MULLAHS AND MISSILES 197were still a critical element in the mind of the Afghan warrior one hundred
years later.
The situation in Afghanistan was little more than a festering sore for
the Soviets, and their prestige began to suffer badly. In April 1984 they
decided to launch a major offensive against the mujahedin along the Rus-
sian border. On April 20, 1984, the Panjshir offensive began with satu-
ration bombing raids by more than 200 Tu16 medium bombers. On April
21 they began a rolling artillery barrage followed up by infantry, armor,
and leapfrogging special forces, airborne units supported by ground attack
aircraft, and helicopter gunships. The Afghan leader, Shah Massoud, and
most of his forces escaped relatively unscathed, yet inflicted major blows
against the Soviets. The Panjshir Valley was, despite the Soviet losses,
cleared of mujahedin by September, but as soon as the Soviets withdrew,
the Afghans began to return. By winter they had completely reoccupied
the valley. The offensive had resolved nothing.
Accomplishing nothing in the war, and with their own political structure
crumbling, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan. After a futile attempt
at turning the war over to the Afghan communist government, they pulled
out completely in 1988. The Afghan communist regime, left to defend
itself, was quickly destroyed and Afghanistan fell into a civil war that
continued until the U.S.-Afghan war of 2001.
Just as the Soviets were leaving Afghanistan, and indeed the pages of
history, Saddam Hussein again committed Iraq to a foreign adventure.
This one would be shorter and less costly than the Iranian War, but would
have much more lasting consequences.
On August 2, 1990, a massive Iraqi attack descended on the tiny neigh-
boring principality of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti national guard force, a
brigade-sized unit, either died under the weight of the oncoming armor or
disengaged to the south into neighboring Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein,
frustrated at his defeat against Iran, had come for the Kuwaiti oil. His
soldiers in Kuwait City looted and raped like those of any other medieval
despot.
Although the Iraqi attack had overwhelmed Kuwait, a real fear was that
his troops would keep moving and occupy Saudi Arabia, the rich but weak
center of the Arabian world. The Saudis were terrified, and the United
States was justly alarmed. Had Iraq taken Saudi Arabia, a despotic mad-
man would have controlled approximately 40 percent of the world’s oil,
a picture with chilling ramifications. The world acted.
On August 6, 1990, Saudi officials asked for United States military
protection. Two days later, American air force planes began arriving in
the country and were joined by the beginnings of an enormous naval