --> 00:35:50,274
the supply of funds.
And therefore, whoever pays the

498
00:35:50,274 --> 00:35:54,010
piper, normally also calls the tune, and
that's what we see here.

499
00:35:55,510 --> 00:36:00,562
The seven forces that Pakistan recognizes,
and through which it channels its 

500
00:36:00,562 --> 00:36:06,530
support are Jamiat-i-Islami of Burhanuddin
Rabbani,

501
00:36:06,530 --> 00:36:12,622
who was a Tajik, religious scholar.
The second is a Hizb-i-Islamic

502
00:36:12,622 --> 00:36:16,410
of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which is modeled
on a, some Stalinist

503
00:36:16,410 --> 00:36:22,760
notion of organization, and he’s a
Pashtun, predominantly Pashtun group.

504
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,710
Then you have the Hizb-i-Islamic splinter
group that is breaking

505
00:36:25,710 --> 00:36:29,460
away from the, the Hikmatyar group under
Maulana Younis Khalis,

506
00:36:29,460 --> 00:36:34,110
which becomes a quite some importance
because Mullah Omar, the

507
00:36:34,110 --> 00:36:36,969
later founder of the Taliban movement,
serves in that unit.

508
00:36:38,620 --> 00:36:43,440
Then you have the Ittehad-i-Islami of
Abdul Rasul Sayyyaf, who's a Wahabi.

509
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:48,220
Strongly committed to the Saudi notion of,
of interpretation

510
00:36:48,220 --> 00:36:51,850
of Islam and therefore also massive
recipient of Saudi aid.

511
00:36:53,140 --> 00:36:55,910
Someone who continues to play a big role
in Afghan

512
00:36:55,910 --> 00:37:01,120
politics and a very and with an extremely
violent past.

513
00:37:03,450 --> 00:37:07,840
And that is an environment where there is
no shortage of violent people.

514
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:14,500
So you, you get an an understanding of
what that episode means.

515
00:37:14,500 --> 00:37:16,410
Then you have, the fifth group

516
00:37:16,410 --> 00:37:21,910
is Harakat-i-inqilab-i-islami of Maulana
Mohammad Nabi.

517
00:37:21,910 --> 00:37:23,420
And then the sixth and seventh

518
00:37:23,420 --> 00:37:26,735
groups are somewhat smaller and slightly
more moderate.

519
00:37:26,735 --> 00:37:28,760
You have, these are the Naqhshbandi sufi

520
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:34,845
order of that have traditionally had a big
presence in Afghanistan under the leader,

521
00:37:34,845 --> 00:37:39,910
leadership of Sighbatullah Mujadeddi.
Who's nephew we will

522
00:37:42,085 --> 00:37:45,800
re-encounter in the next video, in a
completely different context.

523
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:47,200
So stay tuned.

524
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,913
And then, then the seventh group that the
Pakistani's

525
00:37:50,913 --> 00:37:55,018
support is Qadiriya sufi order of Pir
Sayyed Ahmad Gailani.

526
00:37:55,018 --> 00:38:01,799
Another one of the old families that have
historically dominated that group.

527
00:38:01,799 --> 00:38:07,943
And these groups now engage in a classical
guerrilla

528
00:38:07,943 --> 00:38:12,949
campaign against the Soviet Union.
And it's

529
00:38:12,949 --> 00:38:17,989
basically a war of attrition, where they
fight with really...

530
00:38:17,989 --> 00:38:23,140
small arms against the established
Soviet installations.

531
00:38:23,140 --> 00:38:26,900
And the Soviet fight a rather static
defense throughout this period.

532
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:28,460
And

533
00:38:30,350 --> 00:38:30,850
the,

534
00:38:33,150 --> 00:38:36,530
we don't necessarily need to go into the
details of the fighting.

535
00:38:36,530 --> 00:38:41,565
It goes back and forth, it's categorized
by enormous amounts 

536
00:38:42,900 --> 00:38:47,360
of people changing sides, betrayals, very
rapidly and changing alternative.

537
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:49,975
All these seven groups, they don't fight
coherently together.

538
00:38:49,975 --> 00:38:53,330
They also there-, there's very strong
competition between them.

539
00:38:53,330 --> 00:38:56,050
Something that we no doubt see playing out
afterwards.

