Monday, June 06, 2011

Soviet versus American casualties in Afghanistan

We've been in Afghanistan for ten years now (2001 to 2011).  The Soviets were there for ten years (1979 to 1989).  Here is a comparison chart that I made.  The Soviet deaths represent those killed in combat.  The American deaths represent all deaths in Afghanistan (combat and non-combat).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was worried they would be closer. And the US has brought a better living for the Afghan people than that before the invasion, while the Soviets were the ones that messed everything up in the first place!

Walter R. Moore said...

Credit superior US military medical services for the difference in deaths.. however, it would be more useful to compare the total of deaths + wounded and not returned to combat.

Unfortunately, the colors chart would look a lot closer.

Maxichamp said...

@Walter: I agree. With body armor and medical technology, the number of U.S. troops with amputations (rather than fatal injuries) has skyrocketed. I will see what data I can dig up. Maybe I'll do a chart with Iraq casualties too.

Tarlan said...

USSR is out of Afghanistan, but US is still there, for how long, who knows...

Tarlan said...

Yesterday's Kabul by Ilya Varlamov

https://ziyalt.livejournal.com

Anonymous said...

There are deeper causes than a difference in equipment, tactics or training. Recall that the Soviets were facing an insurgency heavily funded and supported by its Cold War opponent, the US. This was actively and publicly backed by neighbouring Pakistan, the Saudis and so on. In spite of background support from some Pakistanis and others, there is nothing like the same level of international support for the Taliban during the past decade.

Maxichamp said...

@Anon: You are quite right. It is like comparing apples to oranges. But still, both superpowers were there for a decade and I wanted to compare the casualty rates.

I hope you stick around and find more interesting posts here! We welcome well-informed and thoughtful commenters like you.