Why did the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan in 1979?
403065
There never was an invasion, in the sense that the word is usually used.\n\nCertain Muslims in Afghanistan were trying to establish a Sharia Islamic state in Afghanistan by illegal force. The government of Afghanistan was unable to contain the insurrection and asked for help from the (then) Soviet Union -- not Russia; the Soviet Union included several Islamic republics, such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan. \n\nThe USSR declined assistance for some months. Only when the government of Afghanistan was about to be overwhelmed did the USSR send troops. This was portrayed as an invasion. The American government, understanding foreign affairs not being their long suit, decided to treat the arrival of reinforcements as an invasion of a sovereign power. \n\nIn areas controlled by the Taliban, Sharia law has been imposed to some extent. For instance in Taliban controlled areas it is illegal to teach a girl to read. The punishments for religious offences are mediaeval in their severity. \n\nI hope this helps with your homework!
555272
American attacked Afghanistan to go after the Taliban and Bin Laden for their involvement in the attack on 911.\n\nWe invaded Iraq because our President is a fool who wanted to help his rich oil buddies and used 911 as an excuse. We were better off leaving Saddam in charge.
911587
Uzbekistan is useful for the war in Afghanistan , as soon as the situation changes that country will be abandoned or subverted.
588430
How would this help regain it's past glory?  Even when it was the Soviet Union it had a lot of internal problems which still plague it today.  That's what caused the Soviet Union to collapse in the first place.  I doubt Iran going to war would help them in anyway because it'd disrupt oil production from the country for a period of time (if a ground war broke out).
264718
When the liberation of Afghanistan was complete, the US Government announced that all satellite imagery from the area had been purchased by the USA for an indefinite period of time. It is not possible for anyone outside of the US Government to have access to satellite photography in Afghanistan.\n\nAlso, physically it is very difficult for independent news sources to actually get anywhere outside of Kabul. The country is extremely mountainous and the road infrastructure is in ruins. The country has literally millions of landmines that were placed with little rhyme or reason. Even if the people who placed them wanted to pay to remove them, there are no maps of where they are because they were simply dropped from helicopters or planted by roving patrols.\n\nIraq, no matter what anyone wants to say, is a relatively modern country with an adequate transportation net except in the Kurdish areas (again, mountainous plus it was heavily persecuted under the Hussein regime). Iraq has extensive open borders with several countries that would not mind the Coalition being embarrassed by reporters who can sneak in just as easily as terrorists can (maybe they carpool together?).\n\nAlso, there just isn't as much interest in the viewing public for information coming from Afghanistan. The US presence is about 1/5 the size in Iraq, and the forces there are largely Special Forces who are not supposed to be photographed anyways. The bulk of the Coalition forces are actually not American, so that would shoot down the whole "Anti-American Conspiracy Theory" that we hear so much about (a French soldier was just killed there the other day, in case anyone cares).
344587
What do you mean by why did it happen? It was part of Germany's invasion of Russia during WWII. They had to take Stalingrad to be able to have a firm grasp on the country, and the Russians didn't want that to happen, so they held out in Stalingrad.
422327
There are lots of reasons.  The infrastructure of the USSR was falling apart.  The cold war ate up all their resources.  They also had to implement some capitalistism in their economy so it wouldn't totally collapse, therefore not totally socialist.  The people were also terrified and pissed about being sent to Gulag.  Consult a history book for more.
616173
the soviets and americans wanted to spread communism and democracy respectively and wanted to prevent the other from spreading their ideologies. this led to the cold war.
888838
no it will just become exactly the same result that happened three times before twice for the British in the 19th century and once for the Russians in the late 1970s through to 1989 when Gorbachev withdrew Russian forces.Each of these times the exact same thing happened, the longer the occupations went on directly affected the size of the insurgency and the occupiers had to leave with their tails between their legs. They all totally underestimated the afghanis ability to only unite when their lands are occupied and each times after the occupiers left they carry on fighting each other. Throughout history Afghanistan has been a very unstable country torn by tribal rivalry's which were only ever held together by the Taliban in recent history.Even in ancient history the likes of Genghis khan had the sense not to stay there after conquering it.
307866
Yes,\nI don't have a source but i do remember when it all hit off in Afganistan after 9/11 there were reports in the European newspapers critisising US foreign policy.\nThe CIA is known to hava assisted and trained Afgani fighters, and supplied weapons. The critisism was that they assisted them in getting rid of the russians at the time and then were not happy with the resulting government and their policy's so in they went to cause some more turmoil.\nWHY?? Cos the USSR was a big enemy then.
