This 1991 work is severely out of date, of course. However, it is interesting primarily because it is the work of Zalmay Khalizad. An old and prominent hand at RAND, he plays a prominent role on Bush's NSC. He is also Afghan, and personally knows the most significant players in Afghanistan's politics, both dead and alive. Consequently, this book is useful for understanding the Bush Administration's understanding of Afghanistan's politics, perceiving its hopes and udnerstandings for Afghanistan's future, as well as the perceptions and attitudes of a significant policy player in the current conflict.

There is only one thing that is good about this book and thats the colorplates done by Ron Volstad, so if you are only interested in them this is an sure buy! But if you actually want to learn anything on the Soviet war in Afghanistan this is probobly one of the worst book I have ever read. The authors clear intention to slander the Soviets is an shamefull proof that David C Isby and his books arent worth much, they are just one individuals personal crusade against what he sees as the evil empire and is filled with smallmindedness and a wish to force an belief or opinion on people who dont know much about the situation. The propaganda is actually so disgusting in this book I wouldnt be suprised if Isby got paid by the CIA to write this book in the way he did.
Every photo in the book that is on the Soviet or the Afghan goverment soldiers have remarks that sinks beyond what is plain evil. As I said in my title, this book is just stupid and makes me sad. But then again the plates are great and worth the money!

This Osprey title was written in 1986; therefore it lacks any objective overview of the war from start to finish. It is, however a good source of basic information on the war up to that point. The color plates by Ron Volstad are excellent. The author makes several good points, especially noting the friction between various Afghan ethnic groups. You didn't think it was all about religion, did you? After reading this, one wonders about the wisdom of the U.S. involvement there...England and Russia have already been down this path!

The book is a great introduction for anybody who just wants to know a little bit more about the region and why things are the way they are. Woolpert throws a lot of relevant (and irrelevant) historical data at the reader. However, the presentation is not always fluid. He has a tendency to jump around from event to event. He also keeps coming back to the same events at different points in the book, making it a bit jarring.

Taking all the information he has provided, most sane minded strategic thinkers would reach conclusions far removed from the authors. His viewpoint is simply idealistic. Realpolitik demands that we look at the situation from a more pragmatic perspective. What is "right" is not always "good".

The other thing is that with time (and especially recent events) this book is begging for a rewrite. A lot of his conclusions are already flat out wrong. Many others seem misguided in view of recent events.

There are other better books on the subject ("the great game") that stand the tests of time and pragmatism better than this one. If you read it because your library does not have any of the others, fine. Don't go out and buy it.

... Most of it was barely tolerable. To get through it was quite a chore. Read this and you'll be amazed when you think the people written about in this book were representing a major super power. I can't even imagine the fact we were once fearful of these people. It seems the only people Russia used in their little war, were found in some bowery or skid row. After reading the book I am still left seeking the answer to a few questions. Like..Did any Russian units actually go on patrols? set an ambush? Does anyone have any of those experiences to share? I have read about a dozen books written by former Russian soldiers and it strikes me that none of them have any combat experiences worth sharing. You will hear plenty about guys hanging out at the camp beating each other up, or drinking. They will even excite you with babble about the dangers of traveling from one place to the other. (which may explain why they never left the capms) Those that did leave the camps, never seem to have gotten out of their BMPS's. Maybe I'll stumble across that one real good book detailing some real combat experienced by The soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. But this one just plain stunk.

This novel tries and fails to take the reader on an adventure unparalleled through Afghanistan in the early days of the Soviet invasion. It is written very much in the way of an armchair political scientist sitting in England and musing on the happenings in this far away, exotic land.

Ponderously written and poorly researched, this tale follows a GRU officer and his estranged wife who decided to stay with the Afghan rebels, and her lover, the leader of the tribe, the leader of the tribe, and the action of the invasion and resistance.

Choppy and difficult to piece together at some points and containing more than a few grammatical errors and misspellings, this book is sometimes very difficult to read. Islamic sounding names are giving everyday objects to make the narrative sound authentic and exciting but it falls terribly flat.

The characters are dim, very shallow and terribly predictable. Obtuse dialogue and impossible at best scenes are everywhere to be found. World events are forgotten and the writer concentrates too much on the stiff, story board characters and what he thinks they must be like and less on the flow of the account of what's supposed to be going on.

I was very disappointed with this book. In some places there is a stench of more than a small amount of elitist condescension considering the Soviets and the native Afghans, bordering on offensive.

This book has a very bad transcription - no stress marked at all, schwa and a constantly confused. It begins with alphabet, grammar, and a second part with translation exercises. It has much interesting vocabulary, mostly military; it is a book beyond a beginner's level, though including it, it would be one of the best I have seen, except that you just can't learn pronunciation form it.

Since things have heated up in Afghanistan, I have been reading everything that I can find on both the Taliban and the Soviet expericence in Afghanistan. I purchased this book as part of my sweep. It is hardly more than a picture book. There are perhaps 1,000 words in an opening text and perhaps 100 photos. Some of the photos are interesting, some are not, and some are obvious fakes or Soviet era propaganda. The day after I recevied the book, I donated it to the local library. Save your money and buy something else.