LETTERS: THE AFGHAN SITUATION

To the editor:

Anti-communist nitwits who helped fan the reaction here in the United States -- including the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow -- against the Soviet Union's sending of troops to Afghanistan ought to hang their brainless heads in shame at what the pullout of that Soviet force, which they so ardently desired, has meant for that unfortunate country. Better yet, they ought to be required to live in Afghanistan under the cruel, medieval Muslim theocracy now being inflicted by the very fundamentalists who were being held in check by the combination of the Soviet Union and the then-existing, much more enlightened government. The Taliban government is busy solidifying its hold at present and cannot devote any effort to brining the Great Satan -- that's us, folks -- down, but just have patience. It won't be too much longer.

The ones I pity the most are the Afghan womenfolk, although, truly, any free-thinking soul has much to dread from any fundamentalist regime. I really feel that women living in countries where Muslim fundamentalists hold sway ought to be given an automatic emergency human-rights visa to come to the United States.

Female students who had been getting an education before have been forbidden to return to school in areas of Afghanistan the Taliban now controls. The same hold true for work outside the home. For Afghan women under Taliban control, this is now a no-no.

For decades this country has had a policy of opposing the socialist bloc of nations at every turn. And it was not because of what the bloc did, but because the rulers of our country feared that a success on the part of socialism boded ill for their prospects of keeping their catbird seats in the capitalist world. Now that the former European socialists states are, at least for the present, out of action, it is apparent to all but the willfully blind that there was wisdom in what they did to keep their various ethnic groups from each other's throats and in what they did to suppress their predatory exploiters and criminals, who now seem to be running things, especially in the former Soviet Union, and in what they did to provide a satisfactory standard of living for their people.

It is the same with Afghanistan. The Soviet Union was merely trying to foster and protect progressive forces there, which was good for them and good for us. The United States perversely took the part of the reactionary segment of Afghan society. The Soviet Union pulled out, and now look at the can of worms that has been opened. Stupid as they are, U.S. anti-communists can still profit from an old maxim: Be care of what you desire. You may very well get it.

DONN S. MILLER

Tamms, Ill.