Spezialgebiet Englisch
US Military Operations abroad
(since 1945)
US Military operations abroad since 1945
Preamble
First of all I have to say that on the following pages I will not give a detailed plan of massacres of the human race, I will not show battlefields according to date, plans of the different sides or anything like this. What I want to show is that there are men behind wars. They are moving little figures around, unaware that each of their figures is worth many lives, is worth more than heroic victory or defeat. I want to show the dead, who died without ever having a chance of living, without ever knowing what life means except dying for their native country's concepts in the name of different generals, aims and doctrines. The only fact that never changed was the death of innocent people, on both sides, and often the survival of those who were responsible for all the misery.
The Korean War
a) Origins of the Korean War
The surrender of Japan was inevitable after the United States had dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. Stalin was waiting for just such an opportunity which would allow the Soviets to enter the war against Japan while incurring minimal losses, and so it was no surprise when the USSR declared war against Japan after the U.S. had dropped the second atom bomb. Upon Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, Soviet military forces swept through Manchuria and North Korea taking over control of these former Japanese provinces. The United States reacted in alarm when it realized the potential danger of having the strategic Korean peninsula controlled by communist forces. Because of containment policy (def.: Spann p.183), which was the post-war doctrine of the US foreign policy, the US had to stop the spreading of communist values and communist infiltration. The Truman doctrine also forced it to act in Korea, as the US was, according to this doctrine, not going to turn away from world affairs again, as in 1918. President Truman proposed a joint occupation of Korea by the two powers, in which the Soviets would occupy the territory north of the 38th parallel, while the U.S. would control the area to the south of that line.
Both of them, the Soviets as well as the Americans, wanted to withdraw their military forces in times to come. However, neither the USSR or the US wanted the peninsula to fall into the opponent's hand. The roots of division were laid from the very onset of Korea's liberation.
Communist elements in the north had been present during the Japanese colonial period, but with the north now under Soviet tutelage, the leftist factions were able to seize power. The Soviets helped to establish Kim Il Sung, a product of the Soviet military machine, as the leading political figure in the north.
In the South, the US helped Syngman Rhee to come into political power, whose dogma was to establish Korea's full independenence.
In 1948 South Korea held her first general elections. Soon afterwards, the Republic of Korea (ROK) was established in the South and was promptly recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate government of Korea. During the same time the North followed with similar actions by holding its own elections. Kim Il Sung was declared president of the new Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPKR), which was immediately recognized by the Soviet Union and other communist countries as the legitimate government of Korea. By the winter of 1948 the worst fears of Korean Nationalists were confirmed, as Korea became permanently divided at the 38th parallel.
These happenings set the stage for a civil war. And by 1950, both North and South Korea sensed that this war was inevitable. North Korea had a clear advantage over the south. Not only did North Korea possess a larger army, it also had many experienced veterans who had fought in China's Civil War (up to 1945). It was manufacturing its own weapons as well as possessing many Soviet made weapons. South Korea on the other hand had soldiers who had not even had basic training. Finally, North Korea had the support of communist China. On the eve of war, North Korea had a clear advantage and started the war on June 25, 1950. There never was a declaration of war.
b) The Korean War (1950-1953)
From the day when North Koreans attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950 to the day of the armistice on July 27, 1953, the events of the Korean War revealed the mass destruction, pain and suffering Koreans had to endure. At the end of the war, more than 3 million Koreans had died and millions of refugees remained homeless and distraught. About 1 million Chinese had died in this war and American casualties numbered 54.246 people.
Basically the facts of the Korean war are very easy to summarize. The Korean War can be split up into 3 phases:
The first phase began on June 25, 1950 and ended on the day when the United Nations (UN) forces thrust into North Korean territory
The second phase of the Korean war was essentially the Southern attack on and retreat from North Korea
The last phase of the war consisted of the "see-saw" fighting on the thirty eighth parallel, stalemate, and negotiation talks.
On the first day of the war, more than 70.000 North Korean troops with Russian T-34 tanks crossed the thirty eighth parallel. It did not take long for a call to the United Nations (by the US) to take "police action" against the "unwarranted" attack. Under the name of the "United Nations" the United States could send troops and forces. In the fights of the first phase Seoul was taken by the Northern forces and retaken by the South. This phase lasted till September 30th 1950, about 100 days. By the end of this first phase of the Korean War, 111.000 South Koreans had died and 57.000 were missing.
