U.S. Breaks Afghan Occupation Record
Some records are made to be broken, from the 100-meter dash to Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. But who would encharge themselves to break the nine years, fifty days Soviet record for “most time occupying Afghanistan?” And the winner is… the United States of America. —JCL The LA Times: As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them. But one thing set the day apart: With its passing, the length of the U.S. military’s campaign in Afghanistan matched that of the Soviet Union’s long and demoralizing sojourn in the nation. The last Red Army troops left Feb. 15, 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by the U.S.-backed Afghan fighters known as mujahedin, or holy warriors. Ragtag yet ferocious, they were so spectrally elusive that the Soviet forces called them dukhi, or ghosts. A fitting term, perhaps, for a country that has been called “the graveyard of empires.” Read more Related Entries November 26, 2010 ‘Left, Right & Center’: Korean Clash, Taliban Scam November 24, 2010 More News, Less Turkey
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U.S. Breaks Afghan Occupation Record
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on November 27, 2010. Filed under