Must See Doc.: "Afgan"

[Strykervet]

It's on Amazon Prime, you'll have to search for it. It's spelled "Afgan" and that's all it's called. It was filmed by an American crew in the 80's while USSR was still over there. What's interesting is it's the SAME crew that embedded with Mujahadeen just the year prior.

In short, the Soviets say the SAME thing our soldiers say. This was during the Cold War but if you watch this film and you're a soldier, you'd feel right at home with these guys!

The only part that gives away any of the anxiety of the times was when a Spetsnaz soldier told them that "we know you were here with Mujahadeen last year and if we'd stopped your armed convoy we'd have handed you over to the People's Army and if you'd resisted, we'd have eliminated you".

Anyway, this film shows why it's a lost cause. Listen to how the soldiers describe the fanatics. And remember that during all this, we were arming those motherfuckers just to draw USSR into "their Vietnam".

 

[diverdon]

It's on Amazon Prime, you'll have to search for it. It's spelled "Afgan" and that's all it's called. It was filmed by an American crew in the 80's while USSR was still over there. What's interesting is it's the SAME crew that embedded with Mujahadeen just the year prior.

In short, the Soviets say the SAME thing our soldiers say. This was during the Cold War but if you watch this film and you're a soldier, you'd feel right at home with these guys!

The only part that gives away any of the anxiety of the times was when a Spetsnaz soldier told them that "we know you were here with Mujahadeen last year and if we'd stopped your armed convoy we'd have handed you over to the People's Army and if you'd resisted, we'd have eliminated you".

Anyway, this film shows why it's a lost cause. Listen to how the soldiers describe the fanatics. And remember that during all this, we were arming those motherfuckers just to draw USSR into "their Vietnam".

I don't intend to watch. I disagree with your conclusions. Afghanistan in a country and has a lot of things going on inside of it. Charlie Willson and Ronald Regan did not aid the Taliban, they placed our nation on the side of the Mujaheddin. The Mujahideen were driven out when the first idiot Bush and his successor Clinton withdrew all support. At that time we did not care because the Taliban was not directly connected to the USSR.

The Base assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud the week before 9-11 just because they knew that he had enough popular support that he could replace the Taliban if he had a little help from America.

 

[Kristian_Jensen]

...Ronald Regan did not aid the Taliban, they placed our nation on the side of the Mujaheddin. .

Uhm, okay?

 

[Strykervet]

I don't intend to watch. I disagree with your conclusions. Afghanistan in a country and has a lot of things going on inside of it. Charlie Willson and Ronald Regan did not aid the Taliban, they placed our nation on the side of the Mujaheddin. The Mujahideen were driven out when the first idiot Bush and his successor Clinton withdrew all support. At that time we did not care because the Taliban was not directly connected to the USSR.

The Base assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud the week before 9-11 just because they knew that he had enough popular support that he could replace the Taliban if he had a little help from America.

Disagree with my conclusions? Well they aren't my conclusions, the fucking Soviet soldiers said this (and given the times I'm guessing the tapes were okay'd by their military). Seriously though, you should check it out, it's interesting. The damn place looks exactly the same, soldiers said the same stuff, "don't know why I'm here", "regret coming" and "just wanna go home".

I remember during this time the US propaganda painted them into boogeymen but these guys are the type that would fit right in here I imagine. They laughed about Rambo and the whole super hero soldier image portrayed by Hollywood kinda like we would. Seriously, it's a good watch and it's only 39 minutes and it has images you've probably never seen before.

 

[pmclaine]

We didnt go to Afghanistan with the intent of any "betterment" of that country.

or at least we shouldnt have, thats not our concern.

We should have only went to that country to kill Osama Bin Ladin, avoiding the whole fiasco if the Taliban had handed him over.

but the Taliban didnt so our guys went in and did a fantastic job wrapping the whole place up while civilian leadership let the ball slip away to live peacefully for a time with our allies.

Than it was realized war is profitable at the cost of only soldiers lives and the mission creep of nation building crept in.

