.. before the inevitable "the Russians had tanks too." starts, we need to also point out that the Russians also had restrictive and inflexable command and only later did were they freed to respond to the enemy. Western commanders entrust their troops to respond to changing conditions and that makes all the difference.
A great reference on this is:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain : Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan
This was a Frunze Military Academy series if vinettes that detail the way the soviets started, what went wrong, what they learned and how they started getting it right.
Download it for free:
http://www.911investigations.net/document836.html
CKA Moderator 
