20 years ago: Iran Almost Invaded Afghanistan in 1998

[Persian Gulf 1906]

I read somewhere that B missile annihilates a pretty big circular area so accuracy doesn’t matter I think.

scud b had a range of 300km, there is no major iranian sites near herat, closest is maybe mashhad which is about 300km.

CEP of scud b was about 500m, so that means that 50% of the time a scud b will land within 500m of its target. used at its full range of 300km it would probably be even less effective.

latest fateh 313 (announced in 2015, not yet in mass production i think) has range of 500km and accuracy of 10-50m CEP (fateh 110 has range of 300km and claimed accuracy of 10m CEP)

fateh 110 missiles were used against KDPI a few months ago

 

[JohnWick]

So that’s why now a days these are integrated with trucks....right??

scud b had a range of 300km, there is no major iranian sites near herat, closest is maybe mashhad which is about 300km.

CEP of scud b was about 500m, so that means that 50% of the time a scud b will land within 500m of its target. used at its full range of 300km it would probably be even less effective.

latest fateh 313 (announced in 2015, not yet in mass production i think) has range of 500km and accuracy of 10-50m CEP (fateh 110 has range of 300km and claimed accuracy of 10m CEP)

fateh 110 missiles were used against KDPI a few months ago

 

[SecularNationalist]

Even americans with lot of technology and money cannot control and invade afghanistan ,iran stand no chance ,wise decision taken by leadership of that time.
But should have launched and bombed the shit out of them using airforce and missiles.The graveyard of empires cannot be invaded but can easily be destroyed from a distance.Welcome to the 21st century and at the end of the day afghans are just bunch of illiterate cavemen groomed up in backward tribal culture.
@Sarah Ahmadzai

 

[ای ایران]

Even americans with lot of technology and money cannot control and invade afghanistan ,iran stand no chance ,wise decision taken by leadership of that time.
But should have launched and bombed the shit out of them using airforce and missiles.The graveyard of empires cannot be invaded but can easily be destroyed from a distance.Welcome to the 21st century and at the end of the day afghans are just bunch of illiterate cavemen groomed up in backward tribal culture.
@Sarah Ahmadzai

Americans cannot inavde Afghanistan? Where have you been for the past 17 years?

"The graveyard of empires cannot be invaded"

 

[JohnWick]

Americans cannot inavde Afghanistan? Where have you been for the past 17 years?

"The graveyard of empires cannot be invaded"

 

[Persian Gulf 1906]

Americans cannot inavde Afghanistan? Where have you been for the past 17 years?

"The graveyard of empires cannot be invaded"

he said cannot "control" - and he is 100% correct. The US have been stuck there for 17 years, trying desperately to find an exit strategy and wasting over $1 trillion (still today $50 billion per year!) to defeat the Taliban, only for the Taliban now to re-emerge and the US are forced to even negotiate with them!

25,000 US soldiers killed/injured and over $1 trillion of US taxpayer money wasted to end up being forced to negotiate with the Taliban, that's what you call a graveyard.

 

[mohsen]

Few years ago, irgc commander admitted that it was the Supreme leader who stopped their invasion plan.

 

[OldTwilight]

Good decision not to invade, would have been a disaster like KSA's war in Yemen.

Not if we followed Nadirshah policy ....

That's what happens now (KDPI/ISIS in Syria), but in 1998 Iran didn't really have the ballistic missiles to do that, airstrikes might have worked though.


The similarity is that both Afghanistan and Yemen are graveyards for invaders.

well , Herat always were part of Iran till cursed qajar dynesty

 

[ای ایران]

he said cannot "control" - and he is 100% correct. The US have been stuck there for 17 years, trying desperately to find an exit strategy and wasting over $1 trillion (still today $50 billion per year!) to defeat the Taliban, only for the Taliban now to re-emerge and the US are forced to even negotiate with them!

25,000 US soldiers killed/injured and over $1 trillion of US taxpayer money wasted to end up being forced to negotiate with the Taliban, that's what you call a graveyard.

He said cannot "invade" too.

The US hasnt been stuck there. They can leave any time they want to, but the fact is, they dont want leave yet.

