Why is America Still in Afghanistan?
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What we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.
When Osama Ben Laden was recognised as the architect of 9/11, had the United States dropped a small nuclear device on the Tora Bora mountains, conventional bombs on the Taliban strongholds, and did surgical strikes on high value targets; within seven days (or less) so would end any ‘threat’ from Afghanistan.
To have committed ground troops proves that no lesson was learned from history, not from ancient nor modern.
Afghanistan was a crossroads, a place occupied by various people at various times, conquered by various empires; from Biblical to modern.
Allegedly, the people of the region were the original Aryans and it is speculated that Zoroastrianism originated there as the founder lived and died in Balkh.
The Median Empire was overthorwn by the Persian, Alexander the Great conquered the area, then the Seleucid empire. Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions until the Greeks entered.
During the first century the Parthians dominated until the Indo-Parthians took over, then the Kushans, Sassanids, Kushans, Huns, Hephthalites,Sasanian, until defeat by the Muslim Arab armies, and Muslim Turks.
Genghis Khan devastated the land, exterminating everyone in the cities of Herat and Balkh. Then Tamerlane entered, and after him, Babur, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane established the Mughal Empire.
in the 1700s Afghanistan was controlled by several ruling groups. Then Mir Wais Hotak, a Pashun, killed Gurgin Khan, and the Persians. His son took over. in 1738 Nadir Shah, a Persian, (Iranian) along with the Abdali clan of Pashtuns conquered the region of Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul and Lahore. He was assassinated nine years later by his nephew.
The British arrived fought various wars, captured a lot of territory had great influence until 1919 when Afghanistan regained independence.
Things were looking good until the leader, Amanullah was forced to abdicate after attack by Klakani, who was in turn killed by Mohammed Nadi Khan, who was assassinated, and his son took the throne, until 1973.
This period; 1933 to 1973, forty years, was the longest period of stability in the history of Afganistan, going back to before Abraham was born.
After 1973 came the usual assassinations until in 1979 the Soviets invaded.
In an update of the ‘Great Game’ the United States and Russia armed their factions, and set back to watch the civil war until the Soviets left in 1989.
Chaos reigned until the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996 and by 2000 had control of 95% of the country.
Taking giant leaps backwards from the reforms begun in the early 1900s, if it was not for September 11th, the Taliban would continue in control until overthrown by some internal force.
As one can see, the state of chaos and invasion is the history of Afghanistan.
The fact that one learns nothing from history has been proven, yet again. One doesn’t need to have a crystal ball to know that no matter how long America and its allies remain, nothing will change in Afghanistan.
Clan wars will continue, assassination will be the normal mode of changing a government.
America will learn, as did the Medes, Persians, Mongols, Huns, British and Russians, that Afghanistan will always be a graveyard for anyone stupid enough to enter.
There is less ‘winning’ in Afganistan than there is in Iraq.
Today, President Obama considers sending more troops. If he does so, this will be the greatest mistake of his presidency.
9 Comments
Great article and I ask myself that same question daily, why are we still in Afghanistan.
If Bush had dropped a 10 Meg bomb, sure they’d protest, but the world would know…Bush is insane and there wouldn’t be any terrorism. One thing they understand is super violence. Bomb the mountains, bomb the camps, bomb the headquarters and that is it.
First of all, there is no way American will ever use a nuclear bomb unless we are attacked with Nukes first. There would be too many civilian casualties and the world would demonize us.
Regarding our presence there, our efforts were very successful from 2001 until about 2007. Over the last 2 years, as a result of our over-dependence on NATO troops, the Taliban has seen a resurgance. Some of the NATO troops have rules of engagement that make it impossible for them to do anything meaningful. For example, the Germans troops cannot fire upon a building unless they know for absolute certain that the only people in the building are high-level Al Queda targets. So, if they have Bin Laden and 5 crazed low-level terrorists in a building shooting at them, the German troops cannot fire back until the 5 low-level terrorists leave, so that only Bin Laden occupies the building. it is insanity to try to fight a war against terrorists in that fashion.
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http://authspot.com/poetry/largest-tree-of-mankind/
First of All David, by America having the bomb and not using it, is like a guy pulling a gun and not firing. You take it away from him.
Having now proven that the U.S. will not take that kind of action the Terrorists have the upper hand.
Put it this way; when it comes to civilian casualities, no one would be in those mountains who wasn’t part of al qeada.
As America doesn’t have much intelligence…doesn’t understand how other people see things; I suppose they were surprised to find that so many of its allies were dancing in the street after 9/11…i.e. Saudi, Egypt, Palestinians, etc.
There was a text message that was sent all over the middle east with an image of the plane hitting the building…
America will spend the next ten years in Afgan. and nothing will change. Except, about 30k Americans will die.
Then, America will leave. As it did with Viet nam.
I shall Teves
I love the way you write. Racy, informative and attention-grabbing.
thank you uma
Obama better not send more people; it will destroy his presidency