The Basic History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan and i learned a lot of the History of Afghanistan
from a book that i just picked up again to read. Its called Ghost Wars and its all about the
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s up into the attacks on 9/11 that got us involved in our own war in Afghanistan.

To me the history of Afganistan is both sad and interesting. Every since man has lived in Afghanistan and people have attempted to conquer Asia and have struggled in this land.
Alexander the Great was the first to successfully conquer Afghanistan for a while at least. Over the ages many different cultures have taken control of Afganistan and included it in many empires.The modern history of Afghanistan is considered to have been started in the 1700's with the rising power of a local clan known as the Pashtuns. This clan ended up controlling all of modern Afghanistan, most of Pakistan, as well as parts of India and Iran. But the Empire of Kabul as it was known lost control of their more distant possesions over time.

In the 19th century when European countries were really into colonization, the British Empire attempted to take control of Afghanistan after they conquered India and Pakistan.There were a series of wars between the local Afgans and the British known as the Anglo-Afghan wars also known as "The Great Game". The Great Game wasn't just the Anglo-Afghan wars but also the struggle for control in Central Asia between Great Britain and the Russian Empire. The result of all the wars between Great Britain and the local Afghani tribes in the end was nothing in the end. Afghanistan retains their independence and it can be considered the end of the British Empire. The conflicts between these two ended in 1919.

At this time the Kingdom of Afghanistan was established and was ruled by King Amanullah Khan. He attempted to modernize Afghanistan by making elementary education compulsory and for both boys and girls. He also added amendments to their constitution giving women rights. All this alienated the really traditional and religious tribes there. And this resulted in an armed revolution led by the King's nephew that took control of the country. In that same year the revolutionaries were a victim of their own tactics and were ousted with the considerable support of the Pashtun tribes. The next King was Mohammed Zahir Shah he ruled from 1933-1973 the longest period of stability in Afghanistan in its modern history. During all the wars in this time Afghanistan stayed neutral through World War 1 and 2. But when the Cold War came around Afghanistan was used by the United States and the USSR to gain influence over the other. And the Afghan government was playing bothsides off against each other by accepting investments into Afghanistan from both sides.

In late 1973 there was a bloodless coup (or take over of the government by an outside force) led by Mohammed Daoud Khan and formed the Republic of Afghanistan. Daoud Khan ruled the Republic of Afghanistan for five years and when the leader of the communist party in Afghanistan or the PDPA. The PDPA feared that the President would eliminate them so they elminated the government of Daoud Khan first and formed a communist government. They created a lot of reforms such as freedom of religion, land reform, coeducation, and womens rights. This did not sit well with conservative religous groups all over Afghanistan, because it went against their Islamic beliefs. And as a result much of Afghanistan went into open revolt against the communist government and religous leaders were declaring jihad or religious war.

The communist government had opened pandoras box and needed help desperately, they asked the USSR to sent military aid. The USSR took full advantage of this invitation and invaded Afghanistan with 100,000 soldiers and another 100,000 in reserve in 1979. There was a l0t of resistance to the Soviet invaision world and wide not to mention the full fledged war between the communists and the mujahideen or "holy warriors". The mujahideen was the organization of all those local Afghans going to jihad against the communists, they recieved extensive support from the Pakistani, Saudi Arabian, and U.S. governments. These countries sent support in supplies such as food, water, medical stuffs and money. But more importantly they eventually started to send weapons through Pakistan over the border to arm the mujahideen with weapons that would be able to take out the best the Soviet military had to offer. At first the United States hesitated to send weapons but through the C.I.A. they began to covertly sent arms to the Afghan people.

Although the USSR had sent in an extremely large military forced armed with the most modern military equipment they had to offer. They were struggling in the very different conflict, one they hadnt prepared for. The country side of Afghanistan is extremely mountainous and when it is flat it is mainly desert. There is practically no infrastructure most importantly there aren't many roads for the big Soviet tanks they brought. The Soviet military ended up holding and controlling all of the built up urban areas, leaving the vast countryside and smaller villages to the mujahideen and other rebel fighters. And even when the rebel Afghans only had bolt action rifles they never hesitated to take on Soviet troops armed with AK-47 assault rifles. The mujahideen were way out classed by the Soviet equipment but they never gave up or backed down. It took the C.I.A. a long time for them to get any effective weaponry to the Afghan freedom fighters. They were concerned that the USSR would retaliate if they saw weapons made in the United States in the hands of the mujahideen. So they bought weapons from other Eastern block countries, that used the same weapons as the Soviet Union, and provided them to the Afghan rebel through the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence) to fighters going accross the boarder.