540
00:38:57,288 --> 00:39:04,400
What is surprising is that throughout this
period, Pakistan maintains the fiction,

541
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,310
and so does the United States, that they
are not actively engaged in that conflict.

542
00:39:09,900 --> 00:39:13,010
They claim that the Afghan resistance was
spontaneous, and

543
00:39:13,010 --> 00:39:15,140
that it's therefore not in need of foreign
support.

544
00:39:16,710 --> 00:39:22,296
Either material or moral and that whatever
material support was supplied,

545
00:39:22,296 --> 00:39:27,450
it was modest and consisting of outdated
equipment that was given out of existing

546
00:39:27,450 --> 00:39:29,600
stocks and then replaced by modern
equipment

547
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:31,520
form the armies of Pakistan and others.

548
00:39:32,890 --> 00:39:35,930
And the third element that's surprising in

549
00:39:35,930 --> 00:39:38,890
that it was conducted in almost paranoid
secrecy,

550
00:39:38,890 --> 00:39:42,270
by the, the three major powers that are

551
00:39:42,270 --> 00:39:45,440
involved, the Saudis, the Pakistanis and
the Americans.

552
00:39:47,410 --> 00:39:52,220
Reflected among other things that only
Warsaw Pact equipment was supplied.

553
00:39:52,220 --> 00:39:57,486
So there was no supply of Western
armament, and that only changes

554
00:39:57,486 --> 00:40:01,900
very late in this conflict when
the Americans agreed to supply stinger

555
00:40:04,490 --> 00:40:06,730
surface to air missiles, that are very

556
00:40:06,730 --> 00:40:09,840
effective the Soviet helicopters, the gun
ships.

557
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,960
If you remember the picture of the
destroyed

558
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,150
Soviet helicopter I showed you some videos
back.

559
00:40:15,150 --> 00:40:21,360
That's probably one of the results of a
stinger rocket.

560
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,400
So, by large we see a static Soviet
defense,

561
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:29,760
there is no attempt by them to regain
control over

562
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:36,202
the countryside, they stay in the cities.

563
00:40:36,202 --> 00:40:41,630
And they apart from the socialists the

564
00:40:41,630 --> 00:40:45,450
impact this war has on their
reputation with other socialist

565
00:40:45,450 --> 00:40:48,840
allies, one of the key fears that
the Soviet Union

566
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:55,380
has throughout this conflict is the
contagion of Islamist thinking into

567
00:40:55,380 --> 00:40:57,630
the neighboring.

568
00:40:57,630 --> 00:41:00,320
Do you remember the chart
of the

569
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,460
ethnic makeup of Afghanistan that I showed
you two videos back?

570
00:41:04,750 --> 00:41:08,420
Almost all of the Afghan ethnic groups
have links with

571
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:13,660
groups in other, you know, in neighboring
countries, many

572
00:41:13,660 --> 00:41:16,100
of which reside in the then the Soviet
Union.

573
00:41:16,100 --> 00:41:19,030
You have the Turkmen, you have the Uzbeks,
you have the Tajiks.

574
00:41:20,620 --> 00:41:24,400
And therefore there is a strong Soviet
fear that the Islamic radicalization that

575
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:31,400
exists now would ultimately spill into
Soviet areas and unfortunately,

576
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:35,926
this is exactly what we then see.
And then after the dissolution of

577
00:41:35,926 --> 00:41:39,526
the Soviet Empire, that is exactly what
leads to some of the

578
00:41:39,526 --> 00:41:44,816
very bloody conflict in the southeastern
periphery of the former Soviet Union.

579
00:41:44,816 --> 00:41:49,940
In particular you all know the conflict in
Chechnya and Dagestan, which

580
00:41:49,940 --> 00:41:55,064
are direct results of the the
radicalization that happens now as 

581
00:41:55,064 --> 00:42:00,330
in the process of the Islamic
resistance to Soviet presence there.

582
00:42:02,290 --> 00:42:07,890
And perhaps the biggest blunder of the
Soviet Union in this war

583
00:42:07,890 --> 00:42:12,320
was the underestimation of the resilience
of these badly equipped,

584
00:42:13,530 --> 00:42:18,520
but very fierce and, and locally well
connected fighters.

585
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:23,180
And at the same time, link to this, the
other magic,

586
00:42:23,180 --> 00:42:27,390
the main blunder was the over estimation
of the capability of

587
00:42:27,390 --> 00:42:28,600
the formal Afghan army.

588
00:42:30,060 --> 00:42:33,030
And those of you who have read newspapers
in

589
00:42:33,030 --> 00:42:35,990
the last ten years will not be surprised
to

590
00:42:35,990 --> 00:42:38,290
see that is exactly the same thing we see

591
00:42:38,290 --> 00:42:42,040
with the American presence in the new
Afghanistan, after 2001.

592
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:47,820
It's a perennial underestimation of the
strength of the Taliban

593
00:42:47,820 --> 00:42:53,130
insurgency, and the commensurate
over reliance

594
00:42:53,130 --> 00:42:58,150
on the ability of the Afghan security
forces to control this conflict.

595
00:42:58,150 --> 00:43:00,985
So, in a sense, it's a very tragic farce

596
00:43:00,985 --> 00:43:04,555
of history repeating itself now for the
third time.

597
00:43:04,555 --> 00:43:07,800
First with the British and the Soviets,
now with the Americans,

598
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,050
so it is exactly the same military story
we see happening again.

599
00:43:17,010 --> 00:43:19,600
Not surprising to you, this conflict has a

600
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:24,780
large emotional and ideological appeal to
other Muslim nations.

601
00:43:24,780 --> 00:43:28,270
Here we see stamps issued by the Islamic
Republic of Iran

602
00:43:28,270 --> 00:43:32,670
commemorating resistance and it's seen as
a jihad, it's called a jihad.

603
00:43:32,670 --> 00:43:36,650
It's called, a, you know, the common
Muslim effort against an infidel

604
00:43:36,650 --> 00:43:42,550
oppressor, and it's, as a result of this
we see the formation of

605
00:43:44,830 --> 00:43:49,350
Islamist international brigades, mainly
drawn from some of the

606
00:43:49,350 --> 00:43:53,430
Arab countries, but as far away as
Malaysia and elsewhere.

607
00:43:53,430 --> 00:43:59,730
And these troops have, as I hinted at
already in the last

608
00:43:59,730 --> 00:44:06,170
video, they have now, they play
a very minor role in the actual fighting.

609
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:10,290
There is actually something resembling a
jihad

610
00:44:10,290 --> 00:44:15,190
tourism occurring where particularly Saudi
people arrive

611
00:44:15,190 --> 00:44:16,500
and they're there for two weeks and

612
00:44:16,500 --> 00:44:20,930
they pay money to shoot a rocket at some
Soviet that they don't even see.

613
00:44:20,930 --> 00:44:24,190
So they don't actually, they're not
particularly prominent in, as a

614
00:44:24,190 --> 00:44:28,430
fighting force, but they are very, very
important as supplies of funds.

615
00:44:30,300 --> 00:44:35,490
And very importantly once the conflict is
over, and once the defeat

616
00:44:35,490 --> 00:44:37,680
of the Soviet Union has been achieved,
these

617
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,850
people now return to their home countries
and

618
00:44:40,850 --> 00:44:44,980
often return to other conflicts with the
added

619
00:44:44,980 --> 00:44:48,890
legitimacy of having fought down the
Soviet Union.

620
00:44:48,890 --> 00:44:52,520
Having prevailed in this conflict.

621
00:44:53,730 --> 00:45:00,210
And, having been radicalized in the
intellectual climate of this,

622
00:45:02,100 --> 00:45:03,030
of these movements.

623
00:45:03,030 --> 00:45:07,722
And that is, I cannot overemphasize 
this point.

624
00:45:07,722 --> 00:45:14,360
The type of Islam that is now being
propagated is among the most narrow minded

625
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:21,980
and ... among the most, extreme, almost
xenophobic notions of Islam conceivable.

626
00:45:21,980 --> 00:45:24,680
And it's exactly that notion of Islam that

627
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:28,305
these foreign fighters now carry with
them, and

628
00:45:28,305 --> 00:45:32,290
re-import into their own local conflicts,
or onto some other conflicts.

629
00:45:32,290 --> 00:45:38,098
We see this most dramatically with respect
to the Algerian Civil War, but also

630
00:45:38,098 --> 00:45:43,206
equally dramatic in Chechnya and Dagestan.
To somewhat

631
00:45:43,206 --> 00:45:48,316
less extent in Bosnia.
To conclude

632
00:45:48,316 --> 00:45:53,356
this sorry story, the Soviet Union,
certainly after the arrival

633
00:45:53,356 --> 00:46:00,780
of Secretary General Gorbachev wants to
extricate itself from this conflict.

634
00:46:00,780 --> 00:46:05,080
And so we have in 89, you have 
the Geneva accords

635
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,490
in which the United States and the Soviet
Union agree to mutually disengage.

636
00:46:11,190 --> 00:46:13,540
But also both sides agreed that they will
continue

637
00:46:13,540 --> 00:46:19,490
to support their respective allies in
something that the the

638
00:46:19,490 --> 00:46:21,330
Americans called positive symmetry.

639
00:46:21,330 --> 00:46:23,080
So they will match the support that

640
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:26,450
the Soviet Union gives to the central
government.

641
00:46:26,450 --> 00:46:32,180
The result of this war is that the cities
remain largely unharmed, as I mentioned.

642
00:46:32,180 --> 00:46:35,530
But we see a massive fragmentation of
Afghanistan

643
00:46:35,530 --> 00:46:39,300
along ethnic lines otherwise
throughout the countryside.

644
00:46:41,250 --> 00:46:45,260
And that's something that becomes now
important

645
00:46:45,260 --> 00:46:50,770
after the Soviets have withdrawn.
The other

646
00:46:50,770 --> 00:46:56,310
thing that is important to remember, and
it's perhaps somewhat unpopular to say,

647
00:46:58,900 --> 00:47:00,830
so brace yourself.

648
00:47:00,830 --> 00:47:06,230
The despite the romantic presentation of
this conflict through

649
00:47:06,230 --> 00:47:09,630
out the as long as it lasted, particularly
in

650
00:47:09,630 --> 00:47:14,360
the Western press, as the
nationalist uprising

651
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:18,830
of a poor, subjugated people against this
dominant foreign aggressor.

652
00:47:20,370 --> 00:47:22,210
What we're actually seeing is,

653
00:47:25,690 --> 00:47:30,320
if you try to take a more, a broader

654
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:35,031
historical view, you have the forces 
of

655
00:47:35,031 --> 00:47:41,650
state-sponsored modernity.
You know, a modernizing project.

656
00:47:41,650 --> 00:47:47,981
Or by done is socialist precursors.
Fighting against

657
00:47:47,981 --> 00:47:55,080
an atavistic anti-modern movement.

658
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:56,870
And the United States, here you see

659
00:47:56,870 --> 00:48:01,680
President Reagan with representatives of
the mujahideen leaders.

660
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:05,436
And there in the official caption of the
time were presented as freedom fighters.

661
00:48:05,436 --> 00:48:09,551
I think Rasanayagam 

662
00:48:09,551 --> 00:48:12,850
assessment here is correct.

663
00:48:12,850 --> 00:48:15,840
I'm quoting, he says, the United States
thus

664
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:19,840
found itself on the side of the Islamic
fundamentalists,

665
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:24,100
actively promoted by its Pakistani ally
and confronted by

666
00:48:24,100 --> 00:48:27,770
a pragmatic, unconciliatory Iran.
End of quote.

667
00:48:29,410 --> 00:48:35,122
The United States is now, continues to
support extremist,

668
00:48:35,122 --> 00:48:40,498
particularly Pashuton groups, selected and
supported

669
00:48:40,498 --> 00:48:45,236
by Pakistani ally.
While their relatively moderate

670
00:48:45,236 --> 00:48:50,236
Shiite groups that are supported by
Iran are on the

671
00:48:50,236 --> 00:48:55,094
the other side.
And both, both of these groups have

672
00:48:55,094 --> 00:49:01,204
been fighting the modernist
tendencies of the, the Afghan government.

673
00:49:01,204 --> 00:49:05,921
So we see here a legacy that continues
today because, after all

674
00:49:05,921 --> 00:49:11,172
when the United States found itself now in
charge of administrating or

675
00:49:11,172 --> 00:49:16,550
helping to create an administration in
Afghanistan after 2001.

676
00:49:16,550 --> 00:49:21,200
It had to set out doing many of the things
that the Soviets were trying to do.

677
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:26,970
Namely building state institutions,
delivering services, creating a

678
00:49:26,970 --> 00:49:33,149
semblance of modernity in an rural,
underdeveloped

679
00:49:33,149 --> 00:49:36,460
society.
And it's exactly the forces

680
00:49:36,460 --> 00:49:40,280
that they had allied themselves with that
are

681
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:44,380
dramatically, fundamentally opposed to
that vision of modernity.

682
00:49:44,380 --> 00:49:46,260
So that's one of the things to remember.

683
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:53,955
What we see the other impact now of the
withdrawal of Soviet forces is the 

684
00:49:53,955 --> 00:49:59,020
now, the Soviet Union has agreed in
the Geneva course to withdraw its troops.

685
00:49:59,020 --> 00:50:01,768
Here we see Lieutenant Gen. Gromov 

686
00:50:01,768 --> 00:50:04,930
the commander of the Soviet troops, and
that is

687
00:50:04,930 --> 00:50:09,690
one of the last columns of departing
Soviet tanks.

688
00:50:09,690 --> 00:50:12,940
And Gromov was literally the last who
left.

689
00:50:12,940 --> 00:50:17,750
But to the surprise of everybody,
Najibullah holds out,

690
00:50:17,750 --> 00:50:21,740
manages to survive for three extra years
in Kabul.

691
00:50:21,740 --> 00:50:27,009
His government does not fall immediately,
so he stays in Kabul in power until 92.

692
00:50:27,009 --> 00:50:31,850
And it's, in this period when they still,
the mujahideen fighters are

693
00:50:31,850 --> 00:50:36,530
fighting the central government, where we
still see a semblance of unity among them.

694
00:50:38,090 --> 00:50:40,040
And then once they ultimately take Kabul,

695
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:44,320
we have the Peshawar agreement of April
92.

696
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:49,419
Brokered by Pakistan, by the Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

697
00:50:49,419 --> 00:50:52,610
And here we see a picture from that
negotiation.

698
00:50:52,610 --> 00:50:55,833
You see in the middle, Ahmad Shah Massoud and next
to him Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

699
00:50:57,790 --> 00:51:02,891
And they agree on a power sharing between
the mujahideen forces.

700
00:51:02,891 --> 00:51:05,790
But as all of you know, this is not what
comes to pass.

701
00:51:06,900 --> 00:51:13,730
We have now, and that is ultimately the hidden

702
00:51:13,730 --> 00:51:18,960
story behind the Jihad that is fought.
We have ultimately criminal

703
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:25,020
elements or personal ambitious elements
that have

704
00:51:25,020 --> 00:51:31,160
used the opportunities given by the war,
the war economy that have created.

705
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:37,030
To both to enrich themselves and to exert
power over their respective communities.

706
00:51:37,030 --> 00:51:42,120
And they are now very much unwilling to
give up that power.

707
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:43,010
So the ambition,

708
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:50,770
and the criminal energy to sustain 
the flow of funds, and 

709
00:51:50,770 --> 00:51:54,830
the economic conditions that they
have come

710
00:51:54,830 --> 00:51:57,460
to rely on during the years of conflict.

711
00:51:57,460 --> 00:52:00,430
That now prevents the mujahideen
forces

712
00:52:00,430 --> 00:52:04,040
from actually agreeing on a common
government.

713
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:10,520
And what you see now from 92 til 96, you
see an orgy

714
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:15,610
of violence.
Civil war of

715
00:52:15,610 --> 00:52:21,260
unprecedented viciousness that is now
actually fought out in the cities.

716
00:52:21,260 --> 00:52:27,540
So, all the destruction that we see in
Afghanistan today in the cities has

717
00:52:27,540 --> 00:52:30,750
been brought about by the mujahideen
forces

718
00:52:30,750 --> 00:52:33,280
themselves, by Afghans themselves, in a
civil war.

719
00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:36,230
It's not a destruction that was brought by
an outsider.

720
00:52:36,230 --> 00:52:39,830
But that is an equally fascinating and
equally sorry

721
00:52:39,830 --> 00:52:42,705
story that we will explore in the next
video.

722
00:52:42,705 --> 00:52:48,160
[MUSIC]