The Soviet campaign in Afghanistan is a forgotten war. Western and Russian strategists appear to dismiss any lessons could be learnt from it certainly with regards to today's western conflict. A cursory study of Soviet archives begs to differ.

'All important land in Afghanistan has been occupied at one time or another by our troops, regardless, most of the territory remains in control of the terrorists,' reported Marshal Akhromeyev, commander, Soviet armed forces to the USSR's Politburo in the Kremlin, November 1986. This was said during the eight year of the Russian nine year war in Afghanistan when they had suffered c.12,000 killed and countless wounded. Akhromeyev had been summoned to explain how a force of 109,000 troops from the world's second superpower appeared to be losing year after year to a band of terrorists.

Akhromeyev's concluding words are eerily relevant to today's situation in Afghanistan during the eight year of NATO's war: 'Almost 100% of battles and close quarter fighting in Afghanistan are won by western forces. The problem is that by the following day the terrorists are in the village once again as if there had been no battle fought.'

Massive air raids killed some 800,000 villagers which failed to defeat te terrorists. Tactics changed acompanied by a surge of new troops that temporarily improved security for Russian backed communist government in Kabul. Soviet troops swept the border with Pakistan to halt the weapons supplies for the terrorists and swamped the southern Helmand province. Russian troops left their fortified bases and were ambushed by the mujaheddin, the army of God.

Russian archives clearly show disputes between politicians and soldiers. Senior Soviet army commanders were against the invasion of Afghanistan warning that Tsarist and British armies' experiences in the 19th century confirmed Afghanistan's steely resistance to foreign invaders. Essentially the entire Islamic East aligned against the Russians.

The invasion of Afghanistan marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire and eventually the USSR itself. In 1986 Gorbachev despaired that after seven years 'Russia had not learned to wage war in Afghanistan'

Russia left Afghanistan in February 1989 with 15,000 killed and countless scarred and wounded. This was the only war Russia lost. Marshal Akhromeyev was a veteran of World war 2 and the siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg). Gorbachev said 'Our people did not die in vain.' The Muslim states to the south of Russia with their new independent states some 50 million in population have a major influence on modern Russian policy.

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