Why did the Soviets Lose in Afghanistan?

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was at the request of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan which was a self proclaimed Marxist state.

Their purpose was to establish control over the country. Naturally when they asked the Soviets to intervene it looked like an easy opportunity for them to annex more territory. they were in for a surprise and a rude awakening much like the US when it invaded Afghanistan during the early 2000's. We can see in both cases that even the super powers of their days were no match for a determined group of fighters who were fighting to hold onto their homeland.

I think that in both cases the superpowers underestimated the resolve of the indigent peoples of Afghanistan, and in each case they paid a heavy price.

The biggest problem is that the terrain naturally favors the smaller force. It is mountainous and rocky which means that heavy armored equipment may not be able to maneuver. Ground troops can take advantage of the large amount of natural cover and concealment to hide and ambush the larger forces. Larger forces also become fragmented in the rough terrain which puts them on the same level.

Heavy weapons are less effective in this type of terrain also because they can not reach out and touch the enemy at long distances which ideally is the way that you want to fight a war. This gives more of an advantage to the smaller force also because the larger force now has to get close to them and fight man to man.

The entire world thought that this would be the case but it didn't work out that way. The Islamic Mujahideen was the chief resistance for the Marxists and they proved to be a determined and formidible advisary. In addition they had some help from some of our more clandestine custom military ring special operators from the United States.

The stinger missile which we have written about in past posts proved to be an invaluable asset to the resistance. It helped to break the back of the Soviet aggressors. The Soviets finally pulled out after 10 years of fighting when they realized that they would not eject the Mujahideen from the country. The determined resistance by the Mujahideen finally broke the will of the Soviet Army.

Keep in mind that the Mujahideen is now the Taliban that the Us fought for over ten years and also could not eject. The advantage that the US had over the Soviets was that they were able to study and learn from Soviet mistakes. Even so they still could not overcome the Taliban completely. Military Ring Express