U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons conduct operations over eastern Afghanistan, Nov. 26, 2009. The aircraft crews are assigned to the 79th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron on Bagram Airfield. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael B. KellerFrom Times Online:
Jan Mohammad, a bus driver on Highway One, the notoriously dangerous Kabul-to-Kandahar road, found out about Barack Obama’s plan to send more troops to Afghanistan when a fight broke out in the back of his bus on Thursday.
His passengers were discussing last week’s announcement by the president when one, from Zabul province, said: “I think Afghanistan needs more troops. It is a good thing. Without them we will never have peace in our country.”
On hearing this, a man from Kandahar shouted: “You are a supporter of infidels! The Americans are robbing this country. They don’t care about our people.”
Read more ....
My Comment: I love reading and understanding history, and if I had the funds to support me .... I would have dedicated my life to the subject .... in particular the study and understanding of war throughout history.
Afghanistan is a classic example of history always repeating itself .... and the key paragraph in the Times story is the following ....
There were parallels with the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s plan for ending his country’s Afghan war 20 years ago. After Gorbachev took power in 1985 he, too, authorised a surge in military forces, pushing troop numbers to 140,000 — about the same as Nato will now have in Afghanistan. He gave his generals a year to win the war after which, he warned, they would have to withdraw. In the end his exit from what he called “our bleeding wound” took four years and cost the lives of a further 7,000 Russian soldiers.
The French have a saying .... plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose .... the more things change, the more that they stay the same.
Sigh .... it seems that we are going down that path again.
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