Posts Tagged ‘Soviet Union’
U.S. soldiers know they have lost, only the politicans are in denial
New Statesman | By William Dalrymple | 22 June 2010 Why the Taliban is winning in Afghanistan As Washington and London struggle to prop up a puppet government over which Hamid Karzai has no control, they risk repeating the blood-soaked 19th-century history of Britain’s imperial defeat. In 1843, shortly after his return from [...]
A German Critique of Obama’s War
Globkult Magazin | By Walther Stützle | 16 April 2010 (Lecture and discussion. East-West Forum - Gut Gödelitz, January 23, 2010) Afghanistan — The Failed Invasion (Translated from the German) English Translation: Afghanistan – The Failed Invasion I. False Start | II. Balance | III. Way out | IV. Concept Original in German: Afghanistan [...]
Gorbachev’s Apologia
Russia Beyond the Headlines | By Mikhail Gorbachev | 30 March 2010 Perestroika at 25 "Perestroika, the series of political and economic reforms I undertook in the Soviet Union in 1985, has been the subject of heated debate ever since" -- Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union Perestroika, the series of political and economic [...]
Tariq Ali on Yemen
London Review of Books | By Tariq Ali | Vol. 32 No. 6 · 25 March 2010 (pages 31-33) Unhappy Yemen I left for Yemen as Obama was insisting that ‘large chunks’ of the country were ‘not fully under government control’, after Senator Joseph Lieberman had cheerfully announced that it was a suitable target for war and occupation. The sad [...]
Afghanistan is just a chessboard to politicians
Rossiyskaya Gazeta | By Vladimir Snegiryov | 2 March 2010 Vladimir Snegiryov believes that all Afghan troubles stem from the fact that many top politicians continue to regard Afghanistan merely as an arena of geopolitical competition. In December 2009, the world was close to seeing a political sensation. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary [...]
Russia and Afghanistan: Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Russia BTH | By Vladimir Snegiryov | 24 February 2010 No way to Afghanistan In December 2009, the world was close to seeing a political sensation. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of Nato, came to Russia to ask for an increased contribution to the Afghan problem. He was welcomed by the president and the prime minister. They listened and [...]
The 700 Military Bases of Afghanistan
Foreign Policy in Focus | By Nick Terse | 11 February 2010 In the nineteenth century, it was a fort used by British forces. In the twentieth century, Soviet troops moved into the crumbling facilities. In December 2009, at this site in the Shinwar district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, U.S. troops joined members of the Afghan [...]
Is Afghanistan Worth it?
Pravda.ru | By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey | 20 January 2010 Why should the international community be spending two hundred and fifty billion dollars of its taxpayers’ hard-earned money to perform state-building in Afghanistan when this country now produces 40 times more heroin than ten years ago and when corruption accounts for 2.5 billion [...]
Russian Archives Reveal 1979 Invasion Triggered by Fears of U.S. Missile Deployment in Afghanistan
Russia | 25 December 2009 Archives reveal strategy switch on Afghanistan From the transcript of the March 19, 1979, meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union KGB chairman Yuri Andropov “I believe that we can only bolster the revolution in Afghanistan with our bayonets, which is not an [...]
Soviet Military Officer Remembers their Murder of Hafizullah Amin and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
RIA Novosti | 27 December 2009 (Edited 6 January 2010) Soviet assault on Afghan president remembered “There were 24 Soviet soldiers against 300 Afghan Palace guards.” — Soviet Special Forces Officer, Balashov, on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979. “ We were very few in number.” — CIA Operative, Crumpton, on the U.S. [...]
