The Similarities to Afghanistan Are Striking

This is not a substitute for sane or sensible policy

The army will be deploying the XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon to Afghanistan, and many good things are expected of it.

I am not at all surprised that they have decided that a personal grenade launcher would be necessary for the conflict.

The Soviets came to the same conclusion when they were in Afghanistan, which is why the AGS-17 Plamya (Russian: Пламя) is a Soviet-designed automatic grenade launcher used in Afghanistan to such a degree that the unmounted infantry squad was largely built around the weapon in the same way that a squad is built around the LMG in US service.

The degree to which our experience in Afghanistan is a rerun of the failed Soviet script is striking.