Russia Today

Wednesday, Sept 16th, 2009

Former KGB Special Forces Colonel Oleg Balashov, who took part in the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, told RT he doubts more U.S. soldiers will increase the chances of victory.

This comment comes as the U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan have doubled over the last year while the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, admitted that even more are going to be needed to defeat the Taliban.

“This war will be the same as it was in Vietnam and as the Soviet Union had in Afghanistan back in the 1980s,” said Balashov. Afghanistan “won’t let them succeed, you can’t do this to the people in this country. The Afghan population has reacted to this war as expected.”

“The Soviet troops used more human resources in the war,” he added. “The Americans are employing air attacks and in this case the number of civilian casualties is much higher.”