[lbo-talk] Why is the War Important? Was NYT: Party Gridlock in Washingto...

[Chris Doss]

According to Primakov (whose memoires were recently translated into English by the way), the reason the USSR went into Afghanistan in the first place was the fear, sparked by the Iranian Revolution, that an Islamist government in Afghanistan would have a destabilizing effect on the USSR with its Muslim population of 60 million -- which, eventually, it did (although it was the former USSR by that time).

----- Original Message ----
From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Sent: Thu, February 18, 2010 7:30:53 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Why is the War Important? Was NYT: Party Gridlock in Washingto...

[ws:] It is not difficult to explain.  Afghanistan is a hornet nest close to
the Russian border, and the Russians got already stung trying to remove it.
So they are more than happy to see the Americans doing that work instead.
Ditto for China.  Afghan islamism may be contagious and fuel centrifugal
tendencise in Tibet and other places.  In sum,  the US war in Afghanistan
creates a positive externality or "neighborhood effect" from which both
Russia and China benefit without bearing the cost of the war effort.