Osama Bin Ladin is dead. The second his skull made its first bounce on the deck we should have been loading or burning what we could not load and leaving Afghanistan.

Put a note on the full latrine notifying them that next time we are just going to make their country the test range for all our intercontinental shit and even the dust will be beat into dust or perhaps glass.

Iraq should have been a UN operation for failure to follow the UN seize fire. Lacking the "leadership" of the UN to enforce its peace, as it was intended to do, it should have been the end of the UN.

The Soviets at least had a strategy in Afghanistan - install a puppet govt and virtually create a new Soviet Republic.

What is our Strategy?

Im not surprised the Soviet soldier and the US soldier voice the same sentiments.

Soldiers are all the same.......guys just wanting to live sent someplace to put their life in danger by guys that want to kill and will never be in danger.

 

[Strykervet]

Well, the way the Soviets explain it is that they were there for basically the same reason we are --to setup and prop up a national government, train an army. They were leaving behind weapons and ammo and hospital equipment, some of it advanced. Sure it'd be Soviet, just like ours isn't. But they were doing the same thing we are doing now, more or less.

39 minutes and it seems to be an honest documentary. It doesn't have a slant or make you think one way or another and it's certainly not pro-war. This is near the end, they're getting ready to withdraw. The images alone are worth it, not images we normally get to see.

If you wanna see more cold war era shit, just search for "Soviet" in the search box and go from there. More on Amazon regarding that stuff. It's some interesting stuff, most not worth watching and not bearable to sit through but some, like this documentary, are pearls.

I found it searching for this old silent Soviet film, very early I think the revolution was still going on. Anyway, they got a message from Mars, go there and find it's full of capitalists and the hero starts a revolution on Mars and makes it commie and so on and so on, and at the end of the movie you find out what the message was, which is talked about all through the film: Buy (some brand) of tires! A fucking advertisement was the big theme of an early commie movie, believe it or not. I wish I could remember the name. It's actually worth sitting through.

 

[Strykervet]

"What is our strategy"

They said the same thing. They didn't know why they were really there because it wasn't working.

Really, if you have Amazon, watch it. Some crazy footage. Promise it won't turn you pink.

 

[pmclaine]

I lived in Moscow circa 1988. I saw those soldiers daily. WWII was a mere 45 +/- years earlier and they were except for the rifles and motor T still using the same infantry gear. I bought a lot of their uniform stuff , those guys lived without frills. Often they were just cheap labor in and about Moscow.

 

[Strykervet]

Wow, that's pretty cool. I was young, I had a teacher who visited and she said the most remarkable thing was how much alike they were to us.

The equipment they have in this video isn't WW2 era stuff though. They have T72's with reactive armor, Hinds, Antonovs, etc. Their version of a Mk19 and M2 and BMP's and BDRM's. AK74's and PKM's. I guess much of their field gear may be dated but so was ours at that time.

This is near the end of the USSR and much of the gear they do have is seriously worn and it shows. Not just from being over there either.

 

[ReaperMedic]

Thanks for the recommendation. I try to catch anything I can about Afghanistan. I think its a beautiful place, and the history is extremely interesting to me. The crazy thing is in a lot of parts of the country, it probably looks damn near the same as when Alexander, or the Mongols, or the British, or the Soviets where there.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Now just to expand the documentary to see what the soldiers from just about every major world power wrote about their time in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan ranks up there with the rest of the most invaded countries.
Pretty sure it would make any fictional movie about a "world at war forever" look like an incomplete documentary.


My opinion was we should have just ground burst one big properly designed 50mt Fusion bomb (or bigger), on the area where Bin Laden and his cronies were & called it a day. Could have just called up Russia and paid them for the plans of the Lead damper one they tested, All dead, little radiation, and I bet a lot less countries willing to let terrorists hang out there. (could have used 2 or 3 if we were unsure of the exact area).
No need for American casualties or endless war in a place that has been invaded by everyone who ever was practically and eventually made them all give up after finding there is nothing of value to everyone else and the cost in blood and gold for the area is too high.