November 24, 2003 - They were Freedom Fighters and their bravery was hailed in the White House and extolled on the Evening News. Armed only with small arms, rocket propelled grenades and a supply of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons they bled a modern mechanized army of occupation dry one small cut at a time. The Soviet Union kept its Army of 100,000 troops, well supplied with modern arms and well supported by attack helicopters and the Soviet Air force, in Afghanistan for a decade. It lost no battles of consequence and yet it was unable to sustain the alien occupation it imposed on the medieval society that it sought to subdue. The Soviet’s controlled Kabul and sent armored columns into the mountain defiles and passes. The Soviet army was never able to bring the Freedom Fighters to bay. Ambuscades inflicted casualties that taken individually were mere flea bites, but over time, as the coffins streamed north to home, accumulated an impact that sent that undefeated army home.

Six years into the Soviet occupation, on December 27, 1985, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour reported: “Soviet forces, now numbering more than 100,000, have by Western intelligence estimates suffered between eight- and 15,000 killed in six years of combat. Almost as dramatic as the escalation is the change in Soviet coverage of the war through its controlled television and press. One reason is that the Soviet commitment and casualties have grown too large for the government to conceal from the people. The Soviets rotate about 100,000 troops into the country every eight months, which means the word has to get around, says Moscow correspondent Dusko Doder. ‘These people have parents, relatives, and the number of people that have become aware of the war is far greater. And of course, each year the number of parents whose kids, either 17 or 18, are about to be drafted -- they're concerned. They don't want their kids to go to Afghanistan.’”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/afghanistan/afghan_12-27-85.html

History teaches harsh lessons but harsh lessons are too often ignored by politicians impelled to justify their policies and planning or lack thereof. The German General Staff forgot the lesson that 1812 taught to Napoleon and gave the Russian winter the opportunity to teach it again in 1940. America’s 100,000 man occupation army in Iraq is experiencing a casualty rate approaching that of the Soviets. America’s leaders don’t have the luxury enjoyed by the Soviets of directly controlling the press yet they try to spin the electorate’s attention away from the cost of their war. Like their Soviet counterparts of two decades ago they point with pride at supposed progress at every opportunity.

It begs the question, “When will they ever learn?”