Afghanistan The Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower

by Mohammad Bear Trap Yousaf, Mohammed Yousaf, Mark Adkin

Release Date: 06 November, 2001

Edition: Hardcover

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Interesting and flawed

The most interesting aspect of this work is the real nuts and bolts of the war in Afghanistan, and the Pakistani contribution to the war effort. The logistical nightmare of providing arms to the Mujahideen are only one facet of this massive supply operation, and I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about this aspect of the war from a real insider.

I do find flaws in this work, however, and they basically arise from the real difference of opinion about the US role in that conflict. Yes, the United States was interested in supplying the rebels for the sake of Great Power Politics. A defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan surely would be a great victory for the West, and that is why the arms were supplied. Lets get real here. The author seems to take exception with the fact that after the Soviets pulled out, the US did not seem very interested in defeating the puppet government. Why would they care? The weapons were not supplied out of any desire to assist in the Jihad, nor were they provided out of a hope for a better future Afghanistan. Afghan politics was (and is) made up of rivalries, warlords and open conflict. The US had little interest in getting involved before the Soviet occupation, so why would they after? Any interperetation to the contrary is to miss the point. Standard realist politics, pure and simple.

The author also believes that the US removed support from the Mujahideen so that they could not defeat the communist government and create a fundamentalist regeime. The recent events in Afghanistan showed exactly why this was of such great concern to the US. Hindsight is certainly 20-20, and this book was written and published well before the 9/11 attacks on the US. But I feel that the author's concern about the lack of US support for the defeat of the puppet government has been conclusivly shown to be the correct policy choice. The fundamentalist Taliban government allowed Al Qaida to flourish, and we all know how that turned out. I don't beleive too many people who will read this book will feel sorry for the failure (at that time) of a fundamentalist take-over of Afghanistan. Too bad they eventually did so. Maybe the US should have done even more to prevent it.

Also, the author seems to find reason to blame the US for pretty much everything that went wrong with the war. Even when he had no proof, he did not hesitate to show how the US could have done the bad deed. I found very little thanks to a country that sent millions and millions of dollars to help fight the war, even if it was for reasons of self-interest. (Realist politics again.) I continually found it difficult to read where the US was selfish for only wanting to help defeat the USSR, and that the CIA should somehow have been interested in Jihad or helping the historically conflict-ridden political parties within Afghanistan. Even during this war with the USSR, the warlords (according to the author) would sell arms they were given, fight with each other, and pretty much do what they wanted. It was only by using the carrot of more arms and heavier weapons could any control be established over these groups. Why would the US want to get invloved in that???

The subject of the Stinger missiles is covered in great detail, and the introduction of these weapons really changed the whole nature of the conflict. It is claimed (correctly) that the CIA did not want to give this weapon to the Mujahideen for fear it would find it's way to terrorists and unfriendly countries. It was pointed out many times in the book how "if we had the stinger" and this defeat was because they didn't have it, the author himself admits that several weapons DID find their way into Iran. So the US was right all along to be concerned. All air travelers should be concerned that these weapons are still floating around somewhere. Pretty scarey, and the CIA was right to be worried. But that did not seem to be of interest to the author.

So all in all, it is a very good work for the inside scoop on the war from the Pakistani point of view, and it should be read as such. But, the attitude against the US was pretty hard to fathom, and it got to be an annoying part of this book. I'm hardly a flag waver, but give credit where credit is due. The major reason the Soviets left Afghanistan was because of the massive US aid effort. Perhaps that should have been pointed out more in this book.

Very Interesting

This is a very interesting book. It provides a good amount of detail about the US - Pakistan process for arming the Afghanistan fighters. It is also an eye opener about the world of international arms sales - what surprised me the most was that many Arab nations were willing to send complete junk for weapons to fellow Muslims. I also enjoyed the story of the first shoot down of a Soviet helicopter and the videotape that made its way to Reagan.

I would argue with the statements about the abandonment of the US - we did leave but we were never in this war to nation build. All of the countries helping out the Afghanistan's were doing so to fight the USSR, not to nation build Afghanistan. We completed a bargain, however unseemly, which was to supply weapons not to make Afghanistan the 51st state. The one thing I would have liked was a bit more size. Overall, a good book and I would recommend it.