25 years after Soviet exit, Taliban say US face same fate

[kseeker]

KABUL: The Taliban today marked the 25th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan by saying that US forces were now fleeing the country in a similarly ignomious exit.

The final Soviet troops left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of bloody occupation that were followed by civil war and the emergence of the Islamist Taliban movement that took Kabul in 1996.

"Today America is facing the same fate as the former Soviet Union and is trying to escape from our country," the Taliban, who have fought a fierce insurgency since being ousted in 2001, said in an emailed statement.

"We want to remind the Americans that as we did not accept invaders with their nice slogans in the past and we eliminated them from the world map."

The US-led NATO military mission is due to end this year, but negotiations between Kabul and Washington could mean that about 10,000 US troops stay in Afghanistan after 2014 on training and counter-terrorism operations.

The deal to allow the residual US force has been the subject of months of bitter public wrangling between President Hamid Karzai and US officials.

Karzai has ruled Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, surviving assassination attempts and the treacherous currents of Afghan political life as billions of dollars of military and development aid poured into the country.

He is barred from seeking a third term in office, leaving an open field to compete in elections in April.

Taliban insurgents have threatened to target the election campaign, and the Afghan police and army face a major challenge with little support from the dwindling number of foreign troops.

As 50,000 NATO troops draw down after more than a decade of war, the number of civilians killed and wounded in Afghanistan rose 14 percent last year, the UN said last week.

Most of the casualties to women and children were caused by "ground engagements" and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the Taliban's weapon of choice.

More than one million Afghans and 13,000 Soviet troops were killed during the Soviet occupation. At least five million Afghans also fled the country.

25 years after Soviet exit, Taliban say US face same fate - The Times of India

 

[JBH22]

Ukrainian veterans recall 25th anniversary of Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan



BBC News Afghanistan 25 years on from Russian withdrawal

 

[JBH22]

Lessons learned? 25 years since Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

Both NATO and the Soviet Army used forces of comparable sizes for the duration of the conflict, with around 100,000 foreign soldiers present at any one time. The USSR and the US have both tried to relieve the burden by training local militias, though the Soviets were more cautious, fearing mass defections of newly-trained men with weapons who perhaps weren't as receptive to secular Communist ideals as they first appeared. Considering the difficulties the US has had already with abrupt and fatal betrayals among its own Afghan National Security Forces, the worry does not appear to be entirely groundless.

http://rt.com/news/soviet-us-afghanistan-anniversary-130/

Russian veterans request political reassessment of Afghanistan war

The head of the Union of Afghan War Veterans is to ask the Russian President to reconsider the negative political assessment of the Soviet Union's military intervention in Afghanistan.

Frants Klintsevich was speaking at a conference dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Klintsevich, who is also a Lower House MP representing the United Russia Party, claimed that the "politically and legally groundless assessment of the Afghan war as a failed and reckless attempt" leads to many decisions concerning veterans not being fullfilled. The MP said he was going to address the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian military, President Vladimir Putin, with a request to revise the attitude to the conflict.

The deputy said that according to official statistics the Soviet military lost 15,000 people killed and over 50,000 wounded in Afghanistan. 417 servicemen were taken prisoners and only a third were returned home. Over 200,000 Russian servicemen were decorated for bravery during the war.

Russia deployed military forces in Afghanistan in 1979 after repeated requests by the Kabul government trying to suppress armed Islamist opposition. The war lasted for over nine years and ended in early 1989 with complete withdrawal of Soviet troops. The pro-Soviet government survived for three more years and fell only after the collapse of the Soviet Union when it stopped supplying weapons and goods.

In December 1989 the Congress of People's Deputies – the supreme legislative body of the Soviet Union – passed a resolution which condemned the military intervention in Afghanistan as politically and morally wrong. The same congress ordered changes to the Constitution that would set concrete rules for military aid to foreign countries and also asked the government to launch a state rehabilitation program to help veterans and the families of those killed.

On February 15 Russia and other ex-soviet states are celebrating the 25th anniversary of final withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Ukraine and Moldova officially made 2014 the year of veterans of the Afghan War. All countries of the Russia-led political bloc the Commonwealth of Independent States have agreed to issue commemorative medals to be awarded to veterans.

Russian veterans request political reassessment of Afghanistan war — RT Russian politics