What Retirement
is for......

Flying space-A

Writing

Working on Veterans
 projects

Today from the Editor's desk

Email    editor@wesupportthevets.com

Startling similarities between the Russian Afghanistan  war and the American war in Iraq.

Is the United States in a position to continue a war in Iraq for another decade?

  Some critics of this administration are saying that we are fast simulating a comparable situation to the Russian intervention in Afghanistan . The Afghan war, perhaps the most over- studied , but underestimated military conflicts in the history of the 20th century remains overlooked and ignored as an ominous peril to our future.

On our first page , we reference a link to statistics from globalsecurity.com. This is one of our continuing sources for information and data on the Iraq war.  On this site,casualty reports indicate that deaths are now at 1288 and wounded in action at 8150. .

Hold that thought and step back in history.

Russia intervened in December 1979 in Afghanistan and the following 10 years involved an occupation force of over one million Soviet soldiers  that resulted in "tens of thousands " killed in action.  In 1986 , Gorbachev called Afghanistan, Russia's "bleeding wound." Some scholars attribute the collapse of the Soviet Union to a combination of resulting overstretch of resources , and glasnost , which permitted the start of freedom as secessionist voices grew stronger. In retrospect, it was unthinkable  in 1979 , that the Soviet empire could collapse, let alone fall apart almost within a decade. Though the Afghanistan intervention was initially  visualized by Soviet leaders as a small-scale intervention, it grew into a decade-long war involving nearly one million soldiers kia and  injuring. some tens of thousands of them. During the 1980s , the official Soviet media maintained that the Afghanistan government had requested Soviet military assistance for humanitarian and non combat  tasks. Notwithstanding the media censorship, as the conflict escalated and well before Gorbachev became the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (C. P. S. U), stories about combat casualties and the problems of disabled soldiers began appearing in spite of censorship. The turning point in 1986 , saw the second phase of Gorbachev's military nightmare.  The Mujaheddin (Afghan Freedom Fighters) were now being well armed with US supplied surface-to-air muscles , rockets, mortars, and communication equipment, and won many confrontations with the Soviet army.

Fast-forward  to December 2004. A recent article by United press international  indicated that veterans of the war in Iraq are starting to show up at homeless shelters. Linda Boone , executive director of the national Coalition for homeless veterans stated; " when we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them area . it is happening , and this nation is not prepared for that."

"This is what happened with the Vietnam vets, I went to Vietnam," said John Keaveney, chief operating officer of New Directions, a shelter and drug and alcohol treatment program for veterans in Los Angeles. "it is like watching history being repeated," he said.

Experts said the high number of Iraq vets with mental illnesses  seems almost certain to fuel the problem.( see Iraqi war vets showing up at homeless shelters)

Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that as of last July, nearly 28,000 veterans from Iraq sought healthcare from the VA.  One out of every five wounded was diagnosed with a mental disorder according to the VA.  An Army study in the New England Journal of medicine in July  showed that 17% of service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD.
Again , back to Afghanistan, three years into the conflict....

As successful ambushes of Soviet convoys became a daily phenomenon, the number of Soviet casualties mounted. The number of disabled soldiers seen in Soviet cities grew substantially and the war veterans (Afgansty) increasingly became part of the Soviet urban landscape. Since many Afgansty belonged to the non-Russian nationalities, opposition to the war from citizens in non-Russian Soviet republics increased.  Their presence often was not acknowledged by the authorities who wished to play down Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. These Afgansty became bitter and openly critical of the Soviet leaders . The result is now seen in the present geography of what once was the Soviet Empire.

When you read the historical accounts of the Afghan war, the similarities with the present are stark reality.  As an illustration , the Soviet army was not a volunteer army and the bulk of its soldiers were draftees.  Though draft dodging was a serious crime in the Soviet Union, war- inspired and anti militarism and draft resistance became common across the country. In 1987 hundreds of Komsomol members in Uzbekistan were prosecuted for draft dodging. In Lithuania , many refused the autumn 1989 call up. In Georgia, the 1989 call up resulted in mass protests. These of course were not National Guard units , but the similarity rings loud.

If you want to read some very prophetic words from over forty years ago, read the writings of Truong Son in these Vietnam archives. He was a "military commentator" for Quan Doi Nhan Dan which is/was the official newsprint of the Viet cong. It could be compared to our "Stars and Strips" at any time. Here is what he wrote in 1966 about the American occupation in South Vietnam. ( Before you label me a commie-pinko for putting this in my op-ed, this is history, not opinion--ok?)

"It is a well-known fact that the U.S. Imperialists command a large number of troops, plenty of money and armament. But they are not strong. Only by going from the external manifestations into the real nature of things can we correctly appraise the strength of American aggressors."
--they are materially and technically strong, but they are opposed by the courageous and capable Vietnamese people; the population, the terrain and the climate are not favorable to them; their modern armament and technique have not proven efficacious as they had expected, and consequently, their strength has been substantially reduced. they have never accurately appraised their own strength and their opponents and especially because their over-reliance on material and technical power makes them blindly indulge in wishful thinking. Following repeated setbacks, they are  strategically driven into passivity." It goes on to describe how the contradictions between the "puppet troops" ( Iraqi -American trained comparison here) keep on growing." ( Editor's note; I don't know if this link will work to the referenced document but you may want to read pages 33-34 for yourself) try  this

Kind of gives you ( perhaps) an insight to the way these insurgents think??

"That a peasant may become King does not render the kingdom democratic."

Woodrow Wilson Speech in Chattanoga Ten on Aug 31,1910

Bill Gast

Editor, Wesupportthevets.com

Soviet Veterans remember the Afghan War (Berkley, Ca.University of Cal IAS,1944 pp1x

The Bear went over the mountain; Soviet Combat tactics in Afghanistan ( London: Frank Cass,1988 lists casualties as 15,000 dead and 469,685 sick and wounded
Congress discusses Afghstan war includes statements by Soviet Foreigh Minister Edward Shevardnadze at the International conference, Vladivostok, September 4,1990

Iraqi war homeless vets starting to show up at shelters across the U S.

Copyright © 2004 wesupportthevets.com protected by the Boerne convention.  All rights reserved.
Email questions or comments to webmaster@wesupportthevets.com