Thirty years ago today the Soviets fell for one of the classic blunders, they got suckered into a land war in Asia. Ha ha!
Then again, forty years ago today, we fell for the same blunder in Vietnam. Aw.
November 28, 1979 is when the Soviets sent KGB down to Kabul with an ultimatum. Basically saying, “we’re going to occupy you and make you more like us… if you aren’t able to instantly be exactly like us and do it peacefully.”
December 18 is when the first military moves are made, where Soviet units stationed in Bagram begin taking control of the Salang Pass. Shortly there afterwards mechanized infantry rolls in from Tashkent. So in effect the invasion is under way.
But the Soviets were there already, and the first stage of the war was really a coup, where officers of the previous government were arrested, often being invited to parties or meetings, before or during the main body of Soviet forces entering Afghanistan.
After ten years, the Russians quit. Alexander the Great gave up after 5.
To be fair, ten years before USSR’s Afghanistan blunder, President Nixon had his own land-war-in-Asia blunder with Vietnam. Nixon’s Vietnamization plan was to occupy the country while training local fighters who could fight in our place. It was exactly like what we’re doing in Iraq right now.
When Nixon sold Vietnamization to Americans with his November 1969 address, he used language literally exactly the same as what George W. Bush said about Iraq. ‘We stand down as they stand up.’
Oh, by the by, Obama is doing it again. Afghanistan – that place which ruined Alexander and Russia – for at least ten years, starting this December.
The thirtieth anniversary of the Soviet blunder in Afghanistan will also be the date we fell for the same blunder.
A date, by the way, which is also the fortieth anniversary of our previous eerily similar blunder in Vietnam.
What is it about the month of November in years ending in 9 that makes conservatives fall for the same classic blunder over and over again?
Where Alexander the Great failed, and where the U.S.S.R. failed, stumbles the United States. It’ll be horrible decade, folks. Buckle up.