In the second phase China entered the war and supported the retreating forces of President Kim Il Sun. Again Seoul was taken by Northern forces and it was again retaken by South Korea. After so many military actions, no citizens could feel safe any longer. Many of them fled their homes in search of refugee camps, safety, shelter, and food.
After these two phases the war stopped for a short time. For two months it was localized "only" around the 38th parallel, and neither unit had really advanced beyond the parallel. By the summer of 1951, talks for an armistice began, but there was no success between 1951 and 1953. Fighting continued with intensified guerrilla warfare during the armistice talks. As the negotiations continued, aerial bombing of North Korea intensified.
By June 8, 1953 the basic agreement regarding POW (Prisoners of War) was settled. Both sides agreed on the principle of voluntary repatriation. And by June 17 the agreement on the final truce-demarcation line had become finalized. The armistice was finally signed on July 27, 1953.
c) Results
Apart from many casualties the Korean War brought no result. The country still is still separated today, and a reunion is, even if there are talks going on nowadays, far away. Families have been split up along the 38th parallel, and hatred has been spread over the country. Millions of Koreans died in a war, not between North and South Korea, but between the communist powers and the US.
The Cuban Missile Crisis (1961 - 1962)
a) Background
The Cuban Missile Crises was not only localized to Cuba and the US directly, on a closer look it was a worldwide crisis, starting long before 1961 and lasting much longer.
After the Second World War the British Empire was supporting Greece and Turkey in economical as well as financial ways. But in 1947, during India's struggle for independence, the Empire was not longer able to give further financial or economic aid. As there were strong communist tendencies in these two countries, the US saw the democratic values in these countries in danger. At the same time the so called "Domino theory" was put up for the first time. This theory says that the loss of one country to Communism would lead to the whole area falling under Communist control. Fearing a communist Europe Truman made a speech in the Congress on July 15, 1948 in which he accepted the full US responsibility of leadership in international affairs. Because of this reason the US took over the financial and economical aid of the British Empire in these two countries. As an exchange for their help the US was allowed to station nuclear weapons in both countries, right at the border of the communist world. Krushchev, the Soviet leader at that time, felt, of course, like having a trigger put on his head. As an exchange he wanted to clear the Berlin question according to his wishes. He had a barricade built around Berlin, which was evaded by the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949) and so Berlin remained separated into two parts.
In the early fifties the first Intercontinental Ballistics (ICB) were invented, which led to a struggle for power. Both of the superpowers, the US as well as the SU, wanted to be the most powerful country on earth. In the mid 50s, when the US had already 400 ICBs and sent up their first satellite, which was able to detect nuclear weapons, they found out that the SU did not have more than 24 ICBs. The Soviet Union had so few because of two reasons: first of all their ICBs were not as good as the American ones, they often missed their targets, or didn't get there at all. On the other hand the Soviet Union did not have the money to afford more Intercontinental Ballistics.
But they did have very good middle range Ballistics, but, unlike the US, they were not near enough the border of the US to pose a real threat. Cuba was the ideal place to station them. To aggravate the situation the US tried to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. Castro and his Soviet Allies were convinced that the Americans would try to take over the island again. Since the Bay of Pigs, there was an increasing fear of a U.S. incursion on Cuban soil.
b) The Cuban Missile Crisis
The US made clear that it would tolerate communist influence in Cuba, but not more. It for sure would not accept missiles in Cuba. But on October 14th 1962 they found evidence of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba for the first time, no nuclear missiles, but surface to air missiles which would be able to destroy high flying airplanes. Soon the US found out that the Soviets were building a defence line against American spy planes. A short time after this discovery they found a small piece of land, from which Cubans were expelled and replaced by Soviets. In this trapezoidal area the Americans soon found nuclear middle range weapons, which, once ready to fire, would be able to reach every big city in the US. Khrushchev's plan was to establish a balance between the missiles in Turkey and Greece and the Missiles in Cuba. Kennedy soon found out that these missiles in Cuba could not only be used to change the balance of power, but also to settle the Berlin Crisis once and for all. He knew, if he used force against Cuba, as his military advisors were telling him, the Soviets would attack Berlin, and roll over half of Europe.
