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Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Zamir Kavulov is a prominent figure in Kabul and gets frequent interview requests from Western diplomats and the media. In terms of knowledge of Afghanistan, the Russians have the advantage on the Americans, who only blazed in to find Osama bin Laden in the wake of the 9-11 attacks in 2001 and have been bogged down there ever since.
But the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1978. For a decade Russia got beaten black and blue in the land of the Hindukush. The invasion was intended to secure a route to Indian Ocean from Central Asia. Battered by hit-and-run assaults by the rebels, Russia finally withdrew in February 1989 with 13,500 troops killed.
Kabulov headed the KGB in Kabul when it was under the control of the Soviet Union. Having returned as a diplomat, Kabulov knows the reasons for the USSR's defeat better than anyone else. "The U.S. is repeating our mistakes," he told a New York Times correspondent in late October. The U.S. underestimates the resistance of the Afghans, he noted. Once Kabul and other major cities were occupied, the Soviets thought the war would be over. That was a misjudgement: the real war started from that moment. Afghans have never taken kindly to invaders, and especially not to infidels.
"The Soviet Union should have changed the regime, transferred power and left Kabul. We failed to do so and the U.S. has not done that, either." The Soviet Union in turn failed to learn a lesson from the British Empire's experience in Afghanistan in the 19th century.
Invading Afghanistan from India in 1839, Britain occupied Kabul. Routed by tough resistance from the locals, the entire 4,500 troops and 12,000 family members of the 44th Ease Essex Regiment were massacred in 1842, with the exception of one doctor. Learning their lesson, the British upon winning the 1878-1880 second war withdrew their forces immediately after putting a pro-British regime in place.
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama plans to concentrate his efforts on counter-terrorism warfare in Afghanistan. To begin with, he plans to substantially increase troops there, and he is asking Korea to join him. Kabulov says that would be repeating the USSR's mistake. In 1987, the year before it withdrew its forces, Russia boosted its troops to 140,000, the largest in the war, only to fail miserably. "The more foreigners roam around Afghanistan, the more the locals will resist," he said.
The ghosts of empires past haunt the streets of Kabul. We don't like to think about Afghanistan since a group of Koreans were abducted and some killed there last summer. Now America wants us to go back, and it is difficult to turn down a request from the world's sole superpower. But if we do go, should we not do our utmost to find out what kind of country it is and what disasters other empires suffered there? Let us hope that Obama will study the lessons of history.
The column was contributed by Choi Joon-suk from the Chosun Ilbo's International Desk.
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