Deja vu in the Afghanistan tape archives
Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 11:36 AM
Filed Under:
Kabul, Afghanistan
By Stokes Young, msnbc.com Director of Multimedia
I've never been to Afghanistan – only looked at countless photographs and screened hours of video reports on the U.S.-led conflict there since 2001.
But over the past week, I dug into NBC News archival coverage of Afghanistan as we prepare for the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of the war-torn country on Oct. 7 and ahead of the launch of Richard Engel's documentary 'Tip of the Spear' on Sunday.
As I watched 50 years worth of highlights of NBC News coverage of the country, one feeling jumped out at me again and again in the pre-2001 segments: doesn't this look familiar? The texture and atmospherics of video coverage, the suffering of Afghans and statements like Tom Brokaw's "the Afghans have a fighting tradition," at the end of the Soviet occupation in 1989, struck me as being eerily reminiscent of reporting we often see today.
Obviously, the conflicts are not exact parallels. Afghanistan did not provoke the Russian invasion by hosting terrorists who attacked Moscow and our volunteer troops certainly aren't Soviet conscripts. But many of the complexities of a foreign army fighting a war in Afghanistan persist.
Here are just some of the reports over the years that stood out to me. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
1959: Chet Huntley reported on the state of Afghanistan in advance of a trip by President Dwight Eisenhower. Afghan culture at the individual level stands out in his narration: "The average Afghan's loyalty starts with his family and extends to his tribe...sometimes, he does what the national goverment tells him to."
1980: One thing that has definitely changed since 1980: the mujahideen fighting foreign forces are far better armed. Kalashnikovs and RPGs have replaced the colonial-era British rifles so prone to fail against Soviet troops.
1980: Even one year after the Soviet invasion, it was clear that the Afghan resistance was stiffening.
1984: Five years after the Soviet invasion, it was still hard fighting for the mujahideen as they attacked remote Russian outposts defended by air power and artillery, and ammunition was in short supply. But note the tone of this report, in the Cold War context of the 1980s, the mujahideen fighters were American allies.The U.S. covertly aided the mujahideen fighters throughout the war by supplying weapons and ammunition.
And Ishmael Galani, the commander quoted at the end of this piece, apparently fought against al-Qaida with the U.S. military and Afghan government in 2001. (I've been unable to find reference to him recently – if anyone knows of his current whereabouts, please post a comment below).
1989: Tom Brokaw, reporting as the deadline for Soviet pullout approached, noted the importance to mujahideen of bases in Pakistan and that "the Afghans have a fighting tradition. They have battled invaders for centuries. The Soviets are just another name in a long list."
1989
Immediately before the pullout, freelance journalist Jon Alpert got Soviet reaction on the descriptions of Central Asia as "Russia's Vietnam." Perhaps more to the point for America in 2010 is the end of this clip, when a soldier compares the fighting prowess of Afghanistan government troops to insurgents.
You can see all of the clips above, and more, in the context of the full reports here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33107901#33127143 . And beyond commenting below, you can always make custom clips like those above for your own blog or site from any video on msnbc.com by using the "clip & embed" function in our video player.
