Gorbachev Calls Afghanistan Democratization Unrealistic, US-NATO Invasion Has Failed From The Beginning

Mikhail Gorbachev (BBC News Youtube screenshot)

JAKARTA - Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, said the US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan had failed from the start.

"(The deployment of US troops) was a failed attempt from the start even though Russia supported it in the early stages," Gorbachev said.

The former president of the Soviet Union, who is now 90 years old, considered the Soviet presence in Afghanistan a political mistake that drained valuable resources at a time when his own country was facing 'terrorism'.

The Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan lasted three years after Moscow withdrew troops. But it never recovered from Russia's decision to cut aid to them after the Soviet collapse in January 1992. The Afghan government fell that same year.

As quoted by Russia's RIA news agency, Gorbachev said NATO and the US had no chance of success in Afghanistan and had mishandled their own presence there.

"They (NATO and the US) have to admit their previous failures. The important thing now is to learn from what happened and make sure the same mistakes are not repeated," Gorbachev told RIA.

"Like many other similar projects, where threats are exaggerated and geopolitical ideas are poorly defined. Plus it is an unrealistic attempt to democratize a multi-ethnic society," he said.