Eighteen years after the defeated Soviet Army pulled out of Afghanistan, which helped to speed the collapse of their empire, many of their soldiers believe the United States is heading for a similar disaster. Retired Captain Vladimir Vshivtev (photo) was blinded by an improvised roadside bomb 20 years ago in Afghanistan, and he feels the pain of our troops , which are now suffering from the same nightmare. In fact, the Russian Soldiers who fought there can point to many similarities: Their arrival was greeted with flowers and smiles, but the climate changed very quickly: Though their army arrived with 120,000 men, they lost about 1,300 each year, about the size of our combined losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.My personal experiences in Vietnam point to the same conclusion of this Russian officer. Captain Quoc, my friend and commander of the 25th ARVN battalion at Trung Lap, at the edge of the "Iron Triangle", confided in me that we would eventually lose this war: Every night, after we had finished our patrols, the "Vietcong" would visit the farmers who lived near their rice paddies, and asked them for a contribution to the Vietcong cause. They were fighting for their freedom, they said, against the Americans, who had brought death and destruction to their country. Then they asked for a contribution of rice to their army. Instead of money, they gave the farmers a receipt, payable when they would win the war.
Toward the end of that conflict, many farmers had a huge stack of these receipts under their matresses, which would be worthless if we had won that war, but could, in theory, be redeemed by a Vietcong government. Based on this financial interest, many "neutral" farmers now had bought shares in our enemies' victory, and they gave important intelligence information to our elusive enemy.
