Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan - 2 items found

	Predicting the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The Intelligence Community's Reco Nonfiction Books $58.97 Time Left: 18d 12h 51m
	Moscow and the Middle East: Soviet Policy Since the Invasion of Afghanistan Free Nonfiction Books $77.21 Time Left: 12d 1h 42m

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How did the geography & culture of Afghanistan help cause failure of the Soviet invasion?

Apr 17, 2009 by ♥ lady from mars ♫ | Posted in History

I'm criticism an essay on why the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a failure to a great extent. Can you please tell me if my first paragraph on the geography and culture of Afghanistan is good? Critique is A-OK & you can correct it if you really want to.

The unique geography and culture of Afghanistan caused many difficulties for Soviet troops because it was not the archetype of battleground that they were used to. The country of Afghanistan is made up of nearly impassable mountains and desert terrain. It was extremely contrary for Soviet troops to get their heavy artillery over the mountains and through the rough terrain. Their heavy equipment, such as battle tanks, could not be the unfamiliar, unbearably hot weather. Thus, they moved very slowly and were ineffective. This gave Afghan soldiers an advantageously because they were experts in their own terrain. It was very easy for Afghan soldiers to pick up the sound of Soviet soldiers that were able to worst the mountains. The Soviet war policy was self-deprecating because it stressed centralized frontal attacks with large units. Altogether units of soldiers were heard very clearly by the enemy when advancing on the rough ground. Soviet Soldiers had even more of a deprivation since they were trained to operate inside of their armored vehicles, and simply weren’t taught to fight surface of the vehicles. This was extremely inconvenient in Afghanistan since the roads were not paved, and vehicles could barely navigate anywhere. The Afghan soldiers were shabby drivers when presented with the unfamiliar demographics of Afghanistan. Unlike the Soviets, the Afghan soldiers operated on foot and on horses. Horses could effortlessly navigate throughout the treacherous hills, allowing Afghan troops to shoot down at the Soviets from unreachable locations. While on foot, Afghan soldiers would ratfink up in small groups on the Soviets while they were unprepared to defend themselves, with aid from infantry patrols. The Soviet army was not familiar with the use of infantry patrols, which were habituated to extensively with Afghan soldiers. Another, even more important tactic used by Afghan soldiers was guerilla warfare. Guerilla warfare stemmed from the one of a kind culture that exists in Afghanistan, as a result of the distinctive geography. Due to the physical divisions, the people are extremely uninformed, with more loyalty to their specific clan or ethnic group than to a government or a country. They are also Muslims, and extremely exact and conservative. The major ethnic group is the Pashtun, but there are over ten minority groups. There is not one large group of soldiers, but rather multiple, very devoted groups of soldiers. The Soviets brought in over one hundred thousand soldiers, secured Kabul quickly and installed Babrak Karmal as their pawn leader. However, they were met with fierce resistance when they ventured out of their strongholds into the countryside. Resistance fighters, called Mujahedeen, saw the Christian or atheist Soviets controlling Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as of their ancestral culture. Proclaiming a "jihad"(holy war), they gained the support of the Islamic mankind. Using convenient guerilla tactics, Soviet soldiers would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing crucial destruction without pitched battles. Sometimes they would even use man-made tunnels to their advantage, rising out of the ground at the utmost unexpected times. There was no one powerful central stronghold from which resistance operated, which lead to loyal groups of soldiers that strongly defended all areas of their homeland. The fighters used weapons that they could take from the Soviets or were given by the US. Decentralized and scattered around Afghanistan.

I commend you if you actually interpret this whole thing. I didn't realize how long it was, worry.

It is quite good but a bit too long to be one paragraph don't you think? It also depends what this first paragraph is about. If it is an essay your writing about then you really didn't totally the reader in much in the beginning. You just went straight to the point. Also the length of the paragraph really doesn't succour when finding the thesis. Although your first sentence pretty much sums up what your talking about. It is good, but try to make this into 2 paragraphs and come across up with an introductory paragraph because it seems you have the rest. I recommend you keep things like they are but start your essay off with the previously mentioned opening paragraph.

maybe this can help
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/paperassignments/a/introsentence.htm

Who did Portugal side with during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan?

Dec 24, 2007 by Charlemagne | Posted in History

Any report regarding Portugal during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan would be appreciated. What they did to help, who they believed was in the right, solutions they had, etc. Thanks!

Withdrawn.

Only the United States took any significant action regarding the invasion (diplomatic means, press statements, Moscow Olympics boycotted, etc.) but all steps bewitched were totally ineffectual until the Afghan resistant was created with American help. (Be sure to see the new movie "Charlie Wilson's War")

Best Modern War Movies

The unexcelled modern war movies are few and far between, mainly because we haven’t seen anything of the magnitude of World War II in recent times. While that’s a bummer for the large screen industry, I doubt anyone of draft age is going to be complaining. In compiling this list of the best modern war movies, I acclimated to the following criteria:

- The events depicted must take place post-Vietnam.
- The film can be about the actual war, the consequences of the war, or use a circumscribed war as a backdrop.
- Smaller military engagements and fictional battles can also be included.

If you haven’t seen the following films, I’d powerfully recommend them to fans of war movies. Some may be difficult to find, but you can always remedy that by joining online movie rental sites like Blockbuster and Netflix.

Treacherous Hawk Down - Based on a book about the Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down tells about a combined undertaking between Army Rangers, Delta Force soldiers and the Special Operations Aviation Regiment to catching a Somali warlord. Things go haywire when two Black Hawk helicopters are shot down, and the planned one-hour work stretches into 15 hours with over 1000 casualties. Tons of gunplay and an all-star cast which includes Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Piven, Tom Heroic and Ewen Bremner.

Jarhead - Based on the Gulf War memoirs of Marine Anthony Swofford, this Sam Mendes pellicle tells of Swofford’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) time during Operation Desert Shield as a sniper. Battling dreariness and friendly fire, he and his spotter desperately try to get a kill before the fighting is over. An interesting look at the psychological toll which war takes on soldiers.

Hold back-Loss - Staff Sergeant Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) returns home from the Iraq War and expects to be discharged, but he’s assigned to restitution yield to Iraq as part of the military’s stop-loss policy (in which enlisted men can be kept past the term of their enlistment). He straight away goes AWOL and tries to work out the horrors of war which he experienced. Also starring Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, Timothy Olyphant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

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JIHAD: Afghanistan's Holy War - 52 min documentary

See Whole Film Here: vod.journeyman.tv Save to your NETFLIX queue here: www.netflix.com Dec 1996 On Christmas Eve 1979 the Soviet armed forces ...