Veterans of Soviet war see the same mistakes being made

[IndianaGreen]

Veterans of Soviet war see the same mistakes being made

By Charles Clover in Moscow,

Published: December 1 2009 02:00 | Last updated: December 1 2009 02:00

On the eve of an expected decision by the US administration to commit thousands more soldiers to the struggle against the Taliban, Gen Rodionov and other Soviet veterans feel a mixture of Schadenfreude and sympathy for the latest foreign invaders in the mountainous land they left in 1989 after a bloody 10-year counter insurgency.

From his base in the sumptuous Tajbeg palace, on a commanding hill on the outskirts of Kabul, Gen Rodionov quickly learned "there was no front. The bullets could come from anywhere".

The Soviet 40th Army comprised 120,000 troops at the height of the war, and operations focused on manoeuvring helicopter-borne paratroopers on to mountains, to control high ground, and then moving tanks through the valleys.

In a decade nearly 15,000 Soviet troops lost their lives - and hundreds of thousands of Afghans - in many of the same places that US forces and their allies are struggling to control today: the border regions in the south-east of the country near Pakistan, and the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

"The war, all 10 years of it, went in circles. We would come and they (the insurgents) would leave. Then we leave, and they would return," Gen Rodionov said.

Other former senior Soviet officers see a similar futility in US efforts in Afghanistan.

"More soldiers is simply going to mean more deaths," said Gennady Zaitsev, former commander of the KGB's elite Alpha commando unit, which took part in some of the most critical operations of the war.

"US and British citizens are going to ask, quite rightly, 'why are our sons dying?' And the answer will be 'to keep Hamid Karzai (the Afghan president) in power'. I don't think that will satisfy them."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/333adb8e-de19-11de-b8e2-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

[timeforpeace]

1. Maybe not much difference in their leadership then and ours now?

[wuvuj]

2. Both wars are already over for me.

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