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A short military history of Afghanistan
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In the media…
In Washington…
On the front lines…
It seems that anywhere you look that Afghanistan is on everyone’s mind. What to do? How to do it? What will work? Are the rewards worth the risk? Is there any way for this war to end?
To even attempt to answer these questions, a closer look is needed at Afghanistan as a country, as a culture, as a people, and what exactly we hoped to accomplish there in the first place. This is a four-part series of articles that will seek to explain these. This first one will focus primarily on their history from a militaristic standpoint.
Afghanistan is a land-locked, very mountainous, and rugged country. Up until the last 9 years, it was not a very well-known country, at least not in the United States. It was hardly more than a blip on the radar screens of any average American. The intelligence community tried to keep one eye open towards the country after the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, but never could imagine that 19 people trained in this country could deal a devastating blow to this country. But this was not the first time that this country and people have been underestimated. Countless times throughout history the people who reside here have proven to be capable adversaries and more than adequately knowledgeable in the art of war.
An ancient Middle-Eastern prayer went something like: “May God deliver us from the venom of the cobra, teeth of the tiger and the vengeance of the Afghan.” Alexander the Great was one of the first foreign invaders of the tribal areas that are Afghanistan today, and he defeated them at first. Victory did not come easily to him though. He spent more time there than he did conquering the entire Persian Empire, because the Afghans were constantly starting revolutions that bogged him down in the region, and the people there never fully submitted to his rule, or their defeat, a concept that Alexander had not yet encountered.
During the 1800s and early 1900s, the British Empire and Russia vied for control of the country in what became known as the Great Game. This was mostly the British trying to protect its “jewel of the crown” in the region, which was the Indian subcontinent, and the Russians trying to position themselves to take over said region. This time period saw three wars fought between the British and Afghans, mostly over the role of British forces in Afghanistan, and many military skirmishes between Russia and the Afghans.
Afghanistan stayed neutral and did not fight in World War II, and did not seek to support either side in the Cold War, but in the 1970s, the government had become pro-Soviet, because of the billions that were sent in economic and military aid from the Soviet Union. Because of a major, U.S.-backed resistance movement of Mujahedeen fighters, the Soviets invaded the country to eliminate this resistance. This caused a massive amount of U.S. funding and military aid to begin flowing into Afghanistan through Pakistan. With large amounts of modern weaponry, the mujahedeen inflicted such heavy losses to the Soviets that in 1988, after nine years of constant war and international pressure, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.
After the Soviets left Afghanistan, many of the mujahedeen wished to use the tactics and weapons that defeated the Soviets in Kashmir and against Israel. Many different organizations were formed to this end, most notably the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.
With this kind of history of military encounters with many of the major powers in world history, the people of Afghanistan have a deserved sense of pride about their military prowess. They are very quick to point out that they brought a superpower to its knees only a short time ago.
When the Soviets left, they left a power vacuum in their wake, and this brought about a civil war that led to many shifts in power in the last 20 years. Much of this time, the country was divided among various warlords as the mujahedeen factions turned against one another. It was during this period that the Taliban rose to power, and in 1996, they seized control of the capital city of Kabul. By 2000, they had control of almost the entire country. The small part of the country that remained was controlled by the Northern Alliance. The Al-Qaeda group found their refuge in Afghanistan just after the Taliban’s rise to power in 1996, and established training camps in order to export jihad to anywhere in the world it was required. From Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda planned and executed attacks against the United States and any of its allies. The plans for attacks against the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the bombing of the USS Cole, and ultimately the attacks of September 11th, 2001 were all created from within Afghanistan.
So, what’s the point o knowing a militaristic history of Afghanistan? Just that the Afghans are historically warriors, and have never truly been defeated. They have a fighting spirit which makes them a force to be reckoned with by any military standards.
It also means that the United States, however just and right that their war is, will never defeat the Afghans militarily. Afghanistan is a war where hearts and minds matter more than bullets and boots on the ground. This does not mean that military security is not very important in this war, just that it is not the only path to victory. In upcoming articles, we’ll explore the people and culture of the Afghans, as well as the U.S. role there…
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