Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...factions disagreed over everything, from the role that ex-King Zahir Shah should play in the rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan to the composition of the shura itself, some spectators had the eerie feeling of watching a car accident taking place in slow motion. "This is the last chance for Kabul," says a Western diplomat based in Islamabad. "If it collapses, Afghanistan will collapse into fratricidal bloodshed...
...moment, Afghanistan's major cities remain in government hands, thanks largely to massive Soviet bombing attacks in recent weeks. But no one expects Najibullah's tenuous grip on the country to hold for long. Rebel commanders in the field, who sense that a military victory is within reach, are not going to let that long-sought opportunity slip away. The only remaining question seems to be precisely how they will take the cities. Full- scale assaults are tempting, but the mujahedin insurgents fear that the civilian toll may be high and that a successful attack may draw Soviet retribution from...
...difficult decisions to make in the months ahead, as do the Soviets. In the ten months since the accord was signed in Geneva securing the Soviet withdrawal, the operating word has been "symmetry." Last week the Bush Administration held a one-hour high-level review of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan that resulted in no announced changes. That means that Washington would continue to fund and arm the rebels as long as Moscow supplied Najibullah's forces...
That challenge will begin this week, if all goes according to plan. At precisely 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning, Lieut. General Boris Gromov, the commanding officer of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, will walk alone across that steel bridge into Termez, the final Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan. According to the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, Gromov will then deliver a short, private speech that "would not be written down or listened to." Then he will continue on his way, "without looking back...
WORLD: After more than nine years of fruitless fighting, the last Soviet troops head home from Afghanistan...