Soviet Withdrawl from Afghanistan Offers New Lessons for America's

choi

Thom Shanker, With US Set to Leave Afghanistan, Echoes of 1989; An earlier occupation, by the Soviet Union, may offer unexpected and useful lessons. New York Times, Jan 3, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/0 ... iet-experience.html

four consecutive paragraphs:

"But [in a reassessment of Soviet withdrawl] scholars who have studied the Soviet archives point out another lesson for the Obama administration as it manages the pullout of American and allied combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

“'The main thing the Soviets did right was that they continued large-scale military assistance to the regime they left behind after the final withdrawal in ’89,' said Mark N Katz, a professor at George Mason University and author of 'Leaving Without Losing: The War on Terror After Iraq and Afghanistan' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).

“'As long as the Afghan regime received the money and the weapons, they did pretty well — and held on to power for three years,' Mr Katz said. The combat effectiveness of Kabul’s security forces increased after the Soviet withdrawal, when the fight for survival become wholly their own.

"But then the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, and the new Russian leader, Boris N Yeltsin, heeded urgings of the United States and other Western powers to halt aid to the Communist leadership in Afghanistan, not just arms and money, but also food and fuel. The Kremlin-backed government in Kabul fell three months later.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest of the report.