Soviet Vets, 20 Years On, Warn Obama on Afghanistan

[babylonsister]

Soviet Vets, 20 Years On, Warn Obama on Afghanistan

by Conor Humphries


MOSCOW - Soviet veterans marking 20 years since their defeat in Afghanistan warned the United States it would never truly control the country, citing bitter memories of a fiercely proud people and unforgiving landscape.

The withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989 ended a decade of fighting that killed an estimated 15,000 Soviet troops and convinced a generation of soldiers they had been sent to fight a war they could not win.

The United States, preparing to pour more troops into Afghanistan to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency, is reliving their nightmare, they said.

"It's like fighting sand. No force in the world can get the better of the Afghans," said Oleg Kubanov, a stocky 47-year-old former officer with the Order of the Red Star pinned to his chest at an anniversary concert in Moscow.

"It's their holy land, it doesn't matter to them if you're Russian, American. We're all soldiers to them."

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/14-6

[mediaman007]

1. If you don't know history, you're bound to repeat it.

(I didn't just make that up!)

[Dover]

2. Nice find! And while I don't know the 'reality' on the ground, I tend to believe these vets.

I hope Obama will listen and consider this all very carefully.

Is 'war' part of our 'recovery package'? I can't imagine what the upside is to continued
fighting in Afghanistan except a downward spiraling drain on our spirit, resources and continuing
unpopularity in the region....not to mention all the suffering to innocents.

If our ultimate goal for that region (as outlined in the Silk Road policy)
is to profit from pipelines, oil/gas, roads and commercial expansion by various business sectors, then I'm sure any effort on our part will be met with skepticism and seen for what it is...self serving. And we really don't even understand them or their culture so we are, in essence, working with a blindfold on. Any significant change there must come from within their own ranks. We are playing with fire.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. They don't Afghanistan the "Graveyard of Empires" for nothing.

My grandfather, in the Brit army, fought the Afghans 100 years ago in another lost war.

[Traveling_Home]

4. The Soviet (Russian) Army and vets would be vindicated ONLY if NATO and the US fails nt

[bertman]

5. There was a very interesting interview on Fresh Air a couple of weeks ago with a woman

named Sarah Chayse, who has worked with and is currently working with a cooperative in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan. The cooperative is still Taliban-free but has to be very careful.

According to Chayse, the U.S. had enormous goodwill among the Afghani people after we overthrew the Taliban in '02. But the Karzai government has been a facilitator for corruption by warlords who have once again gained control of the country and are bleeding it dry. So, the people are turning to the Taliban to free them from the iron grip of the warlords and Karzai's American-backed government.

It seems very ironic (not really the word I'm looking for) that we have won another war but lost the peace--again.

Chayse says that the Afghans do not hate America or Americans but have turned against our troops and the Karzai government because they are brutal and corrupt and we are propping them up.

Why can't we ever get this right?