If you go all in and lose, you lose big.
Afghanistan was Soviet backyard, get a map. Are you sure they can easily accept it?
People's Republic of China (PRC) : News & Discussions
- Thread starter Nick
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Yeah. Afghanistan was never Russian backyard. It has always been either Iranian or Indian backyard. The Russians never had any real influence either cultural or anything of worth. That short stint in Afghanistan doesn't count. And the Russians did a far better job than the Americans in Afghanistan. Americans literally created a failed state once they left.
I think you are looking from last 50 years or so , but historically afghanistan or rather region around caspian sea has been a contested place with russia on one side iran, uk on the other side for centuries. Russian invasion of afghanistan was just one recent part of the game, if you look at russian history they always tried to move beyond the caspian sea and get to the Indian ocean/Arabian sea for last 300-400 years. The west has always pushed them back as it clashed with their interests.
It was on the Soviet border and US losses were far lower. Taliban losses were also higher during US period.
That was basically india. Afghanistan has been indian backyard. The British were just ruling India at that time. Even before that under Mughals it was indian backyard. And before that under Gupta's and Mauryas too.
Russian influence in Afghanistan is overrated and not even real.
Ukraine has a cultural and historical importance to the russians. It's the place of their founding. They can easily do a mass scale war against ukraine and lose a million and it wouldn't even matter.
Afghanistan was just a distant geopolitical card
Irrelevant, it's a shithole. Sometimes when you take a dump it floats, sometimes it sinks, sometimes it smears the back of the toilet, sometimes it disappears without a trace. But sh1t is sh1t either way, the rest is random chance.
It's easy to talk about a million lives when it's not you, your son, or husband etc.
Also, pull out an historical map, the part they're occupying/attempting to occupy wasn't part of Kievan Rus'. I'm also sick of the extremely racist attitudes people have when it comes to historical empires. If it was on your border, it was fine, if it wasn't it's colonialism. Trying to reclaim territory that once belonged to your empire in the 21st century is super dumb regardless. There'd be nothing but war if everyone did that.
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UK has been influencing geopolitics wrt iran even before that. Its not just afghanistan, iran was also part of the game. Most of us here only focus on afghanistan as we see it from perspective of Indian history. If you study european history you will see how european powers stopped russian expanison beyond turkmenistan, just check russian-ottoman wars you will get more idea about this.
I agree for the most part but ukraine is far more important to the Russians than Afghanistan. Afghanistan is geopolitical card that they could expand into.
Ukraine is the place where the founding of Rus happened.
They will go for total war. Especially with the egos of the Russians on the line
But the bit he's in wasn't. And Kievan Rus' was more than just East Slavs, it was Finns and Scandinavians too. So when you play the history card, there are lots of people who could claims rights, including the Baltics to add to that list. Which is why trying to use historical possession to make judgements on 21st century borders is dumb, super, super dumb.
What you really mean is 'ego'. Putin has a big ego for sure, but I don't think many people are in this with him.
They might not be initially but looking at the online response by westerners might have actually reinforced there opinions about continuing this war. Russians will follow through with it they have faced far worse situation. In a realistic case the Russians will be able to accept losses of around 100,000 soldiers. If the ukrainian posture doesn't change.
They know why they are getting that online response. They know that their leadership has caused it all.