Essay - Unconventional Warfare: the Mujahidin of Afghanistan Resistance Is Not Futile....

Unconventional Warfare: The Mujahidin of Afghanistan

Resistance is not futile. It was one of the lessons learned from the Soviet Union's invasion ***** *****: that any res*****tance force can counter effectively against a powerful aggressor. Resistance - with the proper tools, strategy, and determination - can *****measure ***** unwanted entity. The anti-Soviet *****s in Afghanistan not only pushed the invaders out of their country, but it helped precipitated the eventual fall of the USSR as a world power. The question on the t*****ble is: what happened in that poor Southwest Asian country? How did the Soviets lose that war, or how did the mujahidin - the soldiers ***** God - win? First and f*****emost, ***** Soviet political and military leaders made strategic ***** tactical errors. The Afghan rebels employed unconventional warfare in Afghanistan: it ***** their only possible means ***** defeating the *****. Eventually, though too late, the Russian troops sw*****ched some of ***** battle tactics to rout out all resistance; however, due to the ***** ability ***** stage their attacks ***** the natural rugged and fortified terrain of that *****, reinforced with Ameri***** ***** Chinese-made weapons and cross the border into Pakistani sanctuaries, they were able to sustain a protr*****cted war that eventu*****y demoralized and defeated the ***** Armed Forces. It was unconventional *****fare that helped ***** *****can colonials defeat the British forces in the War for Independence, it was unconventional warfare ***** helped defeat French ********** American ********** in Vietnam, ***** it was unconventional warfare that helped the Israelis gain a homeland from ***** Arabs in the Middle East. We mustn't ever forget that unconventional warfare is effective if the individuals engaged in the activ*****y are determined ***** think and act outside the box: to toss away the standards and norms of conventional fighting, to harass and frustrate the enemy through useful ***** that ***** brutal and inflicts pain upon the body and the mind.

***** the Soviet forces entered Afghanistan on Christmas Day, 1979, they were unprepared for ***** were about to encounter. ***** USSR's political and military ********** had been pursing an ***** since 1973 when the King ***** Afgh*****istan was deposed ***** the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) assumed power. The PDPA was a union ***** two p*****rties, one primarily Islamic and the other pro-Soviet. *****, unrest ***** civil war erupted. The USSR used the internal engagement as an excuse to enter Afghanistan militarily and prop-up their supporters ***** *****. The opponents were forced into the hills and the full-scale Soviet inv*****ion commenced with ***** entering the country in armored vehicles or heavy-armed aircraft. The Russians had used this ***** in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in Fifties, and successfully squashed any resistance in a sh*****t-amount of time. But th*****gs were horribly miscalculated. Soviet troops "in Afghanistan were made up of the follow*****g formations: three motor rile divisions, an airborne division, two s*****ply and support brigades, and s*****al separate regiments....These formations ***** under the command and control of the Fortieth Army....[which] was formed in the Turkestan