Afghanistan: back to the "Great Game" again?

Part II. Obscure anniversary of the “Cyclone” operation

Osama bin Laden, who was dubbed the personification of the world evil by the Americans, this Frankenstein, whom they’ve created themselves in order to use him in their fight against the Soviet Union, turned out to be the nightmare of its own master. For 17 years (since 1979 until 1996 when Taliban seized the power in Afghanistan) the USA have spent about 4 billion dollars to support its future enemies, having made several fundamentalist leaders (including Osama bin Laden himself) very rich. Now they use their money to hire terrorists all over the world, who are killing Americans without an ounce of pity.

After decades spent on the roadside of the world politics in the end of 70s, Afghanistan has turned into the arena of the great powers confrontation once again. Exactly 30 years ago, on the 27th of December, 1979 contingent of the Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. Here’s the excerpt from the USSR Minister of Defense’s Direction №312/12/001: “We’ve decided to engage some of the Soviet troops, stationed at the southern regions of our country, to the ADR¹ territory in order to assist the amicable Afghan nation and also to create the favorable conditions to prevent any possible anti-Afghan actions, performed by the neighboring countries.” What were these mysterious “neighboring countries” that endangered Afghanistan (i. e. to the USSR) so much, that the Soviet leaders have made its mind to perform the armed interference into the business of a “neighboring” but still very distant (from Moscow) Afghanistan? 

Almost twenty years after the engagement of the Soviet troops into Afghanistan, Zbigniew Brzezinski (the then National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter) answered this question during his interview to “Le Nouvel Observateur” dated the 15th of January, 1998.

Le Nouvel Observateur: Former director of the CIA, Robert Gates (today’s U. S. Secretary of Defense — author’s note), has stated in his memoirs named “From the shadow” that the American intelligence services started to support Mujahidin 6 months before the Soviet military intervention. You’ve been President’s Carter National Security Advisor at the time and, therefore, have been privy to that. Is that right?

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Yes. Official version claims that the CIA started to support Mujahidin in 1980, after the Soviet invasion to Afghanistan. But the reality (carefully concealed even by now) was quite the opposite. Actually, on the 3rd of April, 1979 President Carter has secretly signed the first direction about the covered support to the enemies of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. The same day I’ve wrote a note to President, explaining that, in my opinion, this support would inevitably lead to the Soviet military intervention.

NO: But despite the risk, you’ve supported that secret operation. Does that mean that you wanted the USSR to enter the war and, actually, even provoked it?

ZB: It wasn’t completely this way. We haven’t pushed Russians towards the intervention, but we’ve consciously increased its probability.

NO: When the Soviets tried to justify their intervention, claiming that it was caused by the need to stand against the secret CIA operations in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. Now it turns out, that the Soviets were right. Do you regret about anything today? 

ZB: What am I supposed to regret about? This secret operation was a brilliant idea. We’ve managed to decoy Soviets into the Afghan trap and you want me to deplore it? The very day when the Soviet troops have crossed the Afghan border, I’ve written President Carter that the USSR is going to get its own Vietnam now. In fact, Moscow really had to wage a very severe war during 10 long years — that was one of the reasons for the demoralization of Soviet society and, subsequently, the collapse of the Soviet empire. 

NO: So you do not regret of funding the Islam fundamentalists, of giving weapons, money and experience to the future terrorists? 

ZB: What’s more important to the world history — Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? How could you even compare handful of inadequate Muslims with the liberation of the Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?

NO: Handful of inadequate Muslims? But the whole world is talking about the fundamentalism threat nowadays.

ZB: That’s nonsense! People are also saying that the West has to stick to the tough global policy towards Islam. That’s an idiocy. There’s no such thing as the global Islamism. Have a rational look at Islam, without the emotions and the demagogy. That’s one of the world main confessions, having more than billion and a half of the followers. But is there anything in common with Saudi fundamentalism, moderate Islam of Morocco, Pakistani militarism, pro-Western Egypt and the “secularity” of the Central Asia? That’s the same thing that unites the Christian countries nowadays.

