Reply #38: The first Marxist revolution was in March 1978

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I was living in Japan at the time, and the Japanese press covered it quite well, although most Americans seemed not to know it when I got back.

The Marxist government began announcing such horrendous measures as equal rights for women, secular education, and general modernization of the country.

The more backward country types were indignant about their extremely sexist system being attacked. They didn't know Communism from Consumerism, but no daughter or wife of theirs was going to go around without a burqa or attend school with boys, no sir! They started rebelling, and the U.S. government, to Jimmy Carter's everlasting shame, started providing covert support for them.

Soon the backward types were causing a lot of trouble, so the Marxists asked the Soviets for help. Yes, that's right, the Soviets were invited in. Yet the U.S. acted as if the Soviets had just invaded the country out of sheer Communist cussedness.

I used to be furious when Jeane Kirkpatrick (who, as far as I can tell, was never right about anything in her life) would praise the mujahedin as "brave freedom fighters." I thought, "Lady, if you ever actually went to visit those 'freedom fighters,' they'd be offended because you weren't veiled and had a position of authority in government."

After the Russians came to their senses and left, the country dissolved into civil war. The CIA continued its meddling and chose to support the Taliban because they were the most disciplined faction (an understatement).

As an added benefit of all that CIA support for a bunch of fanatics, we got Osama Bin Laden. Such a deal!

Imagine an Afghanistan where the Marxists had prevailed 30 years ago: an educated and healthy population, women with equal rights, and an intact, even improved infrastructure, the Islamic fanatics tamed, and since 1989, gaining its self-determination along with everyone else.

By the way, I learned the early history because I was in grad school with students who were specializing in such things as Soviet foreign policy and Central Asian history.

The American public was seriously lied to.