You can't grieve too much for Masood. Though courageous and militarily and politically formidable, he accepted half a mill from the CIA to close the Salang Tunnel, but the tunnel stayed open, probably because Masood raided the Soviet convoys through there for the Panjshir valkley's daily bread.
He had his own games going on, most, but not all, honorable.
One player who got and continues to get the short shift in attention and probably funding was Dostum. His forces turned the tide at Mazar-e-Sharrif, the battle that broke the Taliban's back. Dostum himself led many of the final charges, on horseback, into the teeth of a brigade or better dug into highly defensible positions.
In order to prevent a cataclysmic inter-necine war between his forces and a rival warlord, Dostum out-thought both the CIA and the US military, sharing exactly half his new-found US airdropped wealth, food, weapons and cash, with the rival, enlisting an ally who then fixed the Taliban forces from the east of Mazar while Dostum drove on them from the south. Any other outcome probably would have fractured the NA and altered the outcome of the war against us, for the winter of 01-02 at least.
Well after the major fighting was over, Dostum chanced to meet Tommy Franks, and his first words to the CENTCOM general were, "who do you want me to fight now?"
Thanks for the interesting and historically significant post.
Revisiting Ansar al Islam's CBW capabilities
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1679692/posts
He had his own games going on, most, but not all, honorable.
I disagree. Ahmad Shah Masood was a far better ally in that region than others upon whom the CIA stupidly and stubbornly lavished the greater portion of their aid. For example, the CIA insisted on giving millions in money and weapons to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, even though they were warned repeatedly that he was virulently anti-Western and ant-American. He publicly told his followers that when they had finished with the Russians they would turn the West's weapons against them.
Masood, in contrast, was Western-educated and generally pro-Western, within the inherent limitations necessary to operate effectively in that part of the world. A certain amount of duplicity and "corruption" is necessary to both be effective and to remain alive in that milieu.
The example of the "half a mill" CIA payment he "reneged" on is true, but it's also trivial when compared to the millions in cash and arms Hekmatyar accepted from the CIA for use against the Russians. It was also stipulated that he share them with his fellow mujaheddin freedom fighters, including Dostum and Masood, but instead he used those same weapons to attack them.
The duplicity and unreliability of the CIA towards Masood, Dostum and the other Afghan muj leaders in favor of Hekmatyar during those years gave them ample reason to repay them in kind. The subsequent actions of Hekmatyar since that time through the present continue to demonstrate the consequences of CIA incompetence during that period. He is a major leader of the Afghan terrorist resistance. Our troops in Afghanistan are being killed by his forces right now, and we are expending significant resources trying to nail him.
Both Masood and Dostum urged the CIA to kill Hekmatyar in the '80s. The CIA should have listened. America lost a friend and a valuable ally in Masood. If he were not, Al Quaida would not have thought it necessary to kill him just before the 9/11 attack.
I agree completely with you about Dostum, however. He has gotten a bum deal.