It was 23 years ago today that the Soviet occupation forces finally gave up on a bloody decade-long war in Afghanistan, limping out of the country with their own economy in tatters, and the Soviet-backed Afghan government on the brink of collapse.
If that sounds familiar, it should, according to the Taliban’s latest statement. A decade into their own bloody occupation of Afghanistan, NATO and the United States are in a bad way, and the Taliban is predicting the “same future the Russian invaders faced in the past.”
The Taliban statement urged the US to learn a lesson from the Soviet defeat and to stop fighting a “meaningless battle,” instead withdrawing as soon as possible. They also presented the US agreement on talks as evidence of their eventual victory.
The lesson could well have been learned long ago, but despite Taliban confidence there is little sign NATO is “getting it” in Afghanistan, as US officials negotiate to keep troops in the nation through 2024 even as they present limited power transfers to the war-weary voting public.
The difference lies in the imperial goals of the US vs. USSR. The soviet union wanted to occupy and claim territory. The US regime only wants to provide safety while contractors complete the pipeline. The US has no interest in bringing democracy, or even claiming the land. The are using the drugs to cover the costs, and slowly trying to influence tribes. Once the pipeline is complete, the tribes and new leaders will have plenty of money and protect the pipeline.
As hard as I try, I see no difference in the goals of imperial USSR and imperial USI. Murder is murder. Occupation is occupation. The pipeline had nothing to do with the reason for a war in Afghanistan officially presented by the US to the world, nothing. Once again our reasons for attacking, invading, and occupying a sovereign nation have changed. Somehow I get the feeling that the people of Afghanistan do not want our stupid pipeline. I can see absolutely no difference between the USSR and the USI in intentions or otherwise, and I truly wish I could.
Real deal, If one looks at all the countries in world that the US have entered in a war like manner whether as friend or foe, there are very very few that still dont have a presence tens of decades later!
France, Vietnam, and maybe a couple of others, every one else still has US troops from WWII. the US has Imperialistic values and has had its entire existance!
Learn from the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan? – really?
And what did we learn from our defeat in Vietnam? – anything?
What did we learn from our own Revolutionary War? – anything?
'INVADERS' eventually lose – no matter who they are.
The Vietnamese defeated at the time the two most powerful militairy powers in the world the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the American lead western armies in 1975.
Those wars lasted some thirty years, yet Goliath was defated. The same stupidies were repeated by the Russians and now again by the US lead western armies. They win battles, but not the wars. The war in Iraq is still unfinished, the same as the Israeli/Palestine conflict. They are all people's wars and they can never be won by just military superior armies. That is the lesson many still have to learn, but eventually the penny will drop, even with the most retarded kid in the classroom….
Bin Laden said ´jump´, the coalition asked, ´how high´.
Wasnt it obvious that bring US/ISAF/NATO/whatever into fight not only is easier to jihadist to kill them in their own territory, and the eminent collapse of their economy as we are seen now.
Some folks argue that the Iraq War was a war of U$ 3 tri, as I see its far more than that. Another point is, before Iraq War(2003) the barrel of crude oil was something btw U$ 40 bucks, now its on U$ 100,00 plus. The Countries directly involved in the Afghanistan War are drowning in debt – BUT these same ppl still saying it isnt reletade. This article above shows exactly what happened to Russia, everybody knows this but they choosed deliberated to go for Afghanistan for a reason that I still dont understand.
with the employment of semantics US will never be defeated.