(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing 2/15/23: Do We Ever Learn? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-15 Leftovers again 34 years ago today the Soviet Union slunk out of Afghanistan in defeat. For ten years the Soviet Union was mired in a war in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989. So difficult was this war that it is often referred to as Soviet Union's Vietnam. In 1978 Afghanistan experienced a coup which brought to power a communist regime - the brutality of this regime led to open rebellion by the following year, precipitating the Soviet intervention and their coup in December 1979. The war was costly for Russia. They lost almost 15,000 troops and its failure to win the war was a contributing factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. In America, the government countered the Soviet effort by supporting the efforts of the Mujahideen - a decision that would come back to haunt the US, given that many members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban were former members of the Mujahideen. 15000 troops lost in 10 years. They’re currently losing that many every 3 weeks in Ukraine. This is not to say we’re much better. We promptly followed the Soviets into Afghanistan with similar results. We didn’t lose as many soldiers but were there twice as long. An Afghan my age has spent half their life under attack. We also did the same thing in Iraq. 20 years ago today millions of people worldwide took to the streets to protest that war. I was one of them. We’re reeling from yet another mass shooting and yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the Parkland massacre. I can’t imagine what this poor kid is going through. x A survivor of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting is a student at Michigan State University https://t.co/SQqKwUkkzh pic.twitter.com/SHtl3ohBYI — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 14, 2023 On a lighter note, 82 years ago today, this was first recorded. The platform you’re hearing it on was launched 18 years ago yesterday. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/15/2152560/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-2-15-23-Do-We-Ever-Learn Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/