Re: Afghanistani Warfare.

[Gurth <Gurth@xxxxxxxxx>]

According to Jacob E Boucher, on Thu, 13 Sep 2001 the word on the street was...

> While I have tremendous respect for the Spetznaz, and equal respect for
> the Afghan freedom fighters they opposed, were the US to engage in warfare
> with a terrorist organization or hostile government in Afghanistan, I feel
> the outcome would be rather different.

As in, you'd be smart enough to withdraw after only a year instead of ten
years?

> * Soviet military technology back in the early/mid 80's was what, ten
> years behind that of the US at that time?  We will have an effective 30+
> year technology advantage over what the Soviets were forced to use.
> Imaging Infra-red, milimetric-wave radar, and very powerful satellite
> technology will be backing up our troops all the way.  This is in
> combination with guided munitions and fire control tech that go a long way
> to making each shot count.

This reminds me of the way the US tried to fight the Vietnam War: employing
high-tech gizmos to find people pushing bicycles; I don't think you need to
be reminded who won that one. Afghanistan is just about impossible for
foreigners to fight in, it has turned out several times over the past few
centuries.

> * Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Soviets were *invading*
> Afghanistan.  They were aiming to take it over.  They wanted territory.

They wanted to install a puppet government, which is rather different. They
staged a fake coup against the Afghanistan Communist government (i.e. KGB
Spetznaz troops killed the Afghan president) to give the Soviet Union a
pretext for coming to the Afghans' aid, but to the best of my knowledge they
never intended to make Afghanistan part of the Soviet Union.

> * Finally, the US military will know that the media will be sitting over
> them like hawks, just looking for any mistreatment of innocents (just like
> in the Gulf War).  They will be taking great pains to insure that their
> troops' morale remains high

LOL! Keeping a high morale when fighting Mujahedeen? Good luck... A major
US invasion in Afghanistan, provided it could be staged at all (the country
doesn't have a coastline, and I somehow doubt Russia, Iran or Pakistan
would allow US troop deployment through their territory) would be Vietnam
all over again.

> I doubt most of the Soviet *conscripts* had any desire to be in the army
> at all

NATO troops in Bosnia and Kosovo are also mostly (if not all) volunteers.
Ask most of them how they feel about going there just before they leave,
and then again after they've been there for three months. My guess is their
attitude will have changed dramatically over that time...

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