Conflict in the Middle East:

Conflict in the Middle East: More Trouble Ahead The bipolarity of the political world that existing during the Cold War was fundamentally reshaped by a number of important events that preceded and followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, including its role in Afghanistan. As "Russia's Vietnam," the former Soviet Union expended an enormous amount of national treasure and blood to further its goals in this country, only to spend itself into oblivion in the process.

This adverse outcome was due in large part to the role played by the Mujahideen, the Taliban and ultimately Osama bin Laden, but these actors would also have important implications for the United States in the years that followed. This paper provides an explanation concerning how the Cold War international system shaped the historical development of Afghanistan, including a discussion concerning some of the most important factors that helped shape this international system, followed by a summary of the findings in the conclusion.

Discussion Throughout history, the warlords of Afghanistan have waged war against each other, pausing only long enough to come together to oust any foreign invaders, and this was the case in the second half of the 20th as well as in the early part of the 21st century when one superpower after another tried its luck where others had failed.

In response to the Soviet Union's invasion of their country in 1979, thousands of Arabs and Muslims poured into Afghanistan in response to calls for a holy war against the infidel invaders. These "freedom fighters," dubbed the Mujahideen, fervently believed that they were fighting for the cause of righteousness and piety by defending their Muslim brothers from the onslaught of the godless Russian military. Despite the military superiority, the Soviets were confronted with an unfamiliar landscape and an enemy that believed God was on their side.

Complicating matters further for the Soviet invaders was the fact that ultra-religious and extremist Muslim leaders in the Taliban were consolidating their power base in the region and would ultimately hold sway over the country. The Taliban installed fundamentalist sharia law and established Islamic courts that administered swift and -- by international standards -- cruel punishments for even minor infractions of religious laws. The Taliban also destroyed ancient religious monuments that they deemed violative of Muslim teachings even those these monuments were part of the world's heritage.

It was in this environment that charismatic Muslim leaders such as Osama bin Laden were able to step in and exploit the situation to their own advantage by inspiring yet more freedom fighters from all over the Arab world to join the battle to free the Holy Land from the Western invaders. In reality, these same "freedom fighters" received massive amounts of American economic and military assistance during this period, acting essentially as U.S. proxies in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

If American military planners could have foreseen the dire outcome of this assistance at the time they were provided, it is reasonable to suggest that they would have reconsidered the intervention. Indeed, bin Laden and his like-minded extremists exploited this largesse and were able to consolidate their power base in Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew due in part to these resources. The adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is clearly transient and the historical record confirms that enemies and friends are hard to tell apart.