At the top of the crisis an American U2 spy plan was shot down by Soviet anti air missiles. It has never been settled if that happened on permission of Moscow, but what is clear is that there was the imminent danger of a Third World War and everyone at that time was sure that once a nuclear struggle had started, there wouldn't be anyone who could stop it.
Soon after the discovery of the US about the missiles, it brought it forward into the UN to find a solution. But for the Soviet inner circle these discussions were not more than a message from the US that it knew about the missiles. The United American Nations signed an embargo for Cuba right afterwards, which included a barrier for all ships heading for the island. After this period Krushchev and Kennedy started to exchange messages directly. For me this is the basic difference between this crisis and every other crisis. It showed that both leaders were trusting each other that sooner or later they would find a solution for the problem. On October 27, 1962 all 25 Soviet missiles in Cuba were operational.
For Khrushchev it would have been a solution to make sure that the US would never invade Cuba, for Kennedy it was indispensable that the nuclear weapons, both strategic and tactical were removed. It was not easy for Kennedy to prevent an invasion without losing his face or being impeached. In the end the Russians retreated. Khrushchev did something very risky, but not wanting war, he only wanted the world to give the Soviets the respect they demanded, he wanted his native country to be honoured as the superpower it was, not only on the basis of its military strength, but because of its extraordinary achievements. Russia withdrew its missiles afterwards, and as an exchange 6 months later, so it would not be seen in connection, the US withdrew its missiles in Turkey and Greece. The Americans were allowed to count the missiles which left Cuba to make sure that all of them were removed.
c) Results
The Cuban Missile Crisis helped the world to see that the Soviet Union did not want war, and that the two superpowers could talk to each other if they wanted to. This had not been an ordinary communication, but a new form of talks. In the end it had been possible to stabilize a quite dangerous situation peacefully without starting a new war.
The Vietnam War (1954 - 1975)
a) Roots
Vietnam had been under foreign rule for much of its history, first of all under the Chinese. In 1860, France began its domination of the area and had, by the late 19th century, implemented its colonization in a number of regions around the Gulf of Tonkin. During WWII, the Japanese government took control of much of the area and set up a puppet regime that was eventually forced out by the Vietnamese at the end of that war in 1945.
After WWII and until 1954, France fought hard to regain her former territories in the region, but with a poorly organized army and little determination among the troops, these efforts soon collapsed. The French troops withdrew, leaving a buffer zone separating the North and South and planned elections the purpose of which would have been a reunification of the country. The communist regime set up its headquarters in Hanoi under the leadership of the Nationalist and Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Many North Vietnamese left the country and fled south where the self-proclaimed president, Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic of Vietnam.
Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese (with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong) tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, supported by China and Russia the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country.
Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States grew more and more wary of the progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong. Communism had become the evil menace in the US and with the expansion of Soviet rule into Eastern Europe, Korea and Cuba, the Americans were bent on stopping communism from spreading any further.
b) The Vietnam War
With the Cold War at its height, the US leaders were worried that an attack on North Vietnam by the US would create tensions with the Chinese and Russians which would, in turn, lead to a larger conflict and possibly WW III. This created a difficult situation for the US and would eventually lead to many internal conflicts. The US was also faced with a number of cultural differences between the two countries, and what was considered corrupt by the US government was considered legitimate by South Vietnamese standards. It was difficult for the US to portray South Vietnam as a hard working, hard fighting democracy; corruption was widespread among officials and the armed forces. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was disorganized due to the low morale of its leaders and their conspicuous interest in personal gain. Therefore the US had a great deal of difficulty in holding the army together in South Vietnam and saw only one solution, which was to start taking care of things themselves.
Around 1955 the US began supporting the south, at first in an advisory role, which slowly escalated into full commitment.
The large-scale involvement of the US began under President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a resolution that was proclaimed to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia, but that only brought war and millions of dead and refugees. Johnson had replaced John F. Kennedy who had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963. He was torn between the various strategies the US had drawn up for Vietnam. The increasing involvement from 1965 onwards and the escalation of troop involvement meant there were more casualties and more problems at home. But Johnson, who held the power to stop the war in Vietnam, but was always concerned about his image, could not face the thought of being regarded as the first president in US history to lose a war. The pressure around him grew so intense that he was only left with one option and that was not to run for a second term. Basically, he handed the war down to Richard Nixon.
