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20
Feb
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by QuestionGirl • 9:23 am
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Ok, call me crazy, but the Russians were in Afghanistan for 10 years and couldn’t win. I believe the NATO force in Afghanistan is about 35,000. And we think we’re going to beat these whackos? Look for the blood to pour this spring.
From Wikipedia
Between December 25th, 1979 and February 15th 1989 a total of 620,000 soldiers served with the forces in Afghanistan (though there were only 80,000-104,000 force at one time in Afghanistan). 525,000 in the Army, 90,000 with border troops and other KGB sub-units, 5,000 in independent formations of MVD Internal Troops and police. A further 21,000 personnel were with the Soviet troop contingent over the same period doing various white collar or manual jobs.
The total irrecoverable personnel losses of the Soviet Armed Forces, frontier and internal security troops came to 14,453. Soviet Army formations, units and HQ elements lost 13,833, KGB sub units lost 572, MVD formations lost 28 and other ministries and departments lost 20 men. During this period 417 servicemen were missing in action or taken prisoner; 119 of these were later freed, of whom 97 returned to the USSR and 22 went to other countries.
There were 469,685 sick and wounded, of whom 53,753 or 11.44%, were wounded, injured or sustained concussion and 415,932 (88.56%) fell sick. A high proportion of casualties were those who fell ill. This was because of local climatic and sanitary conditions, which were such that acute infections spread rapidly among the troops. There were 115,308 cases of infectious hepatitis, 31,080 of typhoid fever and 140,665 of other diseases. Of the 11,654 who were discharged from the army after being wounded, maimed or contracting serious diseases, 92%, or 10,751 men were left disabled.[17]
Remains of Soviet trucks in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 2002.Material losses were as follows:
118 jet aircraft
333 helicopters
147 main battle tanks
1,314 IFV/APCs
433 artillery and mortars
1,138 radio sets and command vehicles
510 engineering vehicles
11,369 trucks and petrol tankers
KABUL: A suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew himself up at a hospital opening ceremony in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, wounding at least two NATO soldiers and a hospital staff member, the provincial governor said.
Afghan security forces had blocked the attacker from approaching a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward at the main government hospital in the city of Khost, said Governor Arsalah Jamal.
He said U.S. troops who took the man away shot him in the leg when he tried to escape. As the crowd took cover, the attacker blew himself up, Jamal said. He said two U.S. soldiers and an Afghan hospital staff member were wounded.
Sergeant Dean Welch, a NATO spokesman, said a number of the organization’s troops had been wounded in the blast, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. He did not give their nationalities.
Most of the forces serving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in eastern Afghanistan are American.
Read more at the International Herald Tribune
