Good episode from Angry Planet on the Soviet experience in Afghanistan.
Conquerors and nations have been trying to rebuild Afghanistan in their own image for thousands of years. The U.S. is just the latest to fail. The Soviet Union also failed, with a little push from the United States. But they learned their lesson in only 10 years, from 1979-1989.
Angry Planet – When the Soviets Fled Afghanistan
I loved the quote that titles this post from Mark Galeotti:
“If you control the countryside, you will control the towns.”
Basically, we did things backwards. Control the towns, control the provincial capital, and then the province turns blue, right?
Wrong. The province is red with a blue dot where the city limits end. We got that wrong. We always get this wrong.
There really needs to be a post-mortem on this whole endeavour. There was a way to do it better.
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Carrying the Gun 