The escalation of war continued during the first Nixon years. The top US commander in Vietnam was General William Westmoreland; who had to face an army of young men placed in an environment that was totally alien to them. There was no clear frontline to the conflict and basically, the enemy could be hiding anywhere. Life in the jungle was painful and there were no home comforts. Drugs and other stimulants filtered their way into the daily routine of many servicemen and morale quickly started to decrease. For the first time, people in the US resisting the draft were given acceptance although still not by the majority of citizens. Riots and demonstrations against the war became common in the US, with numerous veterans taking part in the efforts to stop the war, strengthening the issue. Finally, the US government saw that it was in a no-win situation and began making plans to withdraw.
After great efforts by the US to withdraw, and the establishment of cease-fire on January 27th, 1973, American soldiers began leaving Vietnam for good. The North Vietnamese, totally ignoring the cease-fire, finally conquered South Vietnam in early 1975 and on July, 2nd, 1976, North and South Vietnam were officially reunited as a single communist state.
c) Results
It had cost an estimated 2 million lives and disablement of many millions of others. (50 000 Americans)
The war had a deeply unsettling effect on the economy of the US.
Among Americans there was a strong feeling of humiliation after the defeat by the guerrilla forces of a country of "peasants".
Americans became disillusioned and distrustful of their government after Vietnam.
The Vietnam War had a profound impact on US foreign policy. It resulted in US disillusionment about its role as the "world police" and revived the wish to keep the country free of long term world wide commitments.
The role of press freedom in wars was thought over again. After this war the media were not allowed to show pictures of the front again, nor of dead US soldiers, defeats, or US atrocities.
Laos (1970)
Laos is an Asian country near Vietnam. The conflict the US had there was soon fought out in Vietnam. Because of this, I've not written a special chapter about Laos. Because of the same reason I won't mention Cambodia, which was only important during the very last phase of the Vietnam War.
The Persian Gulf War (1991- )
a) Roots
The main cause of the constant hostility between the United States and Iraq seems to be disagreement over the extent of need for United Nations inspections. The US and the UN claim that Iraq is not living up to the terms of the agreement and is continuing to develop WOMDs (Weapons of mass destructions). Iraq denies this and claims that the US is attempting to subvert its national sovereignty and humiliate the country through continued economic sanctions. Periodically, the government of Saddam Hussein attempts to force the UN weapons inspectors out of the country and the US and UN respond with threats and occasional bomb and missile attacks.
Another point of discussion are the "no fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq. Originally designed to protect the rebellious Kurdish minority in the north and the oppressed Shiite minority in the south, these zones are Iraqi airspace in which Iraqi aircraft are not allowed to fly. Gulf Coalition air forces have occasionally enforced these zones by shooting down Iraqi planes and attacking Iraqi defence missile batteries on the ground.
In December 1998 the Iraqi government evicted the UNSCOM inspectors, accusing them of spying for the American CIA. This allegation seems to hold some truth. As a result of the end of Iraqi cooperation with UNSCOM the US and Britain unleashed Operation Desert Fox on Iraq. From December 16th to 20th, Allied warplanes and cruise missiles hammered Iraqi targets. Saddam Hussein then declared that Iraq would no longer recognize the validity of the "no fly zones" and would actively contest the Allies for control of all Iraqi airspace. This resulted in nearly continual combat in the skies of Iraq as air-defence missile batteries attempted to shoot down American and British warplanes. In response, Allied forces attacked these missile batteries and occasionally engaged in punishing air strikes on other targets in Iraq.
Another conflict point between the US and Iraq has always been. Since its independence in 1961 Iraq has insisted that Kuwait is an integral part of Iraq. Finally in August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait
b) The Persian Gulf War
Over the years, the continued conflict between the US and Iraq erupted into violence several times. After the invasion of Kuwait events had been started that in a few short months would result in several thousand Iraqi dead and millions more casualities, a deserted land and massive ecological damage, turmoil through the Arab world, and financial and political reverberations that would shake the global community.
During the Gulf War, the US deliberately conducted bombing raids aimed at the "population". The Bombing of civilian infrastructure such as electicity, water, sanitation and other systems which sustain life, was intended to "degrade the will of the civilian population".
