Afghan villagers say they feel greater rancour towards Americans than the Soviets because of a sense of betrayal by US soldiers who had promised reconstructionThe village graveyard tells no lies. Although Afghans’ memories of war fade with time, and the emotional legacy of fighting against the two superpowers of Russia and America is governed by rules related more to perception than raw statistics, the bones in the soil claim that many more Afghans died violently during the ten years of Soviet occupation than during the 19 years of US presence. “The Russians killed far more of us here, there is no doubt of that,” Haji Lal Mohammed Agah, 61, an elder in Joy Lahor and former Mujahideen fighter told The Times, as he mused over reports that US troops had begun their withdrawal from Afghanistan under terms agreed with the Taliban. “The Russians would kill anything that moved

Source: The Times March 24, 2020 00:24 UTC