@JWilliams 👍🏿 can't have this again.
'According to scholars Rafael Reuveny and Aseem Prakash, the war contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union by undermining the image of the Red Army as invincible, undermining Soviet legitimacy, and by creating new forms of political participation'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War#Weakening_of_the_Soviet_Union
Probably "ominous prediction" is a better way to put it.