One big difference between their little trip to Afghanistan and ours Kevin is that they gate crashed we were invited in by the Afghan Government in exile and the United Nations.

Another big difference Kevin is that the whole country was raised against the Russians and the puppet Government that they forced upon the people, they fought the Mujahadeen. Today ISAF and US Enduring Freedom Troops are working in conjunction with an Afghan Army that is improving in capability and increasing in size by the day. The effort in Afghanistan is international and by and large the people appreciate it. ISAF, US Troops and the Afghan Army are not fighting the great mass of the Afghan people they are fighting the Taleban who terrorised and raped the country for six years and who are now in hiding along the border with Pakistan.

The Russians went into Afghanistan with 154,000 troops, armour and airpower - they weren't there to build anything - their conscripts lost.

Currently there are 63,000 ISAF and US troops in Afghanistan, which probably translates to something like 18,000 combat troops - and the Taleban are hiding where Kevin? 48 they lost yesterday, not a big number I know, nothing like the 250 they lost attacking the decoy convoy to the Kajaki Dam, that those 48 men thought that they were "home-and-safe" - they weren't - they lost.