The Role of Propaganda in Handling The Consequences of The Soviet-afghan War

America is the utter symbol of freedom, liberty, and opportunity. These pillars are what our nation is built upon, and allow the American people of all races, colors, and creeds to unite under a single nation, under God. It is a very demoralizing realization that there are radical Islamic organizations that strive to destroy these very pillars that our country was built on.

In the wake of the Afghan-Soviet war, the face of the radical Islamic surge surfaced throughout the world. This man is Osama bin Laden, and his radical organization is known as al-Qaeda. The aim of al-Qaeda is to exterminate all infidels in the west, and Americans are the preferred targets. Between 2004 and 2008, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for 313 attacks, resulting in the deaths of 3,010 people worldwide. What could possibly motivate al-Qaeda to perform such heinous acts of terror? The problem roots in the Muslim faith. Due to the devout practice of the Muslim faith throughout the Middle East and South Asia, these countries are to be considered theocracies. These theocracies pave the way for al-Qaeda to further their operations into other countries in the region, recruit young Muslim men to fight in the name of Allah, and to scheme terrorist attacks against the west. Al-Qaeda is stationed in anarchic and predominately Muslim countries in the Middle East and South Asia, thus allowing the radical practices of al-Qaeda to expand and flourish in the name of Islam.

Although the Afghan-Soviet war was the rise of al-Qaeda, the events following WWI remain to be the foundation for the motives behind the organization’s acts of terror. On May 19, 1916, France and Britain signed the Sykes-Picot agreement. This agreement allowed Britain and France to create the colonization of the Middle East, including the rule of Britain in Palestine. The reason why Palestine is so important for the understanding of al-Qaeda’s motives is because of the deep Arab roots in the region of Palestine. Palestine was considered to be a holy ground for Muslims around the world, and in 1948 Palestine would forever change.

Following WWII, the Jews whom called Europe their home had been virtually exterminated. The ones who did survive the Holocaust had no home to return to. This put massive amounts of pressure on Great Britain, who occupied Palestine, to turn the land over to the Jews so the Jewish refugees could have a home. Britain grew immensely tired of dealing with this problem and subsequently proceeded to turn the issue over to the United Nations.

The United Nations ruled to divide Palestine and give half of it to Israel so the Jews could create their own nation. This caused an excessive amount of Palestinians to be removed of their land and to be forced to become refugees in other countries in the newly created Middle East, formed in the decolonization movement (1945-1960). This frustrated many individuals who were natives of Palestine, and these events are now used as al-Qaeda’s number one motive to attack the United States. Stated by Osama bin Laden himself, “the British handed Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than fifty years… The creation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals.” Osama bin Laden feels that the creation of Israel is a crime, but this is just not true. Great Britain controlled Palestine, thus allowing Great Britain to be justified for providing the Jewish refugees a new home in Israel.

After the decolonization of Asia and Africa from France and Britain in 1945-1960, 36 new states in Asia and Africa gained independence from their European colonial rulers. With this, came great amounts of instability and vulnerability throughout these newly formed countries. Because of the devout Muslim population in the regions of South Asia and the Middle East, the majority of the nations in these two regions are governed by theocracies. “The Quran clearly requires the Muslim state to implement a system of government, which is based on mutual consultation.” This means that Muslim states are to base their laws in abidance of the teachings in the Qur’an this is also known as sharia law. Because these nations in the Middle East and South Asia are theocracies it leaves them extremely vulnerable to be invaded by other countries, and this was evident in the Cold War.

During the Cold War between 1947-1991, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union took the decolonization of those states as an opportunity to implement their own ideologies throughout Asia and Africa. The rise of al-Qaeda begins because of the greed the United States and the Soviet Union displayed during this time.

Following the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in Afghanistan in 1978, Afghanistan tried to implement a communist government. They proceeded to name Nur Mohammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin as the joint prime ministers of the socialistic regime. The Soviet Union then began to support the communistic authority in Afghanistan by giving them advice on how to run the country. Prime ministers Amin and Taraki decided to ignore the Soviet advice and proceeded to run Afghanistan by introducing woman’s rights and redistributing the land as they saw fit. This upset many Muslims because it interferes with the Laws of Inheritance stated in the Sunni Islamic law, and in March 1979 a resistance group began to overthrow the Afghan government. Thus, on the night of December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

The objective behind the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan was sought to preserve the communistic state in Afghanistan. In way of doing that the Soviets had Prime Minister Amin put to death. The Soviets then installed their own communist leader in Afghanistan, President Babrak Karmal from Moscow, but this was not the Soviets only motive behind the invasion. According to Uday Mehra, “the USSR invaded foreign nations…. with the objective to thwart their Western enemies.” This means that the USSR, in slight motivation due to the Cold War, invaded Afghanistan in desire to get a reaction out of the United States. This proved to be true because the U.S. was very quick to support the Afghani rebel groups. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, “multilateral assistance to Afghanistan amounted to $3 million in 1979, no aid in 1980, $222 thousand in 1981.” These generous donations were given to the Afghani rebel group known as the Mujahideen. The donations were provided to the group so they could fight the Soviets for the United States. The war was not between the Soviets and the Mujahideen, but instead a war between capitalism and socialism.

The aftermath of the Afghan-Soviet War proved to be devastating for all parties involved in the war, except for the Islamic radicals. The actions the United States and the Soviet Union displayed during Afghan-Soviet War backfired atrociously on behalf of both parties for various reasons. The wars resulted in an estimated 15,000 casualties for the Soviets and aided to the sudden demise of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. As for the United States, the radical Islamic surge evolved which made America and allies of America targets for future terror attacks.

