--- Michael Pugliese <michael.098762001 at gmail.com> wrote:
A chapter of, "America's Secret War, " by George Friedmann of Stratfor, focuses on the Russian assistance to the Bush invasion of Afghanistan. http://www.americassecretwar.com/ Would have been much more difficult w/o Putin et. als. help.
---
Would have been impossible. The Northern Alliance was to an extent a Russian proxy army, and without access to the 'stans, getting troops into the territory would have been pretty difficult. According to the Russian foreign minister, Putin personally persuaded the leaders of the 'stans (at least one of them) to allow a US base.
BTW that Moscow, Delhi, Beijing and Teheran should all view a US presence in the region as being preferable to continued Taliban control of Afghanistan says something about how dangerous they perceived the Taliban as being.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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