Going Around in Circles

IN his monumental work, A Military History of Afghanistan, eminent Afghan soldier, scholar and politician Ali Jalali notes that the Soviet presence in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989 covered ‘four different strategic phases’: regime change to ‘a symmetrical expansion of the war leading to a strategic stalemate’, to ‘the Soviet’s combined politico-military struggle aimed at a political solution in support of a responsible exit strategy’, to ‘Soviet military defeat and its withdrawal from Afghanistan’. The first three phases apply equally to the US’ 18-year Afghan war. The fourth phase is a question of interpretation. Read More…