Before he became the President of the US, Donald Trump always advocated a US withdrawal from Afghanistan. But instead of doing that he has instead increased troop numbers and military operations there. Obama did the same thing after he said that he didnt want to..

It's the Afghan government and the Taliban that are in a stalemate. Arguably we could say that the Afghan state is losing the war, but the US isnt losing.

Whenever the US involves itself in a major operation, they obliterate the Taliban

The US isnt being forced to negotiate. The US are the ones who have set terms for negotiating and they've been playing games with this for many years now.

Dont buy into all this crap about 'graveyards', lol..

The Pentagon does not want to leave Afghanistan right now. It's really that simple. They have more clout over policy there than the US. State Department and even what Donal Trump personally wants, which is why he follows what the Pentagon has set out for him.

 

[OldenWisdom...قول بزرگ]

This is what I have seen and what makes more sense. Since now there are two multi ethnic sunni countries sharing a colonial border, makes no sense. Once British left there was no reason to be left with their borders and add on top of that Afghanistan is left for all enemies of Pakistan to cause trouble through that side. Only time will tell if and when the inevitable happens.

 

[Persian Gulf 1906]

He said cannot "invade" too.

He said "invade and control" - do you understand the word 'and'?

The US hasnt been stuck there. They can leave any time they want to, but the fact is, they dont want leave yet.

Before he became the President of the US, Donald Trump always advocated a US withdrawal from Afghanistan. But instead of doing that he has instead increased troop numbers and military operations there. Obama did the same thing after he said that he didnt want to..

It's the Afghan government and the Taliban that are in a stalemate. Arguably we could say that the Afghan state is losing the war, but the US isnt losing.

Whenever the US involves itself in a major operation, they obliterate the Taliban

The US isnt being forced to negotiate. The US are the ones who have set terms for negotiating and they've been playing games with this for many years now.

Dont buy into all this crap about 'graveyards', lol..

The Pentagon does not want to leave Afghanistan right now. It's really that simple. They have more clout over policy there than the US. State Department and even what Donal Trump personally wants, which is why he follows what the Pentagon has set out for him.

This is just delusional.

The US needs military conflicts because of the military industrial complex which is the only one that benefits from these invasion.

 

[PakSarzameen5823]

Good decision not to invade, would have been a disaster like KSA's war in Yemen.

Whilst the Iranian military is much more competent, I agree. The conflict would have not turned out well, but I have a feeling you guys could have done a better job than NATO when it comes to reconciling with the Afghans since so many of them are ethnic Persians.

 

[Persian Gulf 1906]

Whilst the Iranian military is much more competent, I agree. The conflict would have not turned out well, but I have a feeling you guys could have done a better job than NATO when it comes to reconciling with the Afghans since so many of them are ethnic Persians.

They are also Sunni however, so there could have been a lot of terrorist blowback against Iran. If Iran was doing too well KSA/UAE/USA could start funding the Taliban as well, so there were a lot of variables that make it a very risky and not worthwhile action in my opinion.

 

[PakSarzameen5823]

Bro... What are you talking about? Do you know that the 'graveyard of empires' nonesense is just a cliche that was made up, probably by an American in the 1980s? I wonder actually where the origin of this nonsense comes from.

Afghanistan had always been part of somebody else's empire until the late 18th century.

It isnt a graveyard for any empire. But it is for sure a black hole of corruption, ineptitude and backwardness that makes most of that country nearly impossible to modernise and govern efficiently, even by it's own government in Kabul let alone a foreign occupier.

It annoys me to no end when Afghans call their country the graveyard of empires and then proceed to mock Iranians, Pakistanis and Indians for getting invaded by others. The ones who do this clearly don't know history.

They are also Sunni

Plenty of Afghans are Shia.

there could have been a lot of terrorist blowback against Iran.

That would for sure be a major concern. You guys would end up like us, and I wouldn't wish what happened to us post 9/11 on anyone, not even India.

there were a lot of variables that make it a very risky and not worthwhile action in my opinion.

Agreed.

Not if we followed Nadirshah policy ....

That dude was just crazy, there's no other way to put it.

There's a fine line between being a respectable military conqueror, and just being a murderous sociopath. He crossed it.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Taliban would have won that conflict, so Iran did the only thing they could and that was to withdraw its forces from the border.