G.I. Joe is not Ivan

ehrlich nicht. steht in diesem blog HIER

gut, nun da das geklärt ist, möchte ich aber doch noch über den dort verlinkten artikel reden: der ist nämlich ausgezeichnet. ich hab nun schon dies und das über afghanistan gelesen, und dieser artikel ist ein must read:

- ein kurzer abriss über die geschichte
"The era of Soviet influence in Afghanistan began in the 1950s, when both the US and USSR waged a Cold-War competition for influence in the country. Both superpowers built modern roads, dams and power plants, but in the 1960s the Americans opted out, preferring to bolster neighbouring Pakistan as a regional linchpin to prevent Soviet expansion southward to the warm waters of the Gulf. Soviet influence continued, particularly in training and arming the Afghan army. Officers were taken to the Soviet Union, where they trained and learned Russian – and became supporters of the communist cause."

- ein vergleich zwischen den verrückten russkis und den amis
"Since the first American bombs fell on Afghanistan in October 2001, a cottage industry of doomsayers has arisen among academics and journalists, warning that the US will fail in the so-called “graveyard of empires” just as the Soviets did."
"The Soviet army, badly underfunded and overwhelmed by adverse conditions in Afghanistan that drained troop morale, relied on massive firepower to kill and maim Afghans rather than winning their hearts and minds."

- ein gute erklärung von counterinsurgency und warum es sich lohnt, für das gute zu kämpfen und die bevölkerung mit besseren ideen zu überzeugen, als mit grösseren gewehren
"I saw peaceful villages razed to the ground [durch die russen], with their farmland salted or mined to prevent anything ever growing there again. Instead of halting the resistance such atrocities delivered more recruits to the mujahideen, while the Afghan army shrank from 90,000 men to just over 30,000 in the first year after the Soviet invasion, due to massive desertions, insurrections against their Soviet officers, appalling conditions and poor logistics."
"Afghanistan is indeed winnable – and it will be won not by military force alone but by giving the Afghan people what they were promised after September 11: a new life."

und noch als schlussbemerkung: "graveyard of empires" - wow... ich meine, nichts gegen downtown switzerland, aber das tönt nach was...