The rise of al-Qaeda begins in Afghanistan, in that same decade-long war the Soviets were defeated in. This war is the pivotal moment for which terrorism has expanded onto the international level. The invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, allowed youthful Muslim extremists from all over the world to rally in unison to fight in what is called a “holy war” which is also referred to as a jihad. Volunteers and financers poured in from various parts of the Islamic world in effort to defend the Muslim community in Afghanistan. One of those financers was Osama bin Laden. At the time, bin Laden became inspired by the efforts of the Mujahideen, but he was not fully satisfied by their goal to just fight off the Soviets. Bin Laden wanted to expand internationally and in 1988 he decided to create his own radical group known as al-Qaeda.

Following the removal of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan on February 15, 1989; Osama bin Laden focused his ambitions towards the idea of exterminating all non-Islamic governments. Working to get al-Qaeda underway, Osama bin Laden founded a financial support network system known as the “Golden Chain.” This financial network provided the funding al-Qaeda needed so they could spread throughout other countries, and recruit young Muslim rebels to take part in the jihad. Bin Laden mentions why he targets the youth, “So while his mind grows in maturity, his ability to give grow weaker… We find that the only age group capable of giving and waging jihad is the fifteen to twenty-five age bracket.” This basically means that he wants to brainwash to the youth before they can understand how morally wrong it is to murder innocent people in acts of terror. The idea behind bin Laden targeting the youth is very similar to what Hitler did by creating the Hitler Youth movement. Both bin Laden and Hitler understood that in order to keep their aspirations alive to achieve world dominance, they would have to brainwash the youth with propaganda. This allows bin Laden to spend less time with recruiting, thus granting him with more time to spend scheming up future terrorist attacks.

Propaganda and theology play a very vital role in al-Qaeda’s day-to-day actions. The man who is in charge of this is Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman al Zawahiri. Zawahiri is a fifty-five year-old Egyptian pediatrician who has engaged in the radical activities since the age of fourteen, is al-Qaeda’s primary ideologue and theoretician. Zawahiri is a very knowledgeable man and because of that, his role is to reiterate to the Muslim population that it is justifiable for al-Qaeda to perform acts of terror and martyrdom.

The way Zawahiri justifies al-Qaeda’s actions is through verses in the Quran. This is highly effective because these Muslim countries are theocracies, which is how these methods are able to work. An example of this comes from a Quran verse used by Zawahiri, “Allah has brought from the believers their lives and worldly goods, and in return has promised them Paradise: they shall fight in the name of Allah and shall slay and be slain” (9:111). This verse means that if an individual chooses to believe in Allah, they will then be granted paradise in the afterlife if they stray away from evil. This is not how Zawahiri interprets the verse. Zawahiri twists the meaning of this verse to make it seem justifiable for the young Muslim men to commit acts of martyrdom. These young men believe that the will die in honor if they preform acts of martyrdom because of Zawahiri’s interpretations of the Quran to them. This is why the young Muslim youth are the ideal group to recruit, because they are extremely vulnerable to be deceived because of their lack of education. Since it is so easy to gain new recruits to fight for al-Qaeda, bin Laden is able to orchestrate terror attacks on a larger and more deadly scale.

The devoted Muslim youth gives bin Laden even more motivation to attack the United States. “Russia, which we, alongside the Mujahideen, fought for ten years until, bankrupt, it was forced to withdraw…. And so we are continuing the same policy: to make America bleed till it becomes bankrupt.” This statement by bin Laden suggests that al-Qaeda will stop at no ends to eradicate the United States of America, and in 2001 that is evident.

It began as a beautiful Tuesday morning in September 2001. The sun was rising over the New York City skyline, many Americans finishing up their last cup of coffee before their commute to work, and then at 8:46 a.m. disaster struck. An American Airlines jet had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and 17 minutes later a second plane struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. “Nineteen men under the leadership of the radical Islamic organization al-Qaeda hijacked four American planes, crashing two into the twin towers, one into the Pentagon, and another plane into a countryside field in Pennsylvania.” We all remember where we were that day, and let us never forget the 2,977 innocent men and women who were murdered in wake of these horrific attacks. The last time America witnessed such acts of terror to the extent of 9/11 was the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” The danger of militant Islamic terrorism has taken center stage ever since the horrific acts of terror on 9/11.

The motives behind the 9/11 terror attacks have been made very clear by al-Qaeda. In a letter from Osama bin Laden to the United States, bin Laden states his reasoning behind his actions. “Because you attack us and continue to attack us, you steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices, your forces occupy our countries, you have starved the Muslims of Iraq, and you have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal capital.” Many of bin Laden’s motives come from the events that have taken place over 60 years ago, but yet he feels justified to kill American civilians.

In that same letter titled, “Why We Are Fighting You,” Osama bin Laden gives reasoning for attacking American civilians. “The American people have the ability and choice to refuse the polices of their government and even to change it if they want. The American people are the ones who pay the taxes that fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, and the American army is part of the American people.” Bin Laden tries to reason that because the United States is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people that this makes us targets. Yet, he is the one who takes advantage of the immaturity of young men so they can commit acts of martyrdom.

The instability of the Middle East has caused the rise of terrorism to expand onto a national level. Many of the events throughout history have proven to shape the foundation for al-Qaeda to precede their rain of terror. Al-Qaeda has been able to spread throughout this region because of the devout practice of the Muslim faith throughout the Middle East and South Asia. These theocracies have also paved the way for al-Qaeda to further recruit young Muslim men to fight in the name of Allah and to scheme terrorist attacks against the west. This allows al-Qaeda to expand and grow. The radical Islamic surge will never go away, as long as there is no definite authority in these regions.