This jihad taken very seriously through the Islamic world, they feared the influence of communism and it's spread from Central Asia into the Middle East. Fighters from Palestine and Saudi Arabia joined the holy war against the communist aggressors and get them out of Afghanistan. Imam and mullahs (religious leaders of Islam) saw communism as a threat to their beliefs and teachings. As a result of the approval from the leadership of different Islamic sects foreign fighters from as far as Europe poured into Afghanistan from the boarder with Pakistan to fight in the jihad.

With this combination of foriegn fighters and lots and lots of weapons from outside sources the war started to very badly for the Soviets. They were almost completely isolated to the cities because they would lose so many armored vehicles to the rebel mujahideen fighters. The biggest threat to the Soveit tanks and BMPs was the RPGs, or rocket propelled grenades. A weapon that was invented and mass produced in the USSR and now being used against their own soldiers. The way the mujahideen were fighting the war was also new to the Soviets, they would not openly engauge in large scale battles but attack and retreat to cut of the engaugements with the Soviet military.

This type of warfare is known as Guerrilla warfare or to Guerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army. The guerrilla army uses ambush and mobility in attacking vulnerable targets in enemy territory. The same tactics that the VC used on us in Vietnam in the 60s and early 70s. The mujahideen used the Afghanistan and Pakistan boarder area as protection from the Soviets and to conduct raids and ambushes from there. And as the rebels continued the use of these tactics the causualties of the Soviets were rising expenentionally. And the communsist hating Americans were taking advantage of this and arming the mujahideen so they could kill more of the their rivals. In response to this strategy the Soviets used a lot of helicopters to gain an advantage of the moutainous terrain. They had Mil-24 gun ship helicopters used to carry soldiers and carried a large supply of machine guns and rockets. These helicopters were turning the tide of the war back into the Soviets favor. The Americans as a result provided the mujahideen with missle launchers to shoot down helicopters and even planes.

This was pretty much the last straw for the Soviets, they could not handle the cost of lives as well as the financial costs. And from 1985 to 1987 they started making plans to withdraw from Afghanistan and turn control of Afghanistan to the communist state. They left them with strong military force of Afghan soldiers but since the mujahideen was winning the war desertion was extremely high and the Afghan army fell apart after the Soviets left by 1989. This left the country in total chaos and turmoil and was the beggining of the civil war for control of the country. Now all those groups fighting the Soviet were fighting eachother and using the weapons mainly provided by the United States through the C.I.A.


And after years of fighting a group known as the Taliban took control of most of the country and the capital of Kabul in 1996. But as the Taliban took control other factions joined to form the Northern Alliance and fought back vicioulsly against the Taliban. Over time the Taliban won thanks to their experience in warfare as well as international support by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The Taliban ruled by following the guideline provided by the Koran, and followed their interpretation with extreme strictness and cruel punishment. They repressed women forcing them to wear burkas and not allowing them to go to school. And having executions of people who were caught breaking the smallest rules infringing on their Islamic teachings. The Taliban provided sancutary and bases for the terrorist group we've come to know as Al-Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden. They trained and organized their followers in bases in Afghanistan with weapons from the war with the Soviet Union and prepared to attack the United States next.


On September 11th in 2001 we were attacked by terrorist belonging to Al-Qaeda and they used hijacked planes and crashed them into building on the east coast of the United States. As a result of this we went to war with Al-Qaeda and since they were in Afghanistan being protected by the Taliban they were also part of the problem and became an enemy force against us. The U.S. military was quick in taking over Afghanistan and forcing the Taliban into their old tactics of guerrilla warfare to fight our much more superior military. The Taliban also retain a large stock pile of weaponery from all the wars that have occured in Afghanistan. And since much of rural Afghanistan is control of the Taliban they grow poppy used to make heroin to fund their war; the heroin made in Afghanistan makes up 80% of produced heroin in the world. And because they use their favorite tactics to hit and run we are losing causualties at a steady rate. And because they have time on their side they can afford to just widle away public support here at home and they will over time force us out of Afghanistan. It seems like Afghanistan is impossible to win, I believe it is possible if we better learn our enemy and the history of the country they live in. The only way for us to win is to bring out commitment level so much higher that it is now; the Taliban will be overwhelmed and may bring a possible end the fighting temporarily and may possibly join the local and national political process to better express their beliefs.