One of the most significant factors of the Gulf War was the speed with which the US-led coalition was able to achieve air supremacy. Iraqi air defences were systematically devastated, many of the targets being attacked again and again. Within a few days it became clear that that Iraqi aircraft were unlikely to engage allied planes in a battle and soon, with the speedy and comprehensive destruction of the multilayered Iraqi anti-aircraft systems, allied aircraft were able to range and bomb at will. What this meant in human terms is hard for distant and comfortable observers to imagine. Tens of thousands of hapless Iraqi conscripts, many of them from groups known to be persecuted by Saddam Hussein, had no choice but to sit in the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait until the bombs fell. Here they were forced to suffer napalm, cluster bombs that shred human flesh, air fuel explosives that incinerate some and asphyxiate others, and the carpets of "earthquake" bombs laid down by B52s - all the obscene paraphernalia that in earlier days had killed perhaps three million people in Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The destruction of Iraq's electricity-generating plants, including four of the country's five hydro-electric facilities, was little discussed and never questioned during the war. Pentagon and the Bush Administration officials never publicly offered a justification during the war for attacking and crippling most of Iraq's electrical power system - a destruction which continues to have devastating consequences for the civilian population. As a modern, electricity dependent country, Iraq relied on electrical power for essential services such as water purification and distribution, sewage removal and treatment, the operation of hospitals and medical laboratories, and agricultural production. The report of a UN mission to Iraq in March stated that the allied bombing 'has paralysed the oil and electricity sectors almost entirely. Power output and refineries' production is negligible."
Soon newspaper reports stimulated the discussion as to what might constitue a war crime. Thus the correspondent Denis Knight (The Guardian, 5 March 1991) suggested that the deliberate massacre of thousands of fleeing soldiers might qualify. And what of the specific weapons used? Paul Flynn, British Member of Parliament, cites a report that fuel air explosives were 'designed to produce nuclear-like levels of destruction without arousing popular revulsion'; and comments (The Guardian, 21 June 1991 ) that the 'cluster bombs, daisy cutters and fuel air explosives should not be classed as conventional weapons They are massacre weapons.' Flynn added that the British government had willfully refused to recognise 'the holocaust results of the Gulf War. The most recent estimate is that 100,000 to 200,000 Iraqis were killed and 300,000 to 700,000 injured, most of them Shiite and Kurdish conscripts.'
Further reports indicated the extent to which the war had been fought against human beings, rather than simply against tanks and other weaponry. Thus discussions were provoked by the revelation that the American army had used earthmovers and ploughs mounted on tanks to bury thousands of Iraqi soldiers alive. One attack of this sort resulted in thousands of Iraqi dead and wounded, with not a single American fatality. Colonel Lon Maggart, commander of the US 1st Brigade, estimated that his forces had buried about 650 Iraqi soldiers; and Colonel Anthony Moreno, commander of the 2nd Brigade, commented: 'For all I know, we could have killed thousands. What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with people's arms and things sticking out of them'. Such improvised mass graves, to which must be added the bulldozing of thousands of Iraqi corpses at the end of the war, are part of the post-war face of Iraq and Kuwait. And there are many other characteristic features in the former battlefields: the massive remains of beaten armed forces, the inevitable residue of unexploded weapons, and the radioactive waste left in the desert by the allied forces.
It can be assumed that many of the Iraqi casualties were caused by inaccurate bombing: the US forces, while at first applauding the reliability of the 'smart' weapons, later came to admit the massive number of inaccurate targetings. Thus in one US analysis, the computer-navigated Tomahawk cruise missiles just hit their targets in about 50 per cent of the cases. The 'smart' laser-guided bombs launched from the US F-117A Stealth attack jets hit their targets in only about 60 per cent of the missions flown, in contrast to the 90 per cent claimed earlier. In any case, of the 88,500 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq and Kuwait, only 6520 tons were precision-guided, and 70 per cent 'missed their targets'.
At the end of the war, wrecked armament, unexploded mines and other munition, radioactive debris and mass graves littered the Iraqi and Kuwaiti deserts. It was also suspected, though not at that time known for certain, that the American forces had drawn up plans for the launching of chemical and nuclear attacks against Iraq. Thus Major Johan Persson, a liaison officer at a Swedish army field hospital, declared in interviews in Stockholm that he had seen official guidelines about the use of nuclear and chemical weapons in certain circumstances. Major Persson: 'There was such an order. I saw it. I had it in my hands. It was the real thing.' When US Secretary of State James Baker met the Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz on 9 January 1991, days before the start of the US-led bombing of Iraq, Baker declared: 'We know that you have a vast stock of chemical weapons Our sincere advice to you is not to even think of using them. If you do, or if we feel that you did, then our reply will be unrestrained. I hope I am understood well.' The authoritative commentator Mohamed Heikal noted Aziz's understanding 'that Baker was hinting at the use of nuclear weapons'.
c) Results
The consequences of the Gulf War are still to be felt today. Since 1991 there have been air strikes on Iraq. No longer anybody in Iraq can feel safe. Whenever the US fears that Saddam Hussein is going to build WOMDs, which of course should not happen, they are attacking with the same weapons that they want to destroy.
After Vietnam the Persian Gulf War was good cure for the American self-confidence. Now again they feel mighty and powerful, and now again they want to take over the role as the "world police" that they have had for so long. It doesn't matter that they killed thousands of innocent people, without even losing one single airplane - as long as they feel alright, and if they don't, they can attack once more.
Especially in recent times this crisis got acute again by several threats of G. W. Bush jun., which ended in a declaration of Sadam Hussein that he would, for his country's sake, resign if the US attacked again.
Afghanistan (2001 - )
a) Roots
Looking for the roots of terrorism arising from Islamic countries I had to leave the field of the history of our Western civilization.
First of all I want to say that I condemn terrorist activity of all kind. Northern Irish terrorism is as bad as Islamic. There is no single fanatic organisation which has the right to do things in the way they are doing them, but looking back each of us can see that terrorist activity does not come into being from one day to another.
On September 11th, 2001, we all were shocked. We had never thought of an airplane, led by terrorists being able to destroy the WTC (World Trade Center). But why? Terrorists are planning their strikes for years, sometimes even for decades. We live in a good world, enjoying high economic and living standards taking for granted that everybody else lives like we do. But in reality we have to oppress others to ensure our high living standards, we have to force them to supply us with the luxury we want, and if they don't want to, or don't see that we are "only" oppressing them for their good, we attack them, humiliate them, and appoint leaders/governments willing to be oppressed again. The catastrophe of the Third World in all parts of the earth is explicable in our failure to grasp the nature of Western success, which springs neither from luck nor resources, genes nor geography. We don't see the misery accompanying corporations, colonialism, and racism. Neither does the Third World. We tend to say that they are themselves responsible for these fiascos. Governments in the Middle East should, in our arrogant opinion, have the courage to say that their countries are poor because their populations are half illiterate, beacuse their economies are not open, and because their fundamentalists impede scientific inquiry, and cultural exchange. Why are they unable to build up a democratic highly educated system with high values? Because we force them no to do so. We force them to be what they are now.
We do that in South America, where we prevent people from planting basic food for their survival, but coffee, tea, bananas and cacao instead, as an exchange for the cheap supply of these goods we give them the cheapest grain, and low standard products. We are forcing Africans to grow bananas and give them to us for the same reason, but we also supply them with weapons and they do use them against their brothers and sisters.
Finally the Arabs: During the Cold War, both the US and the USSR, made them fight each other instead of the superpowers. As the Arab countries are on the border of the former USSR, it was an obvious idea of the US that a war there would be a good thing to threaten the USSR. Afghanistan itself was occupied by Russians after a bloody coup of communist presidents in Afghanistan. Immediately afterwards the US started its underground work there, it supported mujahedeen with the latest weapons available, including air to air missiles, surface to air missiles and modern guns like the M16 machine gun. One of the great men of the mujahedeen in the early 80s was Osama Bin Laden, and the US gave him everything he wanted.
In 1989 the Russians withdraw from Afghanistan leaving their Islamic allies on their own. In the early nineties bitter factional fighting killed at least 50.000 in Kabul, mostly civilians. Various warring groups signed four peace agreements, but fighting was eventually resumed. In September 1994 the previously unknown Taliban rebels, an army of former Islamic seminarians, entered the scene. The Taliban soon (in 1996) drove the elected President out of Kabul, captured the capital and executed the former President. In May 1997 a brief alliance between opposition forces and the Taliban collapsed violently.
In August 1998 the Taliban finally took control of Mazar-i Sharif and massacred at least 2,000 people, most of them civilians, after they had taken the city. In the aftermath, General Dostum (died 2001) left Afghanistan for exile in Turkey. Shortly after taking control of Mazar-i Sharif, the Taliban also took control of the town of Bamian (there they destroyed two big Buddah statues), in the Hazara (Afghan tribe)-dominated central highlands. Some time after this the former Northern Alliance (opposition of the Taliban) enlisted the support of factions from outside their ethnic constituencies, including the Council of the East, a Pashtun group and renamed themselves the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, or short United Front. In August 1998, the United States launched air strikes against bin Laden's reputed training camps near the Pakistan border. Bin Laden had been believed to be responsible for terrorist activity for a long time. The strikes came in the wake of the terrorist bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam. In October 1999 the U.N. imposed sanctions on the Taliban to make them turn over Bin Laden, banning Taliban-controlled aircraft from takeoff and landing and freezing the Taliban's assets abroad. The Taliban's failure to hand over Bin Laden led to an expansion of the sanctions on the regime on December 19, 2000, including an arms embargo on the Taliban, a ban on travel outside Afghanistan by Taliban officials of deputy ministerial rank, and the closing of Taliban offices abroad.
Through out 2000 and 2001, fighting continued in the northeast between Massoud's (general of the Northern Allies) forces and the Taliban, with the Taliban taking control of Taloqan in September 2000, and driving the United Front further east. The town of Baiman changed hands several times between January and June 2001 ; during their last retreat from the area, Taliban troops burned down the town and many other villages in the district. United Front forces resumed guerrilla operations against the Taliban in mid-2001.
b) The Afghanistan War
On September 11th two airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. It didn't last long for the Towers to collapse and bury 3000 people under their masses. 3000 innocent people! In a first reaction US President George W. Bush called for a War against terrorism.
It didn't take long and the US was invading Afghanistan, hunting Osama Bin Laden, who was said to have organized and financed the destruction of the WTC. Immense military and economic power was taken into Afghanistan, to prevent further terrorist activities. In its hatred of the terrorists who blasted the WTC into ruins, the US tried to bomb Afghanistan back into ancient times. The Americans didn't care whom they killed, as long as they killed Muslims. They shot first and asked afterwards.
Many Afghans starved in the cold winter, or froze to death. Only small amounts of aid supplies were delivered to them, instead, the money was spent on new weapons.
Sceptical and humane voices have gone largely unheard in the present crisis as "America" prepares itself for a long war to be fought somewhere out there, along with allies who feel committed to assist the US on very uncertain grounds and for vague ends. The Taliban fighters, who have been caught till now, have been flown to Cuba. They have not been accepted as POWs and so the US is even allowed to use torture against them, without violating human rights.
And war will even increase. Attacks on third countries have already been planned, including Iran, Iraq and even Russia and China. Right on March 10th, 2002 plans got known in which attacks with tactical nuclear weapons on eight countries are described.
c) Comment
We need to step back from the imaginary threshold that separates people from each other and re-examine the labels, reconsider the limited resources available, decide to share our fates with other cultures, despite all the bellicose cries and creeds.
'Islam' and 'the West' are simply inadequate as banners to follow them blindly. Some will run behind them, but for future generations commiting themselves to prolonged war and suffering without so much as a critical pause, without looking at all the past years of injustice and oppression, without the attempt to reach common emancipation and mutual enlightenment seems far more willful than necessary. Education for consideration, tolerance and equality will take patience, but will be more worthwhile than still higher levels of large-scale violence and suffering.
Sources
Books
R. Garson, C.J. Bailey, The uncertain power - A political history of the US since 1929,
George C. Herring , America's longest War
G. Kirchner & Dieter Stang, America's Vietnam Experience
Ekkerhard Spann, Abiturwissen
Internet
http://militaryhistory.about.com/library/blvietnambattles.htm
http://militaryhistory.about.com/library/blvietnambattles.htm
http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6617/wars6.html
http://americanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vietnampix.com%2Fintro2.htm
Additional materials
Spezialgebiet: Daniela Fahrner - The Vietnam War
Spezialgebiet: Alex Haas - The Persian Gulf War
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