The Kremlin succeeded in making its presence in Syria stable, financially affordable and generally acceptable to the Russian public. The White House failed to do the same in Afghanistan
The U.S. intervention in Afghanistan was launched in October 2001 to be nearly two decades long. Russia’s military operation in Syria was launched in September 2015, and it has been going on for six years. Both powers justified their interventions ...
... their demise. They were unable to deliver on the ground. They were forced to flee from Afghanistan, and they were unable to create a strong Sunni jihad base in Iraq after... ... lives on.
Andrey Kortunov, Michel Duclos:
Four Dreadful Scenarios for Tomorrow’s Syria and What We Can Do To Avoid Them
The third phase of Jihadism is conducted under... ... the initiative of two ideologues and tacticians who share the same given name, Abu Musab al-Suri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Musab al-Suri was a Syrian Muslim brother...
... power in the hands of Shia Iraqis (sectarianism) has never been a good strategy. Finally, air strikes can halt or pull the IS back at best. At worst, one can fail as the U.S. did in Vietnam. You just cannot combat these guys from the sky!
3. Whither Afghanistan?
Well, it's pretty simple. A president of Kabul is not a president of Afghanistan. Almost entire south-east landstrip of the territory is facing considerable or high security threat, terror attacks have been carried out in the Afghan ...