How did the geography & culture of Afghanistan help cause failure of the Soviet invasion?
I'm scribble literary works an essay on why the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a failure to a great extent. Can you please tell me if my first paragraph on the geography and culture of Afghanistan is friendly? Critique is good & you can correct it if you really want to.
The unique geography and culture of Afghanistan caused many difficulties for Soviet troops because it was not the classification of battleground that they were used to. The country of Afghanistan is made up of nearly impassable mountains and desert terrain. It was extremely trying for Soviet troops to get their heavy artillery over the mountains and through the rough terrain. Their heavy equipment, such as battle tanks, could not take the place of the unfamiliar, unbearably hot weather. Thus, they moved very slowly and were ineffective. This gave Afghan soldiers an advantage because they were experts in their own ground. It was very easy for Afghan soldiers to pick up the sound of Soviet soldiers that were able to surpass the mountains. The Soviet war policy was self-deprecating because it stressed centralized frontal attacks with brawny units. Large units of soldiers were heard very clearly by the enemy when advancing on the rough ground. Soviet Soldiers had even more of a prejudice since they were trained to operate inside of their armored vehicles, and simply weren’t taught to fight outside of the vehicles. This was extraordinarily inconvenient in Afghanistan since the roads were not paved, and vehicles could barely navigate anywhere. The Afghan soldiers were poor drivers when presented with the uninformed about demographics of Afghanistan. Unlike the Soviets, the Afghan soldiers operated on foot and on horses. Horses could readily navigate throughout the treacherous hills, allowing Afghan troops to shoot down at the Soviets from unreachable locations. While on foot, Afghan soldiers would creep up in small groups on the Soviets while they were unprepared to defend themselves, with aid from infantry patrols. The Soviet army was not familiar with the use of infantry patrols, which were used extensively with Afghan soldiers. Another, even more momentous tactic used by Afghan soldiers was guerilla warfare. Guerilla warfare stemmed from the unique sense of values that exists in Afghanistan, as a result of the distinctive geography. Due to the physical divisions, the people are extremely provincial, with more faithfulness to their specific clan or ethnic group than to a government or a country. They are also Muslims, and extremely religious and conservative. The noteworthy ethnic group is the Pashtun, but there are over ten minority groups. There is not one large group of soldiers, but rather multiple, very loyal groups of soldiers. The Soviets brought in over one hundred thousand soldiers, secured Kabul speedily and installed Babrak Karmal as their puppet leader. However, they were met with fierce resistance when they ventured out of their strongholds into the countryside. Partisans fighters, called Mujahedeen, saw the Christian or atheist Soviets controlling Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as of their historic culture. Proclaiming a "jihad"(holy war), they gained the support of the Islamic world. Using nearby guerilla tactics, Soviet soldiers would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing great wiping out without pitched battles. Sometimes they would even use man-made tunnels to their advantage, rising out of the ground at the utmost unexpected times. There was no one strong inner stronghold from which resistance operated, which lead to loyal groups of soldiers that strongly defended all areas of their fatherland. The fighters used weapons that they could take from the Soviets or were given by the US. Decentralized and scattered around Afghanistan.
I commend you if you actually read this whole matter. I didn't realize how long it was, worry.
It is charming good but a bit too long to be one paragraph don't you think? It also depends what this first paragraph is about. If it is an essay your writing about then you really didn't capture the reader in much in the beginning. You just went straight to the point. Also the length of the paragraph really doesn't steal when finding the thesis. Although your first sentence pretty much sums up what your talking about. It is good, but try to make this into 2 paragraphs and come up with an primary paragraph because it seems you have the rest. I recommend you keep things like they are but start your essay off with the previously mentioned introductory paragraph.
dialect mayhap this can help
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/paperassignments/a/introsentence.htm
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