MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan, charging that its 20-year-long military presence in the country has achieved “zero.”
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Putin said Wednesday that for 20 years, the U.S. military in Afghanistan “was trying … to civilize the people who live there, to introduce their norms and standards of life in the broadest sense of the word, including the political organization of society.”
“The result is sheer tragedies, sheer losses, both for those who were doing that — the U.S. — and more so for the people who live in Afghanistan. A zero result, if not negative,” Putin said.
The Russian president added that “it’s impossible to impose something from outside” and that “if someone does something to someone, they should draw on the history, the culture, the life philosophy of these people in the broadest sense of the word, they should treat their traditions with respect.”
Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback in the country as a mediator over the past few years. Russia has reached out to the feuding Afghan factions, including the Taliban — even though it has labeled them a terrorist organization.
We got osama. We should have pulled out in 2011
The Russians lost 15,000 of their troops in Afghanistan, over a ten year period. What did they accomplish? Their tanks and troops were no match for the mujihadin. They knew that they were whipped, and they withdrew.
just like the USSR in the eighties!
Pootin should know. His CCCP committed atrocities there, set off a civil war that led to the Taliban. Total Russian failure. End of Soviet Union.
We did accomplish. We left the Taliban tons of weapons and equipment that they could use against us!