Originally Posted by: rhaan 
Hopefully the Afghan retreat comes with the collapse of the house of cards called the EU as the Russian retreat from Afghanistan triggered the collapse of the USSR.
Interesting parallel, however the withdrawal of USSR military forces from Afghanistan – agreed in March 1988 and completed by February 1989 was done well before the fall of the ‘Berlin Wall’ in November 1989.
The Soviet leadership was unprepared for the Western backlash to their ‘invasion’. Afghanistan was always seen by Russia as being within its ‘sphere of influence’ and the invasion was seen as nothing more than internal politics by many in the Soviet hierarchy to counter the rise of Taraki in April 1978 which evidently took the Kremlin by surprise who moved then to protect a client regime he sought to replace. However 1979 was also the year of the fall of the Shah in what is now Iran. And do not forget the USA was also still smarting from its loss of prestige with its pull out from Vietnam in 1975.
So not really a parallel at all is it? Although I agree with your sentiment of the collapse of the EU. But again if this were to happen say economically via the collapse of the Euro or perhaps Britain’s withdrawal under article 50 creating a domino effect this would be worthy of further analysis methinks Dr. North?
For the history buffs:
Gorbachev’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan was primarily motivated by a desire to reach an accommodation with the West, although growing internal pressure was an important factor too.
Afghanistan just like it is today for ISAF (and the political support behind it) was proving to be a quagmire, an endless drain of resources, while mounting Soviet casualties were arousing growing discontent at home. Gorbachev, representative of the younger, technocratic wing of the Soviet bureaucracy, wanted a rapprochement with ‘the West’ to allow himself space for his top-down attempt to reform the outmoded Stalinist apparatus.
In reality, it was too late. Such was the depth and extent of the decay of the economy, brought about bureaucratic mismanagement and the corruption of the ruling elite, the ‘nomenklatura’, all attempts to modernise the system from within were doomed to failure.
It was soon to become abundantly clear, with the fall of the Berlin wall that November; that the bureaucratic system of Stalinism could no longer assure even the most basic social needs - economic growth, full employment and elementary social protection - within the Soviet Union or the satellite states of Eastern Europe. Is it any wonder, in this light, that the Soviet leadership abandoned Najibullah (whom they replaced Babrak Karmal with in 1986 with) to his gruesome fate?
“Afghan President Hamid Karzai is mocked again and again as mayor of Kabul” may just experience a similar fate perhaps!
What sickens me to the core being a former soldier is the utter futile waste of men women and materiel and the long term damage to morale of our armed forces. 438 dead and countless thousands wounded and even more psychologically damaged AND FOR WHAT????
Politicians never learn the lessons of history even when they are within living memory. For when they have POWER they use it for their ends.
I’ll leave you with some quotes from Soviet Soldiers of the time.
"I am convinced of one thing. That it is irresponsible to forget about lessons like Afghanistan," Lieutenant General Boris Gromov.
"They'll send more in and they'll lose more,"
Andrei Bandarenko, a former Soviet Spetsnatz special forces officer.
"What does Obama [the US president] know about the situation on the ground?"
"You can't put a soldier outside every house or a base on every mountain. We saw it ourselves, the more troops, the more resistance,"
Shamil Tyukteyev.
There are 438 reasons why The Harrogate Agenda must succeed; for Afghanistan nor Iraq would NEVER have been allowed to happen had we had POWER to control our politicians, we owe it to dead the injured, and their families to succeed.
Edited by user 20 December 2012 07:29:41(UTC)
| Reason: E&O
