U.S. now in Afghanistan as long as Soviets were

[bemildred]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Moscow —
As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them.

But one thing set the day apart: With its passing, the U.S. military's campaign in Afghanistan matched the Soviet Union's long and demoralizing sojourn in the nation.

The last Red Army troops left Feb. 15, 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by the U.S.-backed Afghan fighters known as mujahedin, or holy warriors. Ragtag yet ferocious, they were so spectrally elusive that the Soviet forces called them dukhi — ghosts. A fitting term, perhaps, for a country that has been called "the graveyard of empires."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-russia-20101127,0,6158149.story

[msongs]

1. American leadership is more stupid acting than the russians were loll tn

[GSLevel9]

2. what a wonder-fuckin' ful distinction. nt

[Arctic Dave]

3. Woohoo! Pop the champagne!

Do we all get t-shirts saying some funny and uplifting?

[bemildred]

4. Yup, we beat the Russkis again!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. And I fear we will head in the same direction --

as the old USSR. Broke and out of power. :(

[jerseyjack]

6. Once again,

We beat the Russians.

[daleo]

7. I wonder who killed more innocent civilians?

I suppose only God knows the answer to that one.

[IcyPeas]

8. it surprises me that...

there are only 7 responses to this post. We have 2 wars going on and we hardly hear anything on the news about them......

[Nihil]

9. ... and about as successfully too.

I thought the Russians were stupid at the time for not learning
from the failure of the British Empire in Afghanistan.

Looks like the American Empire didn't learn anything either.

:shrug:

[TheLastMohican]

10. Soviet soldiers going on a mission in Afganistan

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[truebrit71]

11. The US never seems to learn from history. The French got their asses kicked in 'Nam, but the US knew

..better...(not so much)

The Brits AND the Commies got their asses kicked in Afghanistan, but the US knew better (not so much)..

What's next I wonder?

[gratuitous]

12. Oh, the U.S. always knows better

Except when it doesn't. Yeah, we took over and completed the Panama Canal. Tamed the atom. Won the so-called space race. But with such sterling examples, we still got mixed up in Afghanistan for the good war. We'll be there years longer than the Soviets, but anyone who even hints that the U.S. is in peril of going the way of the Soviet Union is immediately hushed, and dismissed as a dirty fucking hippie by our Village Elders, who know so much better than any or all of the rest of us. If hushing doesn't work, there's the reliable standby of accusing doubters of being insufficiently supportive of the troops, and if that doesn't work, then the Unforgivable Accusation that we want the U.S. to lose.

[KillCapitalism]

13. Difference between us and the Soviets...

we will be in Afghanistan FAR longer. We have a credit card with no limit, that's something the Soviets didn't have.

[Yeahyeah]

14. Time for vodka binges and russian roulette.

Cuz we're totally self destructive.