Word: leader
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What clouded Washington's initially rosy scenario was the surprising tenacity of the Najibullah government. Few thought the leader handpicked by the Soviets could survive the departure of Moscow's troops, but he has moved with unexpected astuteness, politically and militarily. A much heralded mujahedin assault on the city of Jalalabad has bogged down in a costly siege. In a battle plan now called a "disaster" by a U.S. official, the guerrillas failed to make the transition from hit-and-run attackers to disciplined militiamen able to plan and carry out complicated offensives...
...political front, U.S. optimism also seems misplaced. Some experts are worried that the mujahedin leader who has received the lion's share of U.S. support, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a fanatic Muslim who might turn out to be Afghanistan's version of the Ayatullah Khomeini. Others wonder whether the mujahedin coalition, linked by hatred of the Najibullah regime, could stay together long enough to form an effective government...
Because the U.S. has largely operated through the ISI, it is seen as endorsing Pakistan's vision of a friendly Islamic regime in Kabul. The rebel leader who most closely fills that bill is Hekmatyar, head of the best- disciplined guerrilla organization, Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party). Some ; Western experts are uncomfortable with Hekmatyar's plan to turn Afghanistan into a Muslim state governed by shari'a (Islamic law), which could take an anti-American course. Should Washington be supporting someone with the potential to be a U.S. enemy? Defenders say Hekmatyar, despite his Islamic zeal, is also a pragmatist...
What seemed like an easy victory for U.S. policy now appears to call for a more carefully calibrated approach. In February, while Moscow's troop pullout was in progress, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was looking to salvage some political face. He wrote to President Bush asking for U.S. help in setting up an international conference to end the fighting and create a broad-based coalition government that would include the Kabul Communists. Confident that the rebels' star was in the ascendant, the White House refused the request. But disappointment over the guerrillas' military failure has led policymakers to debate...
...amnesty but his surrender of power is a precondition to peace talks. In their view, he is the enemy, and Afghans have little inclination to forgive foes. "How can you expect the people to forget the blood loss of families, the destruction of entire villages?" asks a guerrilla leader in Peshawar. "How can you expect them to give up that feeling and say, 'Fine, let's sit down and talk'? It is like asking the Jews to pardon the Nazis and enter a government with them...