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| Russia giving US advice on Afghanistan: Ivanov |
| 2010-06-06 |
| Russia is giving discreet advice to US officials on Afghanistan but will "never again" send troops to the war-torn country, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday. "By the way, next year I think the ISAF will break the Soviet record of the duration of stay in Afghanistan," Ivanov said during a question-and-answer session with delegates to a regional security conference in Singapore. He was referring to the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operating in Afghanistan since a US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in the wake of the September 2001 attacks in the United States. Ivanov, a former defence minister, declined to comment on US tactics in Afghanistan but called for more to be done to improve the socio-economic infrastructure to back up military efforts against militants. "I can't give advice, particularly publicly," Ivanov told an audience of defence ministers, military officials and scholars as the annual forum known as the Shangri-La Dialogue drew to a close. "I have to confess... meeting American defence secretaries, central intelligence chiefs, state department chiefs, we discussed it. "If we are asked, we answer, but it's difficult to comment publicly, really difficult." Ivanov said Russia was providing various forms of support to the ISAF including logistics, transport and intelligence, but ruled out Moscow ever sending its troops into Afghanistan. "Never again a Russian soldier would enter Afghanistan," said Ivanov. "I think you understand why. It's like asking the United States whether they will send troops to Vietnam," he said. "It's something like that. It's totally impossible." The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which lasted from from 1979-1989, cost over 13,000 Soviet lives and contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 Well, the difference between Russia and the U.S. in regard to Afghanistan is that we will actually leave victorious. And I don't think invading Vietnam again is totally off the table (especially if we end up in a new Korea/China conflict). |
| Posted by: cheers 2010-06-06 17:17 |
| #2 The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union. This needs emphasis. Sometimes I think the US is going to do the same thing nearly the same way. Bloomberg this week: U.S.Â’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP. Forbes.com: Six Giant Bank Holding Companies Made $51 Billion Last Year; The Other 980 Lost Money. Karl Denninger: if you are currently spend 11% of GDP by borrowing money and blowing into the economy to prop it up and you achieve "fiscal sustainability" (defined as not doing that any more) GDP will inevitably contract by the amount of stimulative borrowing you withdraw. The Soviet Union was not defeated militarily, but spent itself to death. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-06-06 15:16 |
| #1 A surprisingly reasonable discussion from a Russian (or any) official. Send him to the gulag. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-06-06 13:19 |