Then and now

It's been 30 years since the Soviet Union began its invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to stabilize the then-communist government. Ten years later, local mujahedeen had banded together to push the Soviets out of the country, but it wasn't long before there were more foreign troops on the ground. In 2001, a mission led by the United States and the Western military alliance NATO toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, but the troops have yet to leave.

More than 110,000 foreign soldiers are in Afghanistan under the NATO and US led mission, fighting Taliban forces left over after they were removed from power. With the US and other nations with troops in the region pledging to intensify their efforts in 2010, it begs the question whether the West is making the same mistakes in Afghanistan as the Soviet Union did.

Munir Ahmed was born in the Afghan capital Kabul and was two years old when Soviet troops began invading his country. Ahmed, now 32, says his childhood was a stream of bad memories of fighting and death.

He clearly remembers placing the blame on the Soviets for the violence and for the fact that Afghanistan was in such bad shape. Today, he says the atmosphere is similar to the way it was back then - and in some ways, worse.

"Back then, there weren't any suicide bombings," Ahmed said. "It was also terrible then, too, but we weren't afraid of being blown up on the street, which happens today all the time. Back then, at least we could hear the rockets coming and take cover. That was definitely better."

"You can't win in Afghanistan"

It took more than nine years, but the Islamist mujahedeen rebels - with help from the West on the sidelines - eventually defeated the Soviets and drove them out of Afghanistan. But today, it is the West that seems to be losing its own battle there.

"You can't win in Afghanistan," says Andrei Avetisyan, Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan. "You cannot win a war in Afghanistan. How many more examples must mankind have to understand that?"

Avetisyan thinks that the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan are making the same mistakes as the Soviets in the 1980s. He also believes the West is not doing enough of the one thing that might actually make a difference: helping with reconstruction.

Much of the country has still not been rebuilt after the damage caused during the Soviet conflict.

"Without [reconstruction help] the coalition can fight here for years and decades and with no success in the end," says Avetisyan. "It is not like the Second World War where you are in Berlin and you say, 'well it is a victory day.' This is not going to happen in Afghanistan. Someday, the international forces are going to leave, and the fighting may continue."

God's soldiers

The Taliban today describe themselves mujahedeen, or God's soldiers - the same name taken by those who fought the Soviets. The Taliban say they are fighting against international imperialists, the same enemy the rebel fighters claimed when fighting the Soviets. Additionally, with the Afghan civilian death toll on the rise, international troops in the country are being seen more and more as occupying forces, which is how most Afghans perceived the Soviets.

Waheed Muzhda, a former mujahedeen fighter turned author, says the success of the rebel resistance against the Soviets lay in its guerrilla nature. He sees similar characteristics in the Taliban's tactics.

"The Soviets were dealing with a resistance that was spread throughout the Afghan countryside," he says. "This is exactly what the Taliban are doing today. When the US arrived here, they didn't understand right away that they had to win over the people in the villages. The war today is a guerrilla war, just like it was for the Soviets against the mujahedeen."

All indications suggest that the current foreign forces in Afghanistan will be in the country for longer than the Soviets were. Most nations participating in the mission, including Germany and the US, have hinted at plans for pulling their troops out of the country, but no concrete decisions have been made. But only when the NATO-led troops finally do leave Afghanistan will it be clear if the mistakes of the Soviet campaign have been avoided.


Author: Kai Kuestner/mz
Editor: Andreas Illmer