- 06 Oct 2008 17:44
#1651757
"All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia" Orwell
E l/r -10 : L/A -7.64
The Soviet forces did not lose the Afghan War they withdrew from a war that could not be won. After the war ended, the Soviet Union published figures of the Soviet dead : Total - 13,836 people, on average - 1,537 Russians died per year. According to updated figures, the Soviet army lost 14,427; the KGB - 576; MIA - 28 people dead and missing. Which is nothing in a ten year campaign! Loss of domestic support, economic cost, lack of political support and a realisation that it was a war that could never end led to a negotiated withdrawal.
It was not the total defeat American propagandists would have you think. As in Vietnam where the bodycount was overwhelmingly in the US's favour, in Afghanistan the Russians were killing the enemy very efficiently: 1,000,000+ Afghan dead v 15,000 Soviet dead.
The leading UK commander in Afghanistan is now advocating negotiations with the Taliban because this new conflict is a war without end or purpose - I wonder if the politicians will listen to the military this time? They didn't in Iraq and look what a mess that turned into.
It was not the total defeat American propagandists would have you think. As in Vietnam where the bodycount was overwhelmingly in the US's favour, in Afghanistan the Russians were killing the enemy very efficiently: 1,000,000+ Afghan dead v 15,000 Soviet dead.
The leading UK commander in Afghanistan is now advocating negotiations with the Taliban because this new conflict is a war without end or purpose - I wonder if the politicians will listen to the military this time? They didn't in Iraq and look what a mess that turned into.
"All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia" Orwell
E l/r -10 : L/A -7.64