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MOSCOW Chopping Afghanistan The use of helicopter gunships by the Russian military command in Afghanistan to stem resistance attacks has been described in detail here for the first time since the start of the Soviet occupation four years ago. According to an article in the Literaturnaya Gazeta, Soviet authorities rely chiefly on the Mi-24 helicopter, nicknamed “Hunchback” on account of its stocky, bulbous silhouette, to locate resistance positions and to protect convoys of supplies and food in the forbidding mountainous terrain where the resistance operates most effectively. The article claimed that Afghans “panic” whenever the Hunchback appears in the skies. One tactic used is for a single helicopter to draw the fire of resistance outposts while others following it send coordinates of the position to Soviet artillery and mortar batteries. Helicopters are also used for actual aerial bombardment, a difficult assignment since they are low-flying and slow. The article made no mention of what damage resistance fire normally inflicts on the helicopters, but at the same time it made clear that resistance activity is an ever-present threat to the effective control of the Afghan countryside by troops of Babrak Karmal’s puppet regime in Kabul.

SINGAPORE Making It Spurred on by the uncertainty of the future of Hong Kong, and taking advantage of its own highly skilled population and favorable investment conditions, Singapore is reacting strongly to economic recovery in the United States. The most recent figures show that in January the island’s exports to the U.S. had increased by 118 per cent over the same month last year, the lion’s share being electronic components. The United States is now Singapore’s principal trading partner and number-one foreign investor. Most American electronics firms have subsidiaries here, producing integrated circuits and circuit boards, computer keyboards and printers, and similar items. High-price, high-quality clothes help fill out the export column.

About the Author

M.D. Aeschliman

M.D. Aeschliman is professor emeritus of education at Boston University and author of The Restoration of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientism (3rd English-language ed., Seattle: Discovery Institute, 2019 and French-language rev. ed., Paris: Pierre Téqui, 2020).

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MOSCOW Chopping Afghanistan The use of helicopter gunships by the Russian military command in Afghanistan to stem resistance attacks has been described in detail here for the first time since the start of the Soviet occupation four years ago. According to an article in the Literaturnaya Gazeta, Soviet authorities rely chiefly on the Mi-24 helicopter, nicknamed “Hunchback” on account of its stocky, bulbous silhouette, to locate resistance positions and to protect convoys of supplies and food in the forbidding mountainous terrain where the resistance operates most effectively. The article claimed that Afghans “panic” whenever the Hunchback appears in the skies. One tactic used is for a single helicopter to draw the fire of resistance outposts while others following it send coordinates of the position to Soviet artillery and mortar batteries. Helicopters are also used for actual aerial bombardment, a difficult assignment since they are low-flying and slow. The article made no mention of what damage resistance fire normally inflicts on the helicopters, but at the same time it made clear that resistance activity is an ever-present threat to the effective control of the Afghan countryside by troops of Babrak Karmal’s puppet regime in Kabul.

SINGAPORE Making It Spurred on by the uncertainty of the future of Hong Kong, and taking advantage of its own highly skilled population and favorable investment conditions, Singapore is reacting strongly to economic recovery in the United States. The most recent figures show that in January the island’s exports to the U.S. had increased by 118 per cent over the same month last year, the lion’s share being electronic components. The United States is now Singapore’s principal trading partner and number-one foreign investor. Most American electronics firms have subsidiaries here, producing integrated circuits and circuit boards, computer keyboards and printers, and similar items. High-price, high-quality clothes help fill out the export column.

About the Author

M.D. Aeschliman

M.D. Aeschliman is professor emeritus of education at Boston University and author of The Restoration of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientism (3rd English-language ed., Seattle: Discovery Institute, 2019 and French-language rev. ed., Paris: Pierre Téqui, 2020).