UP Ibalon Bicol: Gorbachev pessimistic over US winning the Afghan war

Gorbachev pessimistic over US winning the Afghan war

11/11/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

A day after he attended the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, USSR's former president Mikhail Gorbachev, the architect of perestroika (rebuilding) in the 1980’s which led to Soviet Union's dissolution spoke his thought. He said the United States would not win in Afghanistan war.

Gorbachev advised against beefing up US troops to combat the lawless Taliban--- Thinking that it would be better to withdraw, he based his advice from USSR’s experience learned from the Soviet's military campaign in the 1980’s. The Russians concluded that Afghanistan was too fractious and divided by clans, making it very hard for the poorly developed country to be united.

As the 78-year old Soviet leader said this, he was not banking that Pres. Barack Obama would heed his advice. He thought there was nothing to be gained from continued engagement with the Afghans. So in 1988 till early 1989, Soviet forces pulled out from the Afghanistan.

“Obama is considering a military request to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan, on top of the 68,000 due to be stationed there by the end of the year. Other North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, comprising personnel from 42 countries, number about 36,000.”---- Bloomberg.com (11/10/09, Burns, C; Donohue, P.)

Afghanistan is struggling to control the heightened attacks of the Taliban who harbors the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Alhough Pres. Hamid Karzai is declared the winner in the contested election, his continued stay in power has to deal with massive government corruption which is difficult to eradicate. (Photo Credit: ctv.ca)=0=

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Labels: Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, Mikhaiil Gorbachev, Russia, Taliban, USSR, war

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Gorbachev pessimistic over US winning the Afghan war

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