Ahmad Rashid mentions the figure of 1.5 million. Larry P. Goodson says that "Nearly 2 million Afghans have been killed so far, (as well as 15,000 Soviet soldiers)." So, you are quoting the low end of various estimates. I don't know how such estimates are arrived at -- what documents are used as sources, what methods are used for calculation, to which immediate causes (bombs, mines, effects of destruction of civilian installations, etc.) the deaths are attributed, how many of the deaths are civilian deaths, etc. -- as they don't provide them. (It's a good thing that they are not discussing "Arming America.") Any ideas?
What is propagandistic in the discussion of the Soviet intervention is, however, not the estimate of the total figures of the dead, the wounded, the displaced, etc. but that reporters and researchers generally fail to say anything about how many Afghan civilians, soldiers, and mujahideen were killed by Afghan and foreign mujahideen, with a resulting suggestion that Afghan "freedom fighters" murdered hardly any, leaving an impression that they fought one of the cleanest guerrilla wars. -- Yoshie
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