Afghan Speaker Urges Trump To Apologize For Praising Soviet Invasion

The speaker of the upper house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan deplored US President Donald Trump’s praise of the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of the South Asian country, saying he should apologize to the Afghan people for his remarks.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the people of the country fought against the aggressors, Fazl Hadi Muslimyar said in remarks released on Sunday.

 The Afghan people’s fight also had the support of Islamic and non-Islamic countries, even the then US officials, he said, adding that the Afghan people are proud of having defeated the Soviet forces. 

Muslimyar further said Trump should apologize to the people of the country for insulting their fight against the aggressors.

During his freewheeling, 90-minute cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump briefly argued that the Soviet Union “was right” to invade Afghanistan in 1979 because “terrorists were going into Russia,” a head-scratching aside that was widely criticized as historically inaccurate.

“Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia. So you take a look at other countries. Pakistan is there. They should be fighting,” Trump said.

“But Russia should be fighting. The reason Russia was in, in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is it was a tough fight. And literally they went bankrupt. They went into being called Russia again as opposed to the Soviet Union,” he added.

The comments marked a surprising split with US conservatives dating back to President Ronald Reagan, who saw the invasion as an attempt to spread communism and aided insurgent forces fighting Soviet troops.