The First Afghan War

During the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan and resulting freedom struggle... a period of approximately nine years... does anyone know how many Soviet troops ended up going through Afghanistan?

The figure, over 500,000, is astounding. What is equally astounding is how well the US played the Soviet Union during the conflict.

It seems to me only fitting that as we now hear about plans to stay in Iraq until at least 2010, we have to begin asking ourselves... have we been caught in an Afghan trap as well?