Throughout history no single power has managed to subdue the fiercely warrior people of Afghanistan for very long. In fact several Afghan kings declared war on neighboring Persia, invaded the country and captured some of its largest cities. Among the unsuccessful who tried to conquer Afghanistan were the Mongols, the British, who lost 16,000 men in a single battle in the Massacre of Elphinstone's Army, and more recently, the Soviets.
And for the past eight years joint U.S.-NATO forces have been trying to succeed where all others have failed. However, this time history may just be written differently if NATO works hand-in-hand with the Russians. The prospect of Russian cooperation in Afghanistan is not impossible and may well just happen, as is the possibility of, yes, the Iranians.
The fact that both Iran and Afghanistan's Taliban adhere to a conservative trend of Islam does not make them allies. The Iranians, the vast majority of whom are Shiites, do not look at the prospect of a strong, unified and militant Sunni Afghanistan next door to them very positively.
Russian participation in Afghanistan is closer than one might think. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev told the BBC in an interview a few days ago that Russia was willing to invest in helping NATO and the U.S. in Afghanistan. Of course Russia will demand something in return.
Still, for the Russians, the threat of an Islamist state right on their back door is not really something the Kremlin is overexcited about.
During his visit to Strasbourg, France, last week where he partook in celebrations marking NATO'S 60th anniversary, U.S. President Barack Obama said he wanted a closer working relationship with Russia. And despite Russia's overture to helping out in Afghanistan, Obama did not shy away from criticizing the old Cold War foe, saying there was a need for a change in relations.
"We have to send a very clear message to Russia that we want to work with them," said Obama. "But we can't go back to the old ways of doing business," he added.
Obama criticized the Russians for their heavy-handed response in the Caucuses war last summer when Moscow threw its far superior military might into the offensive against the Republic of Georgia, which until the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991 was part of the USSR.
Since then, relations between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Moscow suffered to the point that NATO severed its relations with the Russians; and it was only last month that they were finally re-established.
Headquartered just outside Brussels, NATO was formed in the aftermath of World War II. Initially based in Paris until President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of the military alliance, (although France remained an active partner in the political alliance), NATO was established to prevent the Soviet expansion into Western Europe.
In the spoils of WWII the USSR had already swallowed up much of eastern Europe, incorporating the satellite nations into its vast empire that included Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Poland and half of Germany.
But the end of the Cold War did not mean the end of suspicion between the West and the former Cold War enemies. Additionally, some political quarters in Moscow never quite accepted the fact that Russia lost the Cold War.
Adding insult to injury, so to speak, was the fact that several former Soviet republics and one-time members of the Warsaw Pact, NATO's former nemesis, applied for membership and were admitted to the North Atlantic alliance.
If that were not sufficient to upset the Russians and take a stab at their pride, the former U.S. administration then proceeded with plans to install an anti-missile battery and radar station in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move that Moscow did not at all appreciate.
But at the same time the war in the Caucuses had a negative effect for the Georgians, whom Moscow accused of initiating the fight in South Ossetia. Tblisi's request for admission into NATO was placed on hold as NATO members declared that there was no room in the alliance for members who initiated such risks.
Although the West criticized the Russians, nevertheless, the alliance placed Tblisi's request for admission to the North Atlantic alliance on hold. And by the look of things, NATO is unlikely to change its views regarding Georgia's misplaced adventurism in the Caucuses. One of Moscow's requests for helping out in Afghanistan might well be to demand that NATO permanently rejects Tbilisi's request for admission.
As for Iran, it too, would have demands for any assistance it would offer the U.S.-backed coalition in Afghanistan. Unpleasant as a prospective cordial entente between Washington and Tehran may be to many, a coalition incorporating the Russians and the Iranians may be the only possible way to defeat the Taliban. A strange alliance? Perhaps. But history has seen stranger alliances. var dc_AdLinkColor = 'blue' ; var dc_PublisherID = 81548 ; var dc_open_new_win = 'yes'; adsonar_placementId=1431408;adsonar_pid=1459767;adsonar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=540;adsonar_zh=150;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com'; To add a comment,Please log in:
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