Oh Those Russians!

[bigOz]

Daily Mail 25/9/06

Former generals who led the Red Army's retreat from Afghanistan in the 1980s yesterday warned British commanders that they will face the same humiliation...

 

General Ruslan Aushev said:

"You will flee from there"...

..."The astonishing thing today is that NATO and the coalition seem to have learned nothing - neither from their own experience or from our experience"...

..."We saw over a period of many years how the country was torn apart by civil war. But in the face of outside aggression Afghans have always put aside their differences and united"...

 

General Ausev also said he believed the Americans, who have 18000 troops in Afghanistan, were preparing toleave the country. "The Americans can't have another Vietnam, so they are saving face", he said " They will say 'We did not withdraw. It was the Australians, the British who withdrew."

 

Some 35 British Soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan since their mission there began in March.

 

Do you agree???

[Skye]

Not really. The difference with the current war is that NATO hasn't tried to impose authority from outside, but rather they have backed one side (the Northern Alliance). The Afghans haven't put their differences aside, and the warlords of the Northern Alliance have appeared pretty happy to ally themselves with NATO to oust the Taliban. Things could change of course, but at the moment it looks different to the Soviet war.