12 September 2009 : Press TV
A US foreign policy veteran warns that the US-led coalition forces are repeating the same mistakes that led to Soviet Union's failure in Afghanistan over two decades ago.
In a speech at a global strategy conference in Geneva, Zbigniew Brzezinski said the West risks replicating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan without a fundamental change in policy, the BBC reported.
"In my view, we are in fact running the risk of replicating, obviously unintentionally, what happened to the Soviets," he said during the conference.
Brzezinski, a former national security adviser, said the military engagement in the war-ravaged country was reaching levels similar to the Soviet invasion in 1980s.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began as midnight approached on December 24, 1979. The Soviet Union left Afghanistan deep in winter with intimations of panic ten years later.
On Afghanistan, however, Brzezinski recognized that there had already been a significant shift away from some of the unrealizable objectives of the George W. Bush agenda.
The veteran, who helped Barack Obama develop his own foreign policy positions during his presidential campaign, insisted further change was still needed to diffuse the crises in the conflict-torn country.
Brzezinski issued the stark warning - not just for Obama's administration, but for the West as a whole.
"We went into Afghanistan almost eight years ago, and we overthrew the Taliban with 300 soldiers," he said. "Eight years later, we are beginning to move to a level of military force which is beginning to approximate the Soviet engagement and already our top generals are saying we are not winning militarily."
The warning comes at a time when insurgency and US casualties have intensified as pressure is mounting on the US and its western allies to pull troops out.
In August, US-led forces in Afghanistan lost 77 troops, setting a new monthly record.
