Afghanistan Is Like Nothing You've Ever Seen, Soviet Vets Say

LA Times ^ | 19 Sep 2001 | MAURA REYNOLDS

[sourcery]

MOSCOW -- When Igor Lisinenko entered what he was told was an Afghan rebel base in 1982, ...All he saw was a handful of crumbly clay huts. And two old men carrying a little girl, no more than 3 years old.

Her foot had been blown off. She was white from the loss of blood. The patrol loaded her into a helicopter to take her to a hospital. In those few minutes, Lisinenko said Tuesday, he understood two things: The girl was doomed to die and the Soviet military campaign was doomed to fail.

[lavaroise]

You cannot fight a PC war. The key is dealing with them like we dealt with Indian monarchies just as we dealt with the British monarchy and the French did with their own monarchy. Fight t'ill the end, settle, conquer etc... until there is peace. Blood will have to pour and years of PCness have now made the situation worse and irreversible.

[good1]

View=Viet

[lavaroise]

We have to remember that the soviets took 25 million casualties in WWII while America took barely 1 million. Would we have won WWII without 25 million Russians dying in the cause, with the Russian winter to boot. I seriously doubt it. Are we ready to take as many casualties? This is why we have to make sure that we need to remove journalists from this war, make it unpc, and allow settlement of the land there by US and other foreign western or even India militias. There is no other way. The example of Tibet and CHina settling it is another example of how to beat a very fierce lean and mean fighter like the tibetans.

[Hostage]

A formidable army was quickly defeated ...

You got this one wrong. Recall that the Yugoslav army withdrew from Kosovo intact and with an air of defiance. The reason they withdrew was due to Clinton's criminal targeting of civilians, especially in Belgrade. Clinton was running outof time before Congress was to invoke the War Powers Act, so Clinton went crazy and violated international law with the bombing of civilians.

Cruise missles are very good for demolishing and disrupting military buildings and hardware, but are not so effective against ground troops spread out and hidden over the countryside. Alot of Yugoslav military hardware was hidden from satellites and missile targeting. Underground caves and depots are very extensive in that part of the world. Also there were many decoys that were laid out to lure a cruise missile.

But for leveling buildings and blowing up bridges, the cruise missiles are effective.

[VRWC_minion]

It seems like the liberals keep dragging out a straw dog argument about how bombing campaigns will fail in Afganistan. So far I have not heard anything about a bombing campaign. I wonder why ?

[Centurion2000]

Afghanistan Is Like Nothing You've Ever Seen, Soviet Vets Say

America at total war is like nothing the world has ever seen.

The world is about to get a new lesson in Carthaginian peace.

[FlyVet]

With the open terrain of Afganistan,

Open terrain??? Have you looked at a map of Aghanistan lately? It's mostly mountains, up to 28,000, feet. There's plenty of places to hide. They're not going to fight like "we" want them to. It's a special forces/psyops war. I think there was plenty of truth in this article. So, I hope Bush is smart enough not to follow the "Let's bomb them back to the stone age" crowd. That will kill beggar widows and children, and not much else.

[Bogie]

Yeah, this is no Vietnam. Bait them with tender young Americans, then blow their brains out. Some supplys for the Northern Allience is a good idea too.

P.S. And, food for those who escaped to Pak.

[jwalsh07]

We can only hope that the mujahadeen have been trained by the same folks that trained the notorious "Iraqui Republican Guard" which was left in bits and pieces by American armor and tank hunters in a matter of hours. God bless the First Cav and Second Armored Division!

[Bogie]

Yeah, this is no Vietnam. Bait them with tender young Americans, then blow their brains out. Some supplys for the Northern Allience is a good idea too.

P.S. And, food for those who escaped to Pak.

[jwalsh07]

Special forces and psyops are prongs of our attack, but the terrorists will also get to meet Mr B1 Bomber, Nicky Napalm, and Freddy the Fuel Air guy.

[takenoprisoner]

I don't think the Taliban army is as formidable as everybody is saying.

You mean like what they (the media and others) said about the so called "republican guard" of the Iraqis? Yea they were a real powerful foe on the battlefield. Seems to me Muslims can only slaughter the unarmed civilian, the innocent men women and children who are without defense. But when it comes to real opposition, like the force of the one real God we can bring, they fold like a broken down and crusty old lawn chair.

[good1]

I mean open as opposed to the jungle of Viet Nam. Sure I know it's mountinous. I'm not into the indiscriminate bombing either, except maybe to obtain some ground inside the country to establish a base of operations, from which ground forces can find the enemy where he is hiding.

What are your thoughts on how to proceed in this difficult country?

[FlyVet]

Sure, assuming they're going to bunch up for us like that. What if they don't fight? What if they stash their weapons and become "refugees." 'Tis a patient enemy. We were real good at carpet-bombing Vietnam. Guess what, we tried that for 10 years. After the American public sees about 5 yrs of Beggar-widows and orphans getting wasted on their TV screens, guess what? We just lost the psych war again. History repeats itself. Lots of armchair quarterbacks here, no doubt. Maybe they'll roll over like the Iraquis did. But, it's real foolish to assume that.

[He Rides A White Horse]

were pursuing a different mission than we are.

Which appears to me to be the most important difference. It's not about trying to conquer and hold a foreign land. It's more a mission of going in, destroying the guilty parties, and then leaving.

[takenoprisoner]

Open terrain??? Have you looked at a map of Aghanistan lately? It's mostly mountains, up to 28,000, feet. There's plenty of places to hide. They're not going to fight like "we" want them to. It's a special forces/psyops war. I think there was plenty of truth in this article. So, I hope Bush is smart enough not to follow the "Let's bomb them back to the stone age" crowd. That will kill beggar widows and children, and not much else.

It's folk like you who give me pause. It's your beggars and your widows who bore these terrorists...and it's their bastard children who grow up to become terrorists.

Bomb them back to the stone age? They already live in the stone age both mentally and physically. They are modern day savages...so all we can do is bomb them into submission if that is what it takes. And if they refuse to submit to a civilized way of life, then we exterminate them with extreme prejudice...including your so called beggars and widows and their bastard children.

I am being too harsh? I don't think so. 9-11-01 changed everything.

[He Rides A White Horse]

If the Northern Alliance wants to fill the vacuum when the Taliban are all dead, then let 'em. We don't need to get involved with propping them up, etc.

Just so long as they understand that we won't tolerate such attacks as the WTC and Pentagon bombings, and they can run their country as they see fit.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Most people who run governments want to stay in power; pretty hard to do from six feet under.

Let that be the lesson taught to countries that sponsor this sort of activity.

[jwalsh07]

I'm too old for anything but an armchair these days. You have a bad attitude. You've lost before we've started. The war on terrorists is not Vietnam and its not the Soviet Union trying to occupy Afghanistan. Same crap with the war in Iraq.

We will bomb when and where we can and when we can't we will use other methods but you'd best understand one thing FlyVet. We better win because the day is coming soon when the terrorists will have the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction and they surely already have the will.

[FlyVet]

And if they refuse to submit to a civilized way of life, then we exterminate them with extreme prejudice...including your so called beggars and widows and their bastard children.

That's ok, people like you who think you can bomb the stone age back to the stone age give me pause. I'm just thinking the better approach is more along the lines of what Bush said: a long, long process, with a lot of things going on that the public never hears about, both here and abroad. Turning factions against each other behind the scenes. If the public can stomach it. Want to nuke half the world? Hope our allies don't mind the fallout....