Is the IRAQ war a repeat of the Soviet War in Afghanistan?

Question

Is the IRAQ war a repeat of the Soviet War in Afghanistan?

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving Soviet forces supporting Afghanistan's Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government against the largely Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen insurgents that were fighting to overthrow Soviet rule. The Soviet Union supported the government while the rebels found support from a variety of sources including the United States, Pakistan and other Muslim nations in the context of the Cold War. This conflict was concurrent to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.

The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 25, 1979. The final troop withdrawal began on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989.

Answer 1

Nope. The Soviet Union lost that war.

Answer 2

No, completely different in almost all aspects.

The Soviets were trying to take over Afghanistan, make it another slave state to the Soviet Politburo.

The US deposed a brutal, murderous dictator and have given the Iraqi people the reigns of power - by letting them elect representatives to craft a Constitution, and then by electing their own representative government.

In Afghanistan, the only support the USSR got was from those who gained by their occupation and control. In Iraq, the only opposition we have is from those opposed to democracy, freedom and prosperity for other Iraqis. Major difference.

In Afghanistan, the Soviets used heinous methods, such as exploding toys, to kill the rebels, and had no qualms about murdering civilians to that end. The US, on the other hand, is losing soldiers because we're trying to protect innocent Iraqis from the depradations of the insurgents, we do everything in our power to protect against civilian casualties, too.

They are so very different in so many ways, that it is silly and fruitless to attempt to equate them in any way.

Answer 3

It's turning out that way. We will be in Iraq for a total of 8 to 10 years. When we leave, the country may be, as Afghanistan was when the Soviets left, a non functioning shambles that is the perfect vacuum for extremists to thrive in. And so the cycle continues...

Answer 4

I see more of a reference to Viet Nam...President Johnson fabricated the Vietnamese attacks on the ships Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, 1964. He used these false attacks as a reason to deploy troops into Southeast Asia. He then kept us in Viet Nam for years under the false pretenses of bringing democracy to that region. The real reason being that his wife Ladybird Johnson's family owned several munitions factories. He used the Viet Nam war as a way to generate business for these companies...Just like our current administration has now shifted the search for WMD's to capturing Hussein to now wanting to bring democracy to Iraq....All military contracts being given to Bush's invested interests in the Haliburton Corporation and the Carlyle Group...The similarities are uncanny....

Answer 5

No, the war in Afghanistan is a repeat of the war in Afghanistan.

Answer 6

Not really, since our ousting of Saddam was a record setting victory, and the Russians really never did anything but get foiled in Afghanistan.

Answer 7

No. The USSR had no popular support and did not care if they had any. The US understands the people of Iraq even though they hate each other.