Afghan Boomerang is a very interesting book that was written by a former Soviet Medical Officer who was deployed to Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s and worked there for 21 months. The officer, Oleg Novinkov, tells of his military experiences and gives readers a historical account of the country and his thoughts about the war as it relates to the current United States-Afghan war. In the year 2010, Dr. Novinkov returned to Afghanistan and tells readers of his thoughts and experiences during his trip back.
Dr. Novinkov speaks about various conflicts from the past, using movies and books regarding war to help further make his feelings clear. A good analogy of his trip might be the movie Back to the Future, concerning a boy who traveled back in time to see what went on when his parents were teenagers and how it affected his life in the future. Dr. Novinkov now lives in the United States and has lived both in a ‘Capitalist’ country as well as in a ‘Socialist’ country where he grew up and worked. Therefore, he has a unique background from which to compare, contrast, and give his opinions. It is intriguing to read about his ideas and thoughts regarding the politics and politicians of each country. Readers will be fascinated by some, if not all, of Dr. Novinkov’s views regarding the many issues facing the United States today.
Dr. Novinkov writes about what it was like to be in the middle of combat conditions during the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and makes comparisons regarding the current war in Afghanistan with America. The doctor seems to feel that the United States didn’t use the situations from the 80’s as a learning experience and that the U.S. didn’t go back to study what happened in the war between the USSR and Afghanistan in the past. The question on his mind at this time is “Will this present war cause the complete collapse of the United States?”
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