Introduction to Wa Studies

Warfare in Peacetime: Proxies and State Powers

“…16 But U.S. aid never flowed to al-Qaeda, and no less an expert than Ayman al-Zawahiri, then deputy and later chief, confirms it in his 2001 volume Knights Under the Prophet's Banner. 17 Similarly, the U.S. role in Afghanistan had ended years before the founding of the Taliban (in fall 1994) -a group it certainly has never funded or assisted.…”

“…It would be an argument against the Saudis, who funded extremist seminaries in Afghanistan, and an argument against Pakistan, mentor to the Taliban from its beginning. 17 Ayman al-Zawahiri, Knights Under the Prophet's Banner, in His Own Words: Translation and broader realities and challenges of proxy warfare can be explored in this way without artificial strictures, or diagrams, or the empty exercise of ascribing to them fractions of numerical value. Changing phenomena in social science are rarely advantaged by shoving in mathematics, though it has become common to try.…”

“…In the parlance of military operations, Washington worked "by, with, and through" the Pakistanis in the 1980s to support the anti-Soviet war. 36 Independence to dependence as considered by outsiders. Sixth among the continua on which proxy relations may be measured is independence as rated from abroad by the dispassionate.…”

“…35 All the while, a sizable number of individual Sandinista soldiers trained in Cuba before returning to Nicaragua. 36 The insurgents, 34 The Soviet Union in the Third World, 1980-85, 316-17. The judgment is similar to that of scholar Harold W. who made systematic use of both guerrilla war and terrorism, received coordinating influence as well as money and arms from Havana. Deliveries of weapons crested in 1978 and early 1979 with 30 planeloads arriving in Nicaragua.…”

“…The United States began quietly training Contra militants around late 1981, two years after the revolution. 17 Nervous neighbors helped as Washington increased and enhanced its patronage of regime opponents, especially via Honduras. American newspapers reported on U.S. support 15 Hoekstra, "Helping the Contra," 528.…”