Afghanistan-Land of Valor, Land of Sorrow - Part 4
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
CA
Zahir Shah had the good sense to keep Afghanistan neutral during the Second World War. Things changed after the war and the departure of the British from the subcontinent. The new nations of Pakistan and Afghanistan were embroiled in the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The West touted its free markets and personal freedoms while the Soviets emphasized social development and class harmony. These slogans meant little to the emergent countries who were struggling to find their way out of colonialism, and the principal issues they faced were forging national identities and laying the foundation of economies that would help alleviate poverty, disease and hunger.
As long as the British were the masters of India, Afghanistan was too weak militarily to press its case on its borders with the Indian empire. When Pakistan emerged as a new nation, Kabul sensed an opportunity. In 1949 Afghanistan declared its support for an independent Pakhtoonistan embracing the Pashto-speaking areas of NW Frontier and formally demanded negotiations with Pakistan on this issue. Pakistan, which was itself a composite of four ethnic groups, and had received an enormous influx of refugees from India saw in the demand for a Pakhtoon state an attempt at its own dismemberment.
Meanwhile, the new nations of India and Pakistan were embroiled in their dispute over Kashmir. Sensing its own weakness, Pakistan turned to the United States for support. The support did come but at a price. Pakistan joined the American-sponsored Baghdad Pact (CENTO) and the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and agreed to base American U2 planes in Peshawar. Afghanistan also appealed to the United States for support. But Pakistan was a much bigger prize than Afghanistan. After an assessment from the then Vice President Nixon, the request was turned down. A frustrated Kabul turned to Moscow for help which was more than willing to oblige. Moscow saw an opportunity to extend its influence beyond its borders and realize its age-old dream to reach warm waters. With Afghanistan in its camp, there would only be the deserts of Baluchistan between the southern borders of its influence and the Arabian Sea. There were disgruntled elements within Baluchistan, on all sides of the Iran-Pakistan-Afghan border who could be used by Moscow to gain access to the sea. Thus began the long march of both Afghanistan and Pakistan towards big power involvement in their national destinies.
In 1953 Daud, a brother-in-law of King Zahir became the prime minister of Afghanistan. An ardent supporter of the Pashtuns, he pushed the dispute over Pakhtoonistan both on the political and military front. He was supported in these efforts by the Soviet Union and India, each of whom had their own interests in the Pakistan-Afghanistan dispute. Afghan cadets were sent to the Soviet Union for military training where they received a heavy dose of communist ideological propaganda. Upon their return to their native land, they formed the nucleus of a power base oriented toward Moscow. This was the beginning of Afghan flirtation with the Soviet Union that was to result twenty years later in outright invasion and occupation from its northern neighbor.
Across the border, Pakistan was increasingly drawn into the American embrace. The die was cast with Pakistan in the American orbit and Afghanistan in the Soviet orbit. Both countries stuck to their feigned non-alignment but their cooption into the spheres of influence of contesting cold war superpowers was apparent to any outside observer. Foreign arms flowed to both sides of the border until the two nations almost went to war in 1961 but had the good sense to step back from the brink and seek peaceful discourse.
Power is the arbitrator of politics. Equality in a political alliance is possible only between nations of equal power. A political pact between a great power and a weak nation is like an alliance between a giant and a pigmy. The pigmy must necessarily follow the giant. When they fight on the same side, the giant gets all the glory and the pigmy ends up with a lame foot. It is like water pressure. When a giant tower is connected by a pipe with a bathtub, water must necessarily flow from the tower to the bathtub. During the cold war many a nation tried to play off the Soviet Union against the United States. In almost every case, the result was predictably the same. The weaker nation ended up as a satellite of one of the great powers.
The Pakhtoon dispute cost Daud his job and he was fired by King Zahir in 1963. The new prime minister, Mohammed Yusuf steered the kingdom towards constitutional monarchy. Political parties, previously banned, were now allowed and elections were held for a democratically elected parliament. The chief beneficiaries of the liberalization of political process were the Marxists. The communist party of Afghanistan, PDPA, was organized in 1965 by Taraki, Amin, Najibullah and Babrak Karmal. There were other political parties as well, some claiming to represent Islam. But the principal difference was that while the other parties were political, PDPA was a political as well as an ideological party which believed that the ends justified the means. Its fatal flaw was that it sought its cues from Moscow and was beholden more to international interests than national interests. Some communists were elected to the parliament but continued to instigate riots to discredit the elected government and pave the way for a violent overtake of the kingdom.
Fresh elections in 1972 brought in a new Prime Minister Mohammed Musa. But the communists were impatient. They incited Daoud, a cousin and brother-in-law of the king, to overthrow the monarchy. In a coupe organized jointly from inside the palace by Daoud and outside the palace by the communist party, the king was overthrown. Daoud declared himself president of a new republic and promulgated liberal reforms to bring women into public life and encourage education. But he was no more than a show boy for the communists who were biding their time to take over the country.
A series of attempted coupes and counter coupes followed, often with the connivance of the Soviet Union. Finally Daoud was killed in 1978. Instability followed and after several move coupes and counter coupes, Karmal became the prime minister and signed a “Treaty of Friendship” with the Soviet Union. The Afghan hug with the Russian bear got tighter. (To be continued)
