First, not that many Afghanis fought with the Soviets. Those that fought against the Soviets were unified in purpose (if not in organization) by the need to drive out foreign invaders. That's a powerful motivation, especially when you look at the brutal tactics the Soviets often used deliberately targeting civilians. The same motivation is why the Soviet Army fought so hard during WWII. They'd been invaded by a brutal army and were bent on driving them out.

On the other hand, we had quite a few Afghanis fighting with us. Fact is, they did almost all of the ground fighting which is as it should be. Freedom is something that's best earned, not handed out.

Another point is that the Soviet soldiers were almost all conscripts who lacked any motivation other than to get home alive. Soviet era conscripts served only two years, so most of the enlisted men weren't highly skilled. If you read about the structure of the Soviet/Russian military, they don't have much in the way of a professional NCO corps like we have. In contrast, all of our military forces are volunteers. The forces we deployed were among our most highly skilled and motivated, and our professional NCO corps are the backbone of the services.

Finally, our weapons are indeed superior to what the Soviets used, especially in terms of accuracy. One or two smart bombs dropped by a single plane can usually take out a target that might require dozens of dumb bombs dropped by squadrons of planes. Oh, yes. We do study military operations around the world to learn what does and doesn't work. Our military incorporates these lessons learned into our battle plans.