Legislatures, Public Opinion and Foreign Policies' Interdependence: Vietnam, Afghan and Yemen Wars (Part II).

Whatever may have been the "circumstances", the decision to send Soviet troops was taken in haste without taking into consideration the internal dynamics of Afghanistan, and also ignored was the reaction of neighboring Pakistan and Iran and the world community, especially the Muslim states, to the "aggression" meted out to a brotherly Muslim state. The global interest in Afghanistan should not be a matter of surprise; Afghanistan's strategic location, wedged between Iran, Central Asian states, and the trade routes of the Indian Sub-continent, has made it attractive to big powers. Still, they could not stabilize the domestic infighting, raising concerns in the Soviet Union about Afghanistan, a pro-Communist neighboring state falling under the U.S'. influence to compensate for the ouster of the pro-U.S. Shah of Iran. The legislature in the country "The Supreme Soviet" was a representative body in name only, as in reality, all important state decisions were made by a few chosen members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, i.e., by the heads of the Communist Party, under the leadership of the General Secretary, who in fact, was the head of the state. [Extracted from the article]