3338 DAYS & COUNTING: U.S. War in Afghanistan Now Longer than Soviet Occupation
Video: Endgame in Afghanistan
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KABUL, Afghanistan — The Soviet Union couldn’t win in Afghanistan, and now the U.S. is about to have something in common with that futile campaign: nine years, 50 days.
On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition will have been fighting in this South Asian country for as long as the Soviets did in their humbling attempt to build up a socialist state. The two invasions had different goals — and dramatically different body counts — but whether they have significantly different outcomes remains to be seen.
What started out as a quick war on Oct. 7, 2001, by the U.S. and its allies to wipe out al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban has instead turned into a long and slogging campaign. Now about 100,000 NATO troops are fighting a burgeoning insurgency while trying to support and cultivate a nascent democracy.
A Pentagon-led assessment released earlier this week described the progress made since the United States injected 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan earlier this year as fragile.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Dec. 27, 1979, its stated goal was to transform Afghanistan into a modern socialist state. The Soviets sought to prop up a communist regime that was facing a popular uprising, but left largely defeated on Feb. 15, 1989.
In 1992, the pro-Moscow government of Mohammad Najibullah collapsed and U.S.-backed rebels took power. The Taliban eventually seized Kabul after a violent civil war that killed thousands more. It ruled with a strict interpretation of Islamic law until it was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion.
Nader Nadery, an Afghan analyst who has studied the Soviet and U.S. invasions, said “the time may be the same” for the two conflicts, “but conditions are not similar.”
More than a million civilians died as Soviet forces propping up the government of Babrak Karmal waged a massive war against anti-communist mujahedeen forces.
“There was indiscriminate mass bombardment of villages for the eviction of mujahedeen,” Nadery said. “Civilian casualties are not at all comparable.”
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The Soviet occupation last from December 27, 1979, to February 15, 1989. The continuing U.S. campaign to route the Taliban and al Qaeda started on October 7, 2001.
The Soviet army withdrew in defeat, having suffered more than 14,000 deaths and more than 50,000 wounded. By comparison, the U.S. involvement has been less costly; 1,403 Americans have died, although that number has been rising rapidly. Half of the U.S. deaths have been in the last two years. About 7.000 Americans have been wounded.
The latest Pentagon “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” paints a bleak picture of the current situation, with violence on the rise, corruption increasingly entrenched and the Taliban gaining strength.
Polls show that the majority of Americans have grown disillusioned with the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, both President Barack Obama and the Congressional leadership of the Republican Party are committed to keeping American troops in the country until as least until 2014.
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Taliban -- Behind the Masks: The Afghan war from behind enemy lines: Documentary follows Taliban as they attack U.S. soldiers (Graphic Video)
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Nov 29, 2010 at 3:06 PM
Reader Comments (15)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-charles-g-cogan/bait-and-switch-in-afghan_b_789124.html
Obama Cements 2014 Afghan Pullout
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/obama-cements-2014-afghan-pullout/save-the-date/
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/11/obama-nato-discuss-afghanistan-exit-strategy-1/1
http://dailybail.com/home/war-monger-obama-extends-afghan-war-to-2014-will-have-to-bor.html
http://dailybail.com/home/washington-post-political-writer-david-broder-calls-for-war.html
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/bomb_bomb_iran_the_top_5_shocking_things_about_the.php
read this one...
Mark Twain
But wait, some of us all know that thAre is NO War going on with the other side. The only reason the un-faced enemey is fighting us, is becouse we go into their neighborhood and kill their woman and children, just to pick the fight.
Then they come out to try and kill us. Most people dont understand that if we picked up and went home, there would be no fighting. They only come out to kill us, becouse we are there in thAre country.
We left Irack, now were in Aft. Next we'll move into Yeman, and so on, and so on. Where ever we show up, they will show up to kill us. Go home.......................they go home. So thAre is NO War, people.
Only in the Shadow Goverment and the Bankesters mind. Its just so they can make $$$$$$$$ on our country. "Wake-Up" ......?
Bring them home, and its over, just like that. None of our people need'ed to die. This is not a War, like in the past. We are fighting a "Face-less-Bastared" only becouse we are in thAre country.
The Sheeple thing we are fighting for something, we are.........So the Bankesters can make $$$$$$$$$$$$$ on the American People....?
Just hang on.............it will be very soon. Do they have a Hanoi-Hilton, over thAre in Aft...........................they better get one, and quick.
Things are starting to fall apart with this guy, "Wink-a-Dink"................"Wink-e-Leakey"..........gut letting out shit on our goverment.......................?
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now officially longer...the differences are key however...there is NO draft now...so no protest...when the college kids of the 60s and 70s were facing the draft, they had riots and protested...eliminate the draft, eliminate the protest...
They realy think they are doing it for our countrys safty. Lye some more Hillery Clinton, BHO, Bush, Chaney.....................make the American People think if we bring them all home, they will come over here to kill us, yea right.
The muslims that are trying here, are from the USA. Or a white man with a suit & tie, with a badge he got off eBay will put some muslim on a plane and send him to America to take the plane down right over a big city. Just think what would of happened.......?.
Then again, Hillery would give the bastards a free ticket to America, wouldent she. This war will Neaver End. It will Hop-Scoch from one country, to another. All so the "Shadow Goverment" can bring down the American People.