Title: Then Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen
Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War
Author: Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester Grau
Publisher: US Dept of Defence
Pages:
419
Content:
The Western Forces were able to glean tremendous insight into the challenges of
the Soviet experience in Afghanistan
with the publication of The Bear Went Over the Mountain. In an effort to
further capitalize on this, the US Marine Corps commissioned this work to gain
a better appreciation of the guerrilla war from the perspective of the
Mujahideen. Senior Mujahideen commanders were interviewed and their experiences
are presented as a series of vignettes in a similar format to the above book.
Additional analysis on the attacks is provided by tactical experts from the US
military. This book represents small-unit guerrilla warfare at its most
harrowing and most highly developed. Soviet and Mujahideen tactics centered on
strangling the logistics support of the other; thus attacks on supply columns,
rural food sources and displacement of populations was commonplace. Adjustments
in tactical doctrine by the Mujahideen commanders was evident as the Soviets
forced rural populations off of the land (creating a seven million person
refugee crisis) thereby forcing the establishment of logistics caches for food
and supplies (something previously un-necessary as the Afghans were supported
by the population). An outstanding stand-alone and companion book that serves
as the manual for Mujahideen tactics and a testament to both their tenacity and
adaptability.
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