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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, January 4, 1980
Page 11
Afghanistan is crucial not only for its nearness to Mideast oil--or eyen
its own oil potential, considered by some Soviet scientists to be formi
dable. The Soviet Union has viewed the territory Afghanistan as a key
to its ambitions for centuries. The czars of the 18th and 19th Centuries
looked southward greedily with an eye toward gaining access to warm-water
ports on the subcontinent. "It was the main preoccupation of British
foreign policy for many years to protect the Afghan flanks against Russian
designs," according to one European diplomat. Now the Soviets are in
position to control the vital Khyber Pass and other strategic land routes.
The Soviet takeover naturally sent shockwaves throughout the Middle and
Near East. A UPI dispatch from Beirut noted that six Middle East nations
denounced Soviet military intervention in Moslem Afghanistan as a threat
to the stability of the strategic oil-producing region. "The earth is
shaking under their feet," a Lebanese newspaper said of the fear by
Moslem nations, including petroleum giant Saudi Arabia.
To the east of Afghanistan, the rulers of Pakistan are extremely nervous.
"We have witnessed the satellitization of what was once an independent
buffer state," a senior Pakistan government source summed up. Pakistanis
fear that if the Soviets consolidate their position in Afghanistan, they
can begin to exploit ethnic splits already straining Pakistan's unity.
Pushtu-speaking tribesmen in north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan
have long dreamed of their own independent state of "Pushtunistan," while
Baluchis in western Pakistan have nurtured similar desires of joining
their brethren in southern Afghanistan and eastern Iran to form an inde
pendent Baluchistan.
Indeed, Moscow's new man in Kabul, Karmal, in one of his first speeches,
called on "our brotherly Pakhtoon and Buluch people to take a decision"
about their destiny. This was an apparent reiteration of the traditional
Afghan claim to speak on behalf of Pakhtoon and Baluch ethnic groups
living on either side of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Israeli newspapers, according to a UPI dispatch from Tel Aviv, viewed
the events in Afghanistan as a decisive test of U.S. ability to reassert
its weight in world affairs.
"Russia, who is exploiting the crisis in Tehran, is simply spitting in the
face of the Americans and, under these�ircumstances nothing will save�
the United States unless it actually uses the power it has," the newspaper
Yedioth Ahronoth said editorially.
"It is difficult to believe that President Carter will be able to accept
the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan without the greatest blow
to U.S. prestige," the newspaper Haaretz said.
Mr. Carter, as expected, dispatched a "stiff protest" to Mr. Brezhnev over
the Washington-Moscow "hot line" concerning the Afghan development. The
Kremlin boss, also as expected, turned a cold shoulder to Mr. Carter's
request for Soviet withdrawal.
Shortly afterward the President claimed that Mr. Brezhnev lied to him
about the Soviet forces being ''invited" into Afghanistan. He also said
that his own opinion of the Soviets' ultimate goals had undergone a
"dramatic change." Nevertheless, one day later, Mr. Carter said he was
still pushing to secure Senate ratification of the SALT II treaty!
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau