Sovietski veteráni: Američania v Afganistane nikdy nezvíťazia
Here is a article you will not see in mainstream media the translation is from below blog so we will trust them on it. If the translation is wrong or please comment and we will discuss
From translation at http://springtimefordubcek.wordpress.com
MOSCOW. Soviet veterans, recalling the 20th anniversary of the USSR’s defeat in Afghanistan, warned the United States that it will never succeed in gaining full control over this Central Asian country. They also stated that the generation of soldiers they’re sending to fight in the war in Afghanistan cannot prevail.
The United States, which is preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan with the goal of suppressing the growing resistance to the Taliban, is living through the same nightmare as the former USSR, Soviet veterans said.
“It’s like trying to fight against quicksand. No force will prove it can defeat the Afghans. It is sacred land to them, it doesn’t matter to them whether you’re Russian or American. We’re all soldiers to them,” the 47-year-old stocky Oleg Kubanov, a former officer decorated with the Order of the Red Star, said in Moscow at a concert marking the 20th anniversary of the Soviets’ defeat.
At Friday’s grand festivities, organized by Moscow’s city hall, thousands of veterans assembled, several in suits, others in uniform. Many of them regarded Washington’s problems in Afghanistan as proof that the Americans’ campaign had no hope of success from the beginning.
Obama’s plan reminds Russians of a replay of old mistakes
Reports that U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration is preparing to increase the number of its own troops in Afghanistan to 60,000 remind Russians of the stationing of Soviet soldiers, which culminated in the mid-1980s when more than 100,000 of them served in the Central Asian country.
“You cannot station a soldier in front of every building, nor place a base on every hill. We were witness of this ourselves. The more solders [you send], the greater the resistance [from Afghans] that will follow,” said a Soviet veteran.
Soviet tanks and soldiers entered Afghanistan in 1979 with the goal of supporting the puppet Communist government in Kabul. However, hopes of a quick victory quickly dissipated when when the Soviets found themselves in the whirlwind of the persistent resistance of the Mujahedin, which could rely on American weapons and financial support, and on retreats to rebel bases in neighboring Pakistan.
Ethnic groups are supposedly uncontrollable
After a decade of constant increases in the number of Soviet soldiers, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev finally ordered a withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.
Like the United States, the USSR also tried to create a unified state out of Afghanistan and to eliminate the rivalries among individual tribes and ethnicities.
“There is no common language among the ethnic groups and clans there. It is not possible to get them under control,” said one of the participants at the Friday concert in Moscow.
The United States rejects the similarities of its operation in Afghanistan with the Soviet one. It claims that it is fighting against Islamic militants and trying to install a democratic society founded on the rule of law and to bring freedom to the country, while the Soviets wanted to subordinate Afghanistan.
Such a proclamation brings a smile to the face of Gurgen Karapetyan, a 73-year-old former helicopter pilot instructor. “We also went in with good intentions,” he said. They told Soviet soldiers that the Communists would build schools, roads, and would build an electric grid. “[The Americans] will never win. They should get out before it’s too late.”
What to make of this?
Well, I guess the short answer is that, obviously, it’s foolhardy to think you can “win” a conflict against an unconventional foe, especially this sort of insurgency. Modern armies are largely designed, constructed and trained to fight, well, modern armies. And while there has definitely been more of an emphasis on counterinsurgency training in the post-Vietnam period, it’s still not an army’s bread and butter.
But I also think it’s a bit sobering to hear the Soviet veterans of Afghanistan talk about how they thought they were just going to build schools, roads and other elements of a modern infrastructure. Boy, that sounds familiar.
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