Yevgeny Khruschev is among those looking back. A former psychological operations officer in the Soviet Army, he served in Afghanistan’s Paktia Province from 1982 to 1984. Five years after he left the country, the Soviets made their final withdrawal-defeated, and with a depleted economy that helped touch off the disintegration of the U.S.S.R.

Khrushchev (no relation to the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev), is now deputy chairman for international affairs of the Afghan Veterans’ Union. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Steven Shabad from Moscow about what Americans can expect from a ground operation against Afghanistan.

NEWSWEEK: Do you think an American or allied operation in Afghanistan can succeed?

Yevgeny Khrushchev: It depends on the objective, commitment, international alliance and whether America is ready to pay more than lip service to this commitment. There were several commitments on the American side to fight poverty, inequality, drug trafficking, money laundering, this sort of thing, that were politically motivated. If it’s not only politics, but a real drive to get the job done, I say America will succeed together with its allies, and join together with Russia and Israel.

What kind of military advice would you give the Americans?

First of all, special operations have to be the main element. The Pentagon has to give them carte blanche [for] special operations and low-intensity conflict command. As President Bush said, this will be the first unconventional warfare of this century. So let the politicians and the armchair commanders in the Pentagon not ruin the opportunity for the real pros and the special-forces community to plan, execute and do all the contingency planning. Let them get the job done, and don’t interfere by applying political pressure. Second, it has to be not only the domain of the Fort Bragg [military] community; it has to rely on psychological warfare. We have to explain to the whole Muslim world that we are not fighting against them; we are fighting against belligerent dogmatists who are using terror under the veil of Islam. They are discrediting Islam; they are disgracing it, and we have to stop it. And we have to enlist [the Muslim population] as our allies. We have to expand psychological and informational warfare to an unprecedented scale.

Is that what you did as a psychological-operations officer when you were in Afghanistan?

We tried, but we didn’t have either the political will or understanding from the Soviet military bureaucrats who were stuck in their mentality of the classical World War II type of fighting. And they [made] the same mistake in Chechnya, despite all our warnings from the Soviet psy ops and our intelligence from the field, Moscow just kept on going the same, old-fashioned way.

What other mistakes of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan do the Americans need to avoid?

The one mistake which even Brezhnev corrected in 1980, a year after the Soviet-you call it invasion, we call it intrusion or involvement-was to pull out all heavy-tank formations. That was the only mistake the Soviet regime corrected during the military buildup in Afghanistan. You need invisibility, surprise and flexibility, and an online stream of intelligence data. So for the Americans, the Third Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Mobile and 10th Mountain Division-that triad should stand by to help the special-forces elements led by Delta and Green Beret-and U.S. [Navy] Seals if need be. But let’s keep them out of harm’s way, or they will be liabilities, they will ruin the flexibility and surprise factor of the special-forces community. And think about the logistical stretch: it will be a humongous stretch just for supplying any heavy-duty formation. It’s like using a grizzly bear to fight mosquitoes. It just doesn’t make sense from the special-forces mentality.

Any other warnings?

They [Americans] have to very careful about “collateral damage,” because every civilian killed will immediately provoke several teenagers to enlist in the mujahedin training camps…. That’s why Osama [bin Laden] wants America to get bogged down in Afghanistan-to discredit the whole ideal of fighting invisible terrorist hands. Another thing the Americans should not do, from their mistakes, under the [former Defense secretary Robert] McNamara influence in Vietnam: they should be very careful about applying Harvard Business School bean-counting…. No math in the world, no body counting, can substitute for an understanding of the local populace, local traditions. You cannot break their resolve. They aspire to die for Allah in their understanding. This is paramount, and unlike the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan, the whole civilized world is behind the United States. We should not miss this opportunity. America has a great chance to finish the job that the Soviets failed for one reason or another.

You mentioned the need for a commitment. But the Soviet Army was in Afghanistan for 10 years and failed.

But there was no commitment. It was a hush-hush type of thing. It was total hypocrisy. In Russia, in the Kremlin, our propaganda denied any type of action. It was called our “internationalist duty.” It was like a bad joke.

But still, the army was there.

As I said, because it was a half-hearted attempt by the Kremlin to begin with.

You mean there was no political support?

Absolutely. And you know, in the narrow passes of Afghanistan, military superiority boils down to combat at close quarters. You know, there is an American novel, “Something to Die For” [by former Secretary of the Navy James Webb]-we didn’t have [that devotion]. In the rank and file we didn’t have it. In psy ops, commissars and political divisions we did have it, but we were the minority, for God’s sakes. Look at the Bolsheviks: they had inspiration, they were fighting everybody else, and they won. So this is a hidden challenge to Americans-not to overestimate their technical military superiority. This is for the long term, but [what] Americans can do right away, in the short term, and feel tangible results, is to cut off [terrorists’] financial cash flows…. The Taliban are a major center for heroin and hashish, they resell it to their brethren in the Balkans, to the Albanians, and they do the reselling to all of Western Europe. They make U.S. dollars to buy weapons on the black markets. So all this is interwoven. In the financial investigation, together with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is where the Americans have a huge competitive edge.

What kind of attitude do you sense among other Russians toward the expected American military response?

I’m getting very mixed signals. For example, a trainer stopped me at my fitness center and asked me, “Yevgeny, why are you wearing American Stars and Stripes with a yellow ribbon? I mean, you’re not American. You’re Russian.” I said, “So what?” I was appalled by his negative reaction. He had no clue what a yellow ribbon means…. I proudly wear it because I share the concerns and aspirations of Americans that finally we can search and destroy those bastards-and not only them, but we can prevent new Osamas from poking up in different places and doing the same thing.