Guns for the Afghan Rebels

Post 9/11, a song that exhorts the listener to "take these guns to Afghanistan" sounds less foolish than treasonable, but when "Guns For The Afghan Rebels" was recorded for the 1981 album 2,000,000 Voices, the Taliban were actually the good guys. In December 1979, the then Soviet Union sent over 100,000 troops into Afghanistan in what was to become the Kremlin's Vietnam. In 1989, after both sides had suffered terrible losses - one might ask for what purpose? - the Soviets pulled out. It was a humiliating defeat for what American President Ronald Reagan called the Evil Empire. Although Angelic Upstarts espoused a socialist/working class philosophy, there are socialists and socialists, and not a few refused to toady up to Moscow. This is definitely a song that belongs in the punk genre, angry and rightly so.