# Soviet Lessons from Afghanistan by Mikhail Gorbachev



## Teufel (Feb 9, 2010)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/opinion/05iht-edgorbachev.html

In 1979, the Soviet leadership sent troops to Afghanistan, justifying that move not just by the desire to help friendly elements there but also by the need to stabilize a neighboring country. The greatest mistake was failing to understand Afghanistan’s complexity — its patchwork of ethnic groups, clans and tribes, its unique traditions and minimal governance.

The result was the opposite of what we had intended: even greater instability, a war with thousands of victims and dangerous consequences for our own country. On top of it, the West, particularly the United States, kept fueling the fire in the spirit of the Cold War; it remained ready to support just about anyone against the Soviet Union, giving no thought to possible long-term consequences.

As part of perestroika in the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leadership drew conclusions from our troubles in Afghanistan. We made two crucial decisions. First, we set the goal of withdrawing our troops. Second, we intended to work with all parties in the conflict and with the governments involved to achieve national reconciliation in Afghanistan and make it a peaceful and neutral country that threatened no one.


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## QC (Feb 9, 2010)

There seems to me to be a bias in the article towards the authors country and how it can benefit.


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## 7point62 (Feb 11, 2010)

Queens Cadet said:


> There seems to me to be a bias in the article towards the authors country and how it can benefit.



Or, to put it another way, this Russian asshole has no business wagging the finger at us. The Soviets went in with a hammer. Their idea of counterinsurgency was to nape an entire village then sweep through and cap the survivors. Their civic action consisted of depopulation and scorched earth, destroy the crops, the animals, the buildings, poison the wells and leave boobytraps behind when they unassed the AO. Their unconventional warfare approach was running pseudo-ops units to perpetuate atrocities and blame them on the mujh. And Gorbachev, he likes to take credit for pulling his country's ass out of the fire, but before he got around to it, he gave his commanders a year to get on top of the situation, which translated into a year of escalation and intensified violence. So fuck him. _Proper and responsible_, my ass.


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## AWP (Feb 11, 2010)

Yep, those poor, misunderstood Soviets were only trying to help the Afghan people, *bu*t America couldn't leave we*ll* enough alone. From the Hindu Ku*sh* to Herat, *it* was the Soviets who were the humanitarians, not the US.


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## HOLLiS (Feb 11, 2010)

Why would the US leave the Soviets alone.   The Soviets was very much involved in killing Americans in Viet-Nam.   Maybe the Soviets should have thought about the long range consequences back then.


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## AWP (Feb 11, 2010)

HOLLiS said:


> The Soviets was very much involved in killing Americans in Viet-Nam.   Maybe the Soviets should have thought about the long range consequences back then.



Our 60-ish thousand vs. their 20 or so thousand....not to mention those from Korea? They can kiss my ass; Commies should die in a fire.

The fact that Gorby is allowed to publish his crap in our country is a little galling....but indicative of our society over his. He uses our free speech to lecture us while he denied the same rights to his own people.


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## QC (Feb 11, 2010)

He broke down and dismantled Communism, applauded in the West.(A little simplistic I know, but WTF). But he's reviled in his own country for doing so.


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## HOLLiS (Feb 11, 2010)

Queens Cadet said:


> He broke down and dismantled Communism, applauded in the West.(A little simplistic I know, but WTF). But he's reviled in his own country for doing so.


 
Be credited with, is the better term.    Problem was, the Soviet people want to go some where but did not know how.   Khrushchev was actually the man that broke the back of the Stalinist and lead  the SU into reform.  Gorbie just was not the man for the job.  I think Putin is the dude to watch,  either Russia will do better or return to the old ways.


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