Thursday, September 27, 2001
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, a mountainous country of harsh people, has humiliated its would-be conquerors Britons and Russians more than once. Its cities are easily occupied, but the occupiers are locked in an perish, without an exit strategy. In snowy January 1842 Afghan soldiers slaughtered a contingent of 4,500 British and Indian troops and 12,000 civilians retreating from Kabul to friendly Jalalabad near the present Pakistan border, with one man left to tell the tale.That was the end of the First Afghan War, which started in 1839 with the British trying to protect Emir Dost Mohammad from Iranian and Russian cinquest. But the Emir also wanted to recover former Afghan territory in Peshavar, but that was a no-go, the Brits deposed Dost and installed a quisling, but had to restore him, before their demeaning retreat.
In 1879 Dost’s successors’ dallying with the Russians provoked another British invasion, resulting in the occupiers being massacred in Kabul, and a war, involving suicide warriors, ghazis. The occupation failed; the only salvation for the invaders was to install a popularly accepted Emir, Dost’s grandson Abdur Rahman, and withdraw. His pro-British. son Habibollah Khan was assassinated by nationalists in 1919 and grandson Amanollah Khan secured autonomy from the Empire. The country remained friendly with the USSR through changes into secular dictatorships in 1973. Attempts to establish a friendship with the US led to the Soviet invasion and murder of the last Marxist dictator Hafizullah Amin in 1979. Babrak Karmel accepted the USSR ocupancy, but partisans, trained with US help, continued attacking Soviet army (it lost 15,000 men) