Yoel Feinberg
Period 1
Operation
Cyclone
A Summary:
The United States Central Intelligence
Agency in the year 1979 decided that they would fund anti-Soviet Jihad warriors
or the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet communist puppet. This
program lasted from 1979 to 1989. It began by only spending 20 million dollars
in resources and weapons a year for the Afghan rebels, but it quickly escalated
to such an extent that during the 1980’s, the United States were paying almost
a billion dollars a year. However United States effort was not in vain, and the
money put into the operation made the rebellion work very well. In fact, it
worked to well, and it became clear to other countries that the Mujahideen must
have been getting extensive support from somewhere due to their constant
success, and of course, the first assumption is that it is the United States
who are supporting them against the Soviets. There is however a lot of debate
on whether Operation Cyclone was a good idea. Many people believed that the
extensive weaponization in Afghanistan led to the rise of the Taliban and non
other that Osama Bin Laden. The operation is frequently referenced in the
debate of whether the United States should really extensively involve itself
into other countries.
Sources:
http://www.academia.edu/2897792/Operation_Cyclone_1979-1989_A_Brief_Analysis_of_the_U.S._Involvement_in_the_Soviet-Afghan_War
This is a very interesting post looking into some interesting events that happened during the 1980s. It seems that the United States (especially spy department) always likes to be involved in keeping the world safe for democracy (hence anticommunist) and is willing to do anything, be it illegal, to get the job done. This funding of rebellious afghans is interesting as a connection can be made to the Contra affair, where the government gave nicaraguan rebels money in order to fight communist regimes.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very nice post outlining the operation and the debate surrounding it. The operation is a demonstration of how short term gains or success can potentially be long term losses or failures. It also shows how the Cold War led to the US supporting groups that did not necessarily support their interests.
ReplyDelete