Revisionist Russian Tough Love Letter to NATO Countries re: Afghanistan

"The New York Times does let the Russians into its op-ed pages on occasion. Today it let in two enthusiastic Russian revisionists who put their rambling onto paper: General Boris Gromov (ret.) of the 40th Army and Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to NATO. Usually the Russian commentary in English on Afghanistan comes from everybody’s favorite schadenfreude practitioner, the Uzbekistan-born Zamir Kabulov (not too sure, I was told he’s from Andijan but I can’t find a source), who served as Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan until last September and who may have been a KGB officer for a while. But it’s no surprise he’s not in the NYT as this NYT article made the KGB connection resulting in this hissy-fit of a Wikipedia “fan page” on Kabulov. I assume he is as unhappy as whoever edited his wikipedia entry.

There is much “revisionism” that is needed on the Soviet-Afghan War, as much of the info is clouded by propaganda generated by Pakistan, the mujahideen , the US and various other interested parties (NGOs, journalists, advocates, etc…). For example, the Soviets were far more successful in creating local security forces compared to current efforts, they were not fighting the whole country as many in the West and Pakistan liked to imagine, it was not a drive for the Indian ocean, you can find urban Afghans with nostalgia for the Soviet era, parts of the country did benefit from infrastructure and development projects, etc… But Gromov and Rogozin take it too far. I’ll excerpt and make rambling comments."
Ghost of Alexander