Afghan Resistance

When President Reagan dedicated the flight of the space shuttle to the Afghan resistance, he was displaying once again his intuitive talent for political cabaret. The Reagan administration’s choice to support a “liberation movement” already provides a clue that something out of the ordinary must be going on, and a second look at Afghanistan confirms that here, even in an age resplendent with political paradox, you have the ultimate show.

The actors: Pakistan, a military dictatorship suddenly elevated to the rank of last bastion against Soviet aggression, and consequently the recipient not only of money and military supplies from the U.S. and from Saudi Arabia but also of a rapid upgrading of its international standing. The U.S., delighted that for once it’s the other superpower that is in trouble with the Third World, is content that Soviet soldiers busy in Afghanistan will not be free to invade a country and kill a population one cares rather more abo...