Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Gorbachev's reforms and initiatives--which include pulling out of Afghanistan, signing the INF, adopting hard-line budgeting, providing more and better consumer products and importing Coca-Cola, Billy Joel and openess--are themselves symptomatic of a dilemma which looms large in Kremlin minds. The Soviets are coming to grips with the fact that they cannot economically or politically afford to keep up the arms race and their policy of expansion at the expense of domestic priorities...
When tanks and MiG aircraft zeroed in on their positions, the rebels fell back, taking an alarming number of casualties along the way. Reviewing the failed encounter, a frustrated Rahim Wardak, the battlefront commander of the National Islamic Front for Afghanistan, concluded that the battle that began more than three weeks ago "is turning into a stalemate...
...Jalalabad falls, can Kabul be far behind?" say the Afghans. But for the mujahedin forces, capturing Afghanistan's third largest city is proving tougher than expected. Last week the rebels confidently predicted they would take Jalalabad within a week. But after five days of fierce fighting, the Soviet-backed Kabul regime was showing no sign of surrendering. A victory for the rebels would give them an important boost in political credibility. On the other hand, if government forces can hold Jalalabad, they will deal a serious psychological blow to their enemies...
...Friday the rebel leaders, during their first Cabinet meeting inside Afghanistan, once again predicted victory. Said Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, President of the interim government: "We hope to hold further Cabinet meetings nearer and nearer Kabul...
...withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan after a 10-year struggle against native resistance slays this pet theory. The Soviets certainly did not scruple to wage total war. They burned villages, planted toy-shaped antipersonnel mines designed to maim children and indiscriminantly executed non-combatants. Estimates put the civilian death toll at more that one million...