Opinion: What the Soviets learned fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan

To the editor: As we evaluate President Trump’s new policy on the Afghanistan war, we should be mindful of the first law of holes: If you find yourself in one, stop digging. (“There is no ‘winning’ military strategy in Afghanistan,” Opinion, Aug. 23)

The president might learn something from another leader who got mired in “the graveyard of empires.” At a 1986 Politburo meeting, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev looked in the mirror and said it is time to go:

“We have been fighting in Afghanistan for already six years. If the approach is not changed, we will continue to fight for another 20-30 years. … What, are we going to fight endlessly, as a testimony that our troops are not able to deal with the situation? We need to finish this process as soon as possible.”

The result: Moscow got out of its hole and never looked back.

We should leave it to the neighboring countries that have a stake in cauterizing the malignant Islamic State and other terrorist cancers that would emerge in a collapsed Afghanistan and threaten their security to fashion a regional containment policy. The U.S. — from offshore — could provide air power and special forces to knock out terrorist cells as they emerge.

Doing anything more risks staying in the hole we’ve been in for 16 years. It is time to stop digging.

Bennett Ramberg, Los Angeles

The writer served as a policy analyst in the State Department’s Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs in the George H.W. Bush administration.

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In the 1980s, Islamic fighters were battling the Soviets in Afghanistan. The U.S. supported those fighters, as it was happy to see the Soviet Union’s resources drained by an endless war.

Now, after 16 years of fighting the Taliban and others and supporting a corrupt government, we find ourselves draining our resources in an endless war. The “victory” we seek continues to grow less ambitious and decisive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be smiling.

Doris Isolini Nelson, Los Angeles

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