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The Great Gamble: The Soviet War In Afghanistan (2009)

by Gregory Feifer(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0061143189 (ISBN13: 9780061143182)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Harper

review 1: A very vivid account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Obviously they knew very little of this poor and primitive country prior to sending their troops in. Afghanistan was and is still today a collection of tribal warlords vying for control of their territory. What is surprising is how ill-fed and badly clothed the Soviet troops were. They would raid and steal food and clothing from the Afghans. They were also insufficiently paid. They would even sell their own munitions to the Afghans. It is unclear to this day how many Soviet troops were killed in Afghanistan. It also exposes the canard that U.S. aid was instrumental in the Soviet collapse. It was the Mujahideen warrior, followed by thousands of Arab jihadis in the mid-eighties who were doing the fighting. Pakistan... more and Saudi Arabia gave far more direct aid than the U.S. There are obviously many parallels with the U.S. invasion of Iraq – particularly deceit and an inability to end a war, and more importantly an inability to spread democracy or communism to a country ill-suited to the modern world. When the Soviets pulled out, Afghanistan was left with very little – most of its basic infrastructure was shattered – roads, schools, farms… The warlords started fighting each other. The Afghan war imploded in New York on September 11,2001.
review 2: Its impossible to read this book and not see similarities in our own invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. This book in its own right and its own subject matter is an incredibly informative and easy to read book on the Soviet involvement, invasion, and occupation of Afghanistan. The book flows excellently from each subject and transitions easily from political, world, and individual accounts. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and sadly it would appear that those who orchestrated the Coalition invasion of Afghanistan didnt bother to read up on their Soviet history. less

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