Taliban Already Vastly Outnumbered, NATO Making No Progress

McChrystal Escalation Moves US In Line With Failed Soviet Strategy

by Jason Ditz, October 27, 2009

Analysts are increasingly concerned that General Stanley McChrystal’s calls for massive escalation in Afghanistan seem to ignore the numerical superiority already enjoyed over the Taliban, and how little this has accomplished so far.

“It’s impossible to regain the initiative by introducing more foreign forces, which will only breed more resentment and more recruits for the enemy,” noted Ljubomir Stojadinovic. “The Soviets tried the exact same thing in Afghanistan in the 1980s with disastrous results.”

Indeed, the Soviet strategy came at roughly the same period in their failed occupation. About eight years after their invasion, the Soviets started throwing increasing amounts of money and troops at the nation.

On the other hand, this came as the Soviet Union was looking for an “exit strategy,” something which NATO fervently refuses to do. In February 1989 the Soviets fled Afghanistan and just two years later the Union collapsed entirely. NATO’s deeper pockets seem to have convinced it to continue down the road of occupation longer than the Soviets could, but the strategy still amounts to throwing more and more troops and money at the problem.

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