20th anniversary - how to celebrate?
Discussion
20 years ago today, on 15 February 1989, the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan, ending a war that Moscow initially saw as a brief incursion to bolster its Afghan supporters but became a protracted and bloody struggle that lasted almost 10 years. The war cost over 13,000 Soviet lives and may have killed as many as one million Afghans. It led to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamist Taliban.
"I am convinced of one thing. That it is irresponsible to forget about lessons like Afghanistan," Gromov, a Hero of the USSR and now governor of the Moscow region, told the Rossiskaya Gazeta daily.
"The Soviets found themselves bogged down in an unwinnable guerrilla war against Mujahedeen Islamist fighters backed financially and militarily by the United States. Ironically, former generals say the Soviet experience serves as a lesson for US and NATO forces fighting a renewed Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan."
What goes around, comes around.
"I am convinced of one thing. That it is irresponsible to forget about lessons like Afghanistan," Gromov, a Hero of the USSR and now governor of the Moscow region, told the Rossiskaya Gazeta daily.
"The Soviets found themselves bogged down in an unwinnable guerrilla war against Mujahedeen Islamist fighters backed financially and militarily by the United States. Ironically, former generals say the Soviet experience serves as a lesson for US and NATO forces fighting a renewed Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan."
What goes around, comes around.
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