Excellent article on Afghanistan

[Snipey]

The volunteer quote comes from a Russian movie about the Afghanistan War. Also, I'd like to point out that even if said movie is incorrect, the Red Army never had more than 10 percent in Afghanistan. One out of ten volunteering for glory, for a better wage, for excitement, for heroics, it's not that far fetched.

In Hungary there was an actual anti-Soviet Revolution, bankrolled by the US. In Czechoslovakia it was more of a "we're defending out lands" kind of event. Don't mix the two.

Also, you may be forgetting this, but the Soviets only took 15,000 losses in Afghanistan. In the Battle of Berlin, the Red Army lost over 80,000. In other words, it wasn't the devastating losses that made the Red Army withdraw from Afghanistan, and the Red Army could have kept on going. The major problem, the reason why the Red Army lost in Afghanistan, was the Brezhnev-Gorbachev Government. But to Americans, who are crazy about "Gorby Mania" this is hard to understand. The main problem is that Gorbachev was a disaster for the USSR, but only Gorbachev's "sunny side" was shown in the American Press, his treatment of the Red Armed Forces, of the USSR's farmers, of factory workers, of, well pretty much the common man, was rather poor.

And while you do cite all of the data, the Red Army/Red Air Force bashing aside, "combat stress" - well that happens to everyone and the Red Air Force spoke Russian even when they weren't in combat and flying over Korea. Also, you are just proving my point, and disproving the article's initial point, which was that the Red Army didn't have combat experience going into Afghanistan.

Also, I agree with Marcello on Soviet Atrocities: "Legend is a apt term. As you will probably recall the US was engaged in a proxy war against the USSR which included, shocking suprise, heavy use of propaganda. And Afghanistan is not a great place for fact finding missions after the fact. No doubt there was an extremely indiscriminate usage of firepower by the soviets, at least by current standards, and lots of atrocities to boot. But contemporary tales were filtered throught the anti USSR propaganda and that cannot be overlooked in a critical analysis. Mining operations for example were extensively carried out by the mujahedeen too (mines were one of the most sought after weapons back in Pakistan)."

Also of note, the Russian Army has had three successful wars, Dagestan War, Second Chechen War, and the 2008 South Ossetia War.

In order to be great at understanding any military, one must separate politics from military, or one is doomed to failure, as your "hurrr durrr 'Semper Fi Georgia' thread" shows.