Soviet General Criticizes U.S. Operation

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Soviet General Criticizes U.S. Operation
October 11, 2001
By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY

MOSCOW (AP) - For all its sophisticated weaponry, the U.S.-led military
operation in Afghanistan is misguided, fraught with peril and unlikely to
wipe out Osama bin Laden and his Taliban supporters, a Soviet war hero said
Thursday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev joined a growing chorus of former Soviet
commanders who are criticizing the American anti-terrorist effort while
backing its aims.

Especially worrisome is the prospect the operation could involve ground
troops, the generals say, speaking from experience. The Soviet Union says it
lost 15,000 troops during its 10-year war in Afghanistan, a fraction of the
unofficial estimates.

``We used aviation, artillery, the newest armaments, and nothing helped,''
said Aushev, who fought in Afghanistan with the Soviet motorized infantry in
1980-82 and again in 1985-87, earning the Hero of the Soviet Union title,
the
Soviets' highest military honor.

``Every alien or foreigner stepping in there becomes an enemy in a while.
This happened to us and it will happen to the Americans,'' he warned.

He also lashed out at Washington for ``not calculating the consequences'' of
the action in Afghanistan, which he said has already led to unrest in
Pakistan, new offenses by Muslim rebels in Chechnya and the threat of
Taliban
attacks on the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

``You should fight terrorism in a way that would not create new terrorism,''
Aushev said. ``There are other methods: financial, political, secret,
super-secret.... Today we are using a cannon to scatter sparrows.''

Aushev, today the president of the tiny Russian republic of Ingushetia
bordering on rebel Chechnya, argued that American forces are not prepared
for
Afghanistan's harsh winter or its high mountains.

``Where would they have a base? Who will support the ground forces from the
air? Why are they destroying the airstrips?'' Aushev asked at a news
conference.

``The relief of the territory is very complex. There are thousands of gorges
and it's very difficult to find Osama bin Laden, whatever commandoes might
be
used,'' he said.

Air bombardments are senseless, he added, as all of Afghanistan is covered
by
fortified shelters both left by the Soviets and built since their
humiliating
withdrawal in 1989. And the Taliban forces have no developed infrastructure,
the ruin of which could bring them to surrender.

``Any gorge is a base. Afghanistan resembles one large base,'' Aushev said.

Only an all-out war involving huge forces that would ``burn out the whole of
Afghanistan'' could be successful, he said.

Other veterans question whether even a ground war has a chance.

Maj. Gen. Alexander Popov, now a senior officer in Russia's peacekeeping
forces, was with the Soviet army when it invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Despite
extensive training, he found himself unprepared.

``I'd worked in the mountains, but those high mountains and cliffs were
really impressive. We had to get over our psychological unpreparedness,'' he
said recently. ``The mountains are difficult to reach. The level of physical
preparation has to be very high.''

Another veteran, Yevgeny Zelenov, has called even the best-prepared ground
operation ``hopeless.''

U.S. troops would be facing a people who have learned to ``sleep and live
with their weapons,'' said Zelenov, a member of the Russian parliament.



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