Russian moves in Afghanistan

Press, 21 February 1980, Page 16

Russian moves in Afghanistan

Sir, — Much is made of the “friendship treaty” between Russia and Afghanistan to justify .the Russian presence in the latter country by M. Creel. Did this include the killing of the; Prime Minister; who supposedly asked for Soviet assistance? Also, is not the U.N. vote of 104 to 19 condemning the Soviet action a resounding international protest that .could hardly be put down simply ’ to United States .lobbyists? Russia has few friends in this caper. : The fact that M. Creel cannot ever find fault with the boys in the Politburo makes him that much less con- " vincing as a proponent of the. Socialist system. — Yours, etc., JAN WILKINS. : February’lB, 1980. Sir, — The presence’ of Soviet troops in Afghanistan is a tangible fact; so ; is the treaty by which they are there. A. stubborn refusal by. D. J. O’Rourke to acknowledge the relevance of the ■ treaty is based on the speci- > ous grounds of ascribing his ■ own purely personal doubts ■ \to the Afghan people. It is a complete misnomer to desthe Soviet military presence ’in Afghanistan as an “invasion.” If this non-* sense must be persisted in, let it be applied even-hand-edly arid cry, “invasion,” at the presence of United '■ States and British troops in 7 West Germany and Western Europe, there by the terms ' of the North Atlantic Treaty, L which, I do not doubt, D. J. O’Rourke has never called 7 into question because of claims that “it is irrelevant to the essential issue of whether the West German and Western European peoples desired its implementation.” — Yours, etc., .M. CREEL. 1. February 20, 1980.