09-05-2007, 04:45 PM
Quote:The Soviets lost or had to discharge 1/2 a million solders due to illness, and wounds. More than 50,000 were killed. The Afghans lost over a million people, with 1/3 of the country fleeing to their neighbors. The population of Kandahar during the Soviet bombings went from 200,000 people down to less than 25,000.
Comparatively the total coalition death toll thus far from late fall 2001 to July 5th of 2007 was 573. What are you talking about? You make these blanket claims, but from where I sit you just pull this stuff out of... thin air.
Obviously, you're not going to lose as many to casualties as the Soviets, or cause as much devastation. That's not my point.
What I mean is that you're in a losing war in Afghanistan with no obvious way to change that fact.
I don't know where you get this thin air garbage. My country is at war in Afghanistan. I pay attention to how we're doing, and the situation does not look good. The best we can manage is an unpopular standstill against the Taliban, and unless someone else wants to take our spot after 2009, even that is going to collapse. Casualties are not high, but progress is going backwards. Give it another few years, and it's looking like the country will be split between warlords and Taliban, just like before the invasion. We will have accomplished little or nothing.
-Jester