Soviet Veterans On Afghanistan

Matthew Fisher of CanWest News Service does the job of a journalist and interviews former Soviet soldiers about their experiences in Afghanistan.

"It is really impossible to win there. No positive result can be expected,"
Kirjushin, whose shaved head gives him a ferocious look, said during a long,
often grim conversation at the Afghan War Veterans Association in the centre of
the Russian capital.

"As every nation that goes to fight in Afghanistan discovers, nobody has ever conquered that place. Even children were involved. They would blow up our tanks."

Col. Alexander Khmel, who as a young artillery officer spent a year with an infantry unit in Afghanistan and still has four pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body from his time there, shared Kirjushin's dark pessimism about the task facing Canadian troops. "Please send my personal condolences to your army and to the families of those who have already died," said Khmel, who retired from the Red Army last year."

Thankyou, Matthew Fisher. Excellent work.