What happened in Afghanistan was an extraordinary accomplishment simply because the Afghans were facing the foreign occupation of the Soviet forces. This case presents a typical example of what is going to happen in Syria’s unfolding days.
The blind Russian Bear hit haphazardly in Afghanistan. Throughout the 1980s, the Red Amy launched sweeping indiscriminate air raids against every living aspect in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans were victimized, and innumerable villages were obliterated by Soviet missiles.
The same tactic is being used by the Russian jets in Syria since September 30, 2015. Syria civilians got killed, injured, displaced, starved and besieged, due to the Russian military attacks. The Most recent Russian savagery is the bombardment of the disarmed civilians in Aleppo.
In the context of victory and defeat, a very simple, but significant, question is imperative: Did the mighty power of the Soviet Army and its monstrous actions against the defiant Afghans prevent its humiliated defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan? Big "No".
The basic principle adopted by the Soviet propaganda machine to market its invasion of Afghanistan is cheating the multitude by distorting the truth. While the Red Army soldiers were committing massacres against disarmed people, the Soviet TV stations were airing films showing the soldiers as members of a friendly army of the Afghan people. These films were intentionally designed to convince the world that the Soviet soldiers were not only defenders but also helpers in forming the future of Afghanistan. The irony is that the Soviet citizens often being coerced to believe that their countrymen soldiers were allocating their spare time to communal labor, and building shelters for the homeless Afghani children.
The Russians in the Syrian case are using the same methodology of deceiving the public opinion. While the Russian jets were perpetrating massacres against the disarmed people in Aleppo, Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre staged a surprise concert in the amphitheater of Palmyra. This Schizophrenia is a common immoral practice of totalitarian regimes which bluntly and disgustingly betray the truth. In this domain, it is matching with the Goebbels-like style of Bashar Assad’s mass-media machine which is leading a comprehensive brain-washing process, utilizing morally-bankrupt people like Bouthaina Shaaban, and the impostor Mufti Ahmad Hassoun. The big liar, Bouthaina, once tried to convince the world that the victims killed in Ghouta in August 2013 by Assad chemical weapons were in reality Alawite kids fetched by "terrorists" from Latakia to a Damascus suburb, and Hassoun claimed that opposition fighters shelled al-Quds Hospital in Aleppo for the purpose of defaming Assad regime.
The Russian opportunistic annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine triggered the Western’s deep uncertainty of Putin’s real aggressive expansionist intention. The West believes that "revenge is a dish best served cold." The process of retaliation from Putin has already commenced with painful economic sanctions, and Syria becomes the muddy arena to where Putin was dragged to be slowly defeated. The unfortunate aspect of this conflict is that Syria is being used as fuel to the struggle between the West and Russia. It is exactly the same scenario of what happened in Afghanistan. The bad news is that it might be a long way ahead for the Syrian people to achieve victory over the Russians, the Iranians and their puppet, Bashar Assad.
The good news is that victory is inevitable. This is not imaginary wishful thinking, in as much as an analogue reading of the rivalry between the West and Russia. The present soft corner between America and Russia should not bring pessimism or underestimation of the enmity between the two parties particularly after Russia had been ruled by an ambitious, self-centered man like Putin. This enmity is like a fire smoldering under the ashes; and it is generally manifested by an alternative coexistence and proxy confrontation. Although President Obama is sitting aside appeasing Russia, the coming US president will not be lenient with Putin who was shrewd enough to embarrass America at the international arena. Hopefully, Putin would be prudent enough to change his behavior in Syria, so that he does not give his enemy a chance to inflict another unnecessary humiliation to the Russians. Putin has to remember that the Syrian case is not like Chechnya in as much as Afghanistan.
A counter argument says that the condition of resisting the Red Army in Afghanistan is not available in Syria, in the sense that the coalition among the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was so consistent against the Soviets in Afghanistan, but these countries do not exhibit the same consistence in Syria.
The reply is that despite the negative role played by the Obama administration in Syria, there is still good news for the Syrian majority resisting Bashar Assad. Saudi Arabia looks at the Iranian hegemony over Syrian as an introductory existential threat to its territory. Turkey, in turn, considers the Russian victory in Syria as a noose in its neck which will be manifested in a series of endless trouble-making by both Bashar and the Kurds who are aspiring for establishing their independent entity at its immediate south border. These two countries have no choice other than defending themselves against Russia and Iran through aiding the Syrian people to oust the tyrant Assad who has become an Iranian-Russian dwarf agent.
This is a reminder to some Syrians who sometimes, rightly, undergo fits of despair. The Afghani crisis cites an example about the party which, at last, hit the table. The identical modality between the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Russian’s of Syria entails the same result: inevitable defeat.
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