Gen Allen: Remember the Soviet Withdrawal

In a recent seminar conducted by the Stimson Center General John Allen (retired) stated that we need to compare the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with the upcoming withdrawal of ISAF from Afghanistan. He said that the Afghan government in the first few years after the Soviets left managed to survive with the continued advisory assistance and funding of the Soviets. It was only after aid was cut off that the Afghan regime fell to the Muhjuhadeen. The same fate can possibly happen in the post-2014 period. Of note is that Afghanistan will require about $4 billion a year or more to pay and sustain its large Afghan National Security Forces. Read more in "How not to repeat the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan", USA Today, February 21, 2014.