I WAS suprised to read Tariq Ali's rendering (6 March) of my New Left Review 119 article on Afghanistan. It is a travesty of what I wrote.
Tariq states that I offer no serious alternatives to the policy of Hafizullah Amin, yet on pages 39-41 there is a whole section entitled 'What Were the Alternatives?'. Tariq proposes that a constituent assembly should have been elected; my very first criticism of the Afghan regime is precisely its 'complete absence of concern for the most elementary democratic norms'.
Tariq goes on to say that I fail to discuss the relationship between the Soviet intervention and the question of national self-determination. Again, this is quite untrue. I develop the argument that some foreign military interventions by post-revolutionary states are justifiable — that of the USSR in the Spanish civil war, and of Cuba in Angola being cases in point.
However, such interventions must satisfy two criteria — relating to popular consent, and the degree of response by imperialism. These provide a basis for socialists to assess the Soviet role in Afghanistan of rather more substance than an abstract invocation of non-interference.
Afghanistan will be an issue of major concern to the left for a long time; I can only suggest that comrades read my article itself, rather than relying on Tariq Ali's rather deficient account of it.
FRED HALLIDAY, London W1