THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR Colin Rhys Hill - The Concord Review

46 Colin Rhys Hill
puppet government. Even within this seemingly clear goal, there
were subtle (though important) differences. This can be traced
back to three main causes: ethnicity, ideology, and nationality.
In the realm of ethnicity, various factions held various
ethnic majorities. Ahmed Shah Massoud, perhaps the most wellknown
Afghan Mujahideen, was a Tajik (an ethnic minority) and
his forces were predominantly Tajik: they fought for both ethnic
equality with the majority Pashtun and the defeat of the 40th
Army. 168 The Pashtun (Afghanistan’s ethnic majority, about 53
percent of the total population) fought in Mujahideen factions
whose beliefs ranged from a united Afghanistan to a Pashtundominated
Afghanistan. 169 This pattern continued with other
minorities such as the Hazaras, Uzbeks, and Turkmen.
Ideology also separated Mujahideen factions. Islamic
beliefs were liberal, moderate, or fundamentalist depending on
a faction’s religious dogma. 170 Political beliefs were as varied as
religious beliefs: some factions preferred a totalitarian Sharia state,
others looked to Iran, still others believed in democracy, and some
even wanted a return to traditional tribal governance.
Nationality was a rarer, but still prevalent, source of motivation.
At first, this appears to be an obvious observation. After
all, most of the Mujahideen were Afghans who were fighting to
regain control of their country. However, the most common foreign
Jihadist, the Arab Mujahideen, had different motivations. Afghan
Jihadists would complain that Arabs (such as Osama Bin Laden)
were simply there for “Jihad credit” and were more interested in
taking videos than actually fighting the 40th Army. 171 Thus their
Soviet-Afghan War was more of a rite of passage than a struggle
for independence.
Actions
Afghan author/professor Hassan Kakar remarks that “The
(Soviet) invasion turned the civil war into a war of liberation.” 172