Today Zbigniew Brzezinski has to be at least slightly embarrassed with such wording as “handful of inadequate Muslims” and his unwillingness to admit the threat of the fundamentalism. After the 9/11 attacks (i. e. more than three and a half years after the interview) the main strategist of American neoconservatives hasn’t even mentioned the fact that the most terrible terrorist act of a human history was organized by the creature of the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency. Osama bin Laden was “created” during the very secret operation in Afghanistan, Brzezinski was so proud of in 1998. Neither had he mentioned the fact that secret CIA operation intended to support anti-Soviet Islam fundamentalist movement had a codename “Cyclone”, nor that the Carter’s Direction dated the 3rd of June, 1979 had foreseen its funding with a total amount of 500 million dollars.

Osama bin Laden, who was dubbed the personification of the world evil by the Americans, this Frankenstein, whom they’ve created themselves in order to use him in their fight against the Soviet Union, turned out to be the nightmare of its own master. For 17 years (since 1979 until 1996 when Taliban seized the power in Afghanistan) the USA have spent about 4 billion dollars to support its future enemies, having made several fundamental leaders (including Osama bin Laden himself) very rich. Now they use their money to hire terrorists all over the world, who are killing Americans without an ounce of pity. More than 100 000 of terrorists have gone through a special training in the Pakistani training camps, operated by the Pakistani Intelligence Service ISI (also funded by the USA, of course). That’s where the military core of Al-Qaida was created — with the assistance and support of instructors from CIA and British MI-6. 

True reason of American long-lasting interest in Afghanistan was the “American dream” about the creation of the gas pipeline, the one that was to go through its territory and end with the deep-water port. When Taliban seized the power in the country it was even offered the transit payment of 15 cent per each thousand of cubic meters of gas. As John Pilger put it in his “Guardian” article on the 20th of September, 2003, Clinton’s administration was an oil and gas junta that cared only about such projects. But Clinton was replaced with administration of George W. Bush Jr. that was preoccupied with the energetic projects even more. It included such outstanding oil and gas lobbyists as Vice-President Cheney (who lobbied the interests of nine oil and gas companies at once) and State Secretary Condoleezza Rice (whose work history included director’s post at “Chevron-Texaco” — she was responsible for the Central Asia region and Pakistan). Even one of the company’s oil tankers was named after this black lady. Although later its name was changed to the “Altair Voyager” as there was a huge scandal at the American media who blamed her for the intolerable commitment to the oil concerns. 

Even Brzezinski admits that, saying in his famous book “Grand chessboard: American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives” that “Central Asia is the key to the global supremacy. It has an important strategic location between the competing power centers and tremendous oil and gas treasures. Using the brutal terms of the antique empires, the main imperative of the imperial strategy is not to let the barbarians to close their ranks and take the field against us as a united force”.

By the way, while Great Britain is nowadays considered to be the satellite-state of its own former colony and Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was even depicted as a poodle hanging at the feet of President Bush Jr., Americans are the ideological followers of its former mother country. Best-selling “Grand chessboard” of Brzezinski’s authorship is not more than a plagiarism. Lord Curzon, having been the Vice King of India, has said in the 1898: “I believe that the states are just pieces at the chessboard where the great game of the world domination is being played”. 

You can have a different attitude towards Brzezinski’s outright bragging in his interview with Le Nouvel Observateur — he ascribes the success of the “Cyclone” operation that allowed decoying the USSR into the Afghanistan trap, to his own extraordinary insight. However, it’s quite obvious that it was the CIA’s generous funding of the Mujahidin movement that created the military core of Al-Qaida with its malicious leader — Osama bin Laden — whose name became world-famous after the events of the 11th of September, 2001. 

¹ ADR — Afghanistan Democratic Republic (author’s note).