Same old mistakes in new Afghan war

Same old mistakes in new Afghan war: Soviet military archives show latest international intervention in Afghanistan has learnt nothing from the war two decades ago - Peter Beaumont, Guardian:

Just as US and Nato forces would struggle after the new Taliban insurgency to prevent fighters returning to areas already cleared, the Russians suffered a similar problem while officers complained about the quality of their Afghan army comrades. Soviet officials complain of not being able to win on the battlefield decisively and of losing the "propaganda war". Recently US envoy Richard Holbrooke and McChrystal have talked of the need "to wrest the information initiative from the Taliban and other groups."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/18/afghan-war-soviet-invasion-mistakes