Afghanistan - A Strategic Analysis

Major Sahib,

The fact that 90% of WWII Allied casualties may have been suffered by the SU is irrelevant. What is more relevant is that, out of a total of 5.318 million German military deaths, 3.973 million were against the Soviets--about 75%. Yes, the SU 'saved' us all from Hitler, probably.

Of course, what is also interesting is that 215,000 Soviets died fighting for the Germans against their 'own' country and the millon SU POWs who changed sides and fought for the Germans against the Soviets. That should tell you something about how much the SU was hated by its own people.

You are also forgetting other such charming SU institutions as the penal battalions, where anywhere between 500,000 to a million political prisoners and normal criminals were simply transferred from prison to the frontline. They were used in massed human wave attacks so that bodies alone would wear down the German defenses and then the regular Soviet troops could take the position. You are also forgetting about the special NKVD troops sent in behind the penal (and regular) battalions whose job it was to shoot any Soviet soldier who hesitated or even looked back.

The Germans also used some of these tactics but this was the norm in the Red Army and clearly exceptions in the Wehrmacht--who incidentally, suffered 30% battle deaths and still managed to function as a cohesive fighting unit until the very end.

pavocavalry #405 masadi's post is correct - but not regarding the question which I had raised to you and to which he tries to respond in his usual charming manner.

My question was to you. Please see my post #344 and I look forward to your response. Thanks.

zeemax: on "manifest destiny" - that was a specific goal of extending the US all the way to the Pacific. That was achieved back in 1852.

If anyone thinks the US is looking for territorial expansion today, then he is - to put it gently - not in touch with reality. As I wrote before - the US and other leading nations of the world (of which the latest entrant is China, with India close behind) - are today focussed on the "true frontiers" of today (expansion of science, technology). When people talk of "colonization" today, they talk of the moon or mars.

This is what Intellectual Giant Masadi is clueless about.

dost-mittar #: ...i dont think i talked about anyone breaking up......i am simply pointing to the historical mean of south asia......

how long has south asia been, roughly, one country.....200 out of 5000 years?.....perhaps a little more.....during this time, it had its powers and giants and what not.....it even had int'l superpowers, which were amongst the wealthiest nations in the world....it had cultural and educational centers of the world....i.e. it had powers which were a far more powerful place in the world than what india, pakistan and bangladesh enjoy....

yet again and again, it shifted to its historical mean.....ashoka ruled the largest territorial mass ever of any south asian ruler - present or past.......if someone would have seen his empire, they would have repeated what you are saying......mughals were a world power.....aurangzeb ruled a giant empire.......

if the british had not arrived, after the fall of aurangzed, south asia would have, once again, broken up into its historical norm - punjabis, marathas, hyderabad, mysore, kashmir, afghanistan, sind, bengal etc.....some of these would have conquered the other, and things would have moved back and forth.......

the british arrived, coincidentally, and bought it together.......yet it broke up again into three or four states.......

this should tell you something.....the natural tendency of south asia is centrifugal, not centripetal....i.e. the tendency is to break away from the center......

it is only a conquering force (one state conquering others) or an outside invader, or a common enemy that keeps it together, until it moves apart again.....

this separation need not be violent.....it could be peaceful also.....

just take a look at how often europe has broken up and gotten together and broken up.......in the past ten years, it has done both simultaneously.......western europe was coming together, economically, under the european union, while eastern, central and southern europe was breaking up......ditto with ussr......

#403 Posted by masadi,

Masadi Saheb,

tahmed saheb is a great believer in 'Manifest Destiny'. But so is hamidm2, and almost all Indians here ... it's a point of view, which has done great harm to the world.

Re: # 403 90 % of allied casualties were suffered by the Red Army.Russia saved Europe in 1812 from Napoleon , from Imperial Germany in First World War....although in this case Russia suffered the most and in Second World War.

Masadi is more than correct.

Re: # 380 Mohtaram , i entirely agree , but as you may have seen i said the way the pakistani leadership is , they cannot survive without US help.In order to act differently the quality of leadership has to be different.That type i dont see. Not in Punjab or Sindh the two so called leading provinces.

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Re: # 388
When I wrote narrow pockets, it meant that micro levels were faulty.

As for minorities, yes I have always talked of pluralism and instruementalism. Read my essay on Civil Society.

#400 Posted by dost_mittar on January 29, 2008 12:50:18 am


I admire your spirit of looking for the "positive" in every situation


That's called clutching at straws...

post 9/11, capt clueless predicted that Pakiland would keep growing powerful and could afford to bleed India...and that kashmir would become pakistan in 5-10 years because pakiland had uncle sam's wind in her sails...

bulleya#337:

I admire your spirit of looking for the "positive" in every situation, the positive in this case being the break-up of India. Nobody can say what will happen in a century or two but as of now, there are no signs of India breaking up anytime soon.

I do not think that the two Punjabs can reunite politically, although there is no reason why they cannot do so in a cultural way. Here, you are forgetting that the divison and ethnic cleansings in Punjab took place because of the religious divide; unless, of course, you believe that religions too are not eternal and Muslims will no longer be Muslims or Hindus and Sikhs no longer so. On the other hand, the way Bihari and Bengali Muslims are streaming into Punjab and new masjids coming up there all the time, maybe East Punjab too could turn into a Muslim majority in a century or two.

Your observation about a united India under non-hindus is interesting but not correct. You are forgetting Ashoka's father and grandfather and the later Gupta dynasty which is considered by A.L. Basham and other historians as the glorious period of Indian history. Moreover, at the time of Ashoka, Bodhis were just considered a sect and not a religion; indeed, Budh never denounced the faith of his birth (I am not sure if people called themselves Hindus back then!) and neither did Hindus threw out Buddhists from their fold (unlike Muslims did Ahmadis) and, in fact, regard Buddha as the last incarnation of their Lord Vishnu.

You are also not quite right about the "calculator gene" of south indians. They trace that gene to Aryabhatta who is more likely to be your ancestor than that of Naryanamurti.

SWAT, Jan 28: Security forces on Monday regained control of the Durshkhela fort in Matta’s Bagh Dheri area which had fallen to militants loyal to cleric Maulana Fazlullah three months ago.

The militants occupied the fort after over 100 besieged troops of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) had surrendered. The FC men were later released in groups.
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It took 3 months for teh pak troops to get rid of the taliban. Do a strategic analysis on that. Romair where are you , when we need you so much, your military thinking.

Strategic depth,

There is no way that the pak jihadis can operate into afghanistan from pak bases. SO the poor pakistanis are left few options.

Call in the B52s and the jihadis will move to Islamabad. Remember that it was B52s that drove them from afghanisatan to the pak borders. This is what the US is worried about.

Move the jihadis from the afghan border to the indian border. That is more likely, because in essence jihadis have to be delivered to the heavens.

Have some kind of peace deal with the jihadis. This is what pakistan is trying.

It is becoming increasingly clear that india will have to solve the pak problem. There is a forthcoming indian military exercise with more than a 100 foreign countries invited to witness, a demonstration of indias quick deployment capability.

That si primarily to iraquise pakistan.

Re: # 396
This is typical Muslim logic. Had Lebanon Govt. declared war? Hezbullah was attacking Israel from civilian areas. If you can fire a rocket from milk factory, why should Israel spare it?

ahmedmadani,

Somebody in war law can answer

If milk factories can be bombed in S. Lebanon by Israel in the last summer war, and considered legitimate targets, every target is legitimate.

tahmed saheb,

By "nation divided against itself", Viqarm saheb is only talking about polarization, which you will admit is at its peak since creation of Pak.