791521
Propaganda War....haha...get your facts straight here, and no UN or Russia was involved in anything of this:\n\nPhases of the War in Bangladesh\nThe war is considered to have 4 phases:\n\nPhase 1: March 25 to June\nOperation Searchlight was launched by Pakistani forces on the 25th of March. There was Spontaneous and disorganized resistance from the Bengali soldiers and volunteers. Surprise and superior firepower helped the Pakistani forces overwhelm the disorganized Bengali resistance in conventional warfare by June. Pakistan airlifted 2 infantry divisions and reorganized their forces. Bangladesh Government in Exile was formed in April 17 at Mujib Nagar, the country was divided into 4 sectors to conducted the war.\n\nPhase 2: June-September\nBangladsh forces command setup in July, with MAG Osmani as commander in chief. Bangladesh was devided into 11 sectors with 11 sector commanders to conduct Guerrilla operations. 3 brigades were raised for conventional warfare, a large guerrilla force was trained. Guerrilla operations, which slacked during the training phase, picked up. targets in Dhaka was attacked. The major success story was Operation Jackpot, in which naval commandos mined and blew up berthed ships in Chittagong on August 16, 1971. Pakistani repraisals claimed lives of thousands on civilians. Indian army took over supplying the Mukti Bahini from the BSF. They organised 6 sector for supplying the Bangladesh forces.\n\nPhase 3: October - December\nBangaldesh conventional forces attacked border outposts. Kamalpur, Belonia and Battle of Boyra are a few examples. Guerrilla attacks intensified, as did Pakistani and Razakar repraisals on civilian populations. Pakistani forces were reinforced by 8 battalions from West Pakistan. The rebels even managed to temporarily capture airstrips at Lalmonirhat and Shalutikar.Both of these were used for flying in supplies and arms from India.\n\nPhase 4: December3 -December 16\nPakistani armies were gradually being disorganised due to the sudden and quick guerrilla attack by the bengali freedom fighters in most of the areas.the former east pakistan,being covered by condensation of trees crisscrossed by lots of streamlines and rivers,was quite uncomfortable for the Pakistani armies to defend the local Mukti Bahini Freedom Fighters.pakistani armies were in a dreadful condition and gradually were losing the will to fight because most of their major fortresses had fallen viciously by the allied Bengali-indian forces.It was a matter of shame for the Pakistani High Command that a well-trained army was losing the war to the common Bengali civilians merely trained and having outdated weapons. To conceal this shameful matter they launched air-attack about Indian border on 3rd of December so that the real facts remain unknown to the common people and people would say that Pakistani army didnot lose to Bengali Freedom Fighters but to more powerful Indian armies. This led India to announce war against Pakistan officially and they started attacking near Pakistan-India borders from the 6th of December. All out war between Bangladesh-India and Pakistan began , the agility and couragious war-strategy of the Mukti Bahini, aided by Indian forces, overwhelm the Pakistanies and within 10 days after\nIndia has joined the war, the Pakistan army was compelled to an unconditional surrender on the 16th December,1971. Pakistani\nforces surrender on the 16th of December with 93490 soldiers. \n\nThe surrender in East Pakistan was a tragic blow to the\nPakistanis. By the act of meek surrender Pakistan stood dismembered, and the image of the Pakistan Army as an efficient and excellent fighting force stood shattered.
848850
well its kind of a two sided war. You see, it must be traced back to the source. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Usama Bin Ladin as well as Ahmed Massoud (pardon me for spelling mistakes) defended their territory in a combined effort. After that Usama returned without a motivation and needed to pursue further ventures, while Massoud formed america's greatest ally-The Northern Alliance. Then it was that Usama learned of a man(cant remember the name), who was leading forces against the united states. He claimed that america lacked culture and religion and needed to convert to islam. Throughout the clinton administration, there were numerous threats of attacks and who can forget the first WTC bombing in 1993? Then it was in 2001 that WTC was bombed again which eventually led to the events that have evolved into the war today. Even i am no supporter of violence, but you must remember that we cannot rule out who is responsible for the conditions today. Go do some research.
293840
Peace on you.... well, I think Pakistan was US very strong ally in cold war against Russia. Pakistan fought war against Russia in Afghanistan for US. In those days Bin Laden was very important ally for US like Saddam Hussein was American ally against Iran for many years. This is politics which turn with the passage of time. Pakistan's border countries are India Iran Afghanistan. May Allah bless us .
666535
It was never a real threat, because despite all the posturing the USSR was not that well armed. It was however, a great excuse to keep people in the "democratic" countries so scared that they were easy to manipulate by their government.
214104
They didn't invade either place. I don't have the slightest idea what you're referring to. For one thing, both are long-time members of NATO.
179655
After US left Iran in 1978 Russia could invade the neighboring country, Afghanistan, without the United States being able to do much.  Russia wanted to spread communism and secure oil routes.  All part of geopolitical strategy. Read "THE GREAT GAME" by some guy...I forget his name.
374127
Yes.  It was necessary to open another front against Germany.  The Soviet Union and Germany were basically slugging it out on the Eastern Front, but the introduction of American and British troops into Western Europe drew resources away from the Eastern Front, allowing the Soviet Army to advance farther.  The war would have lasted about two to three years longer without the D-Day invasion and probably cost 2-3 million more lives (not counting more lives lost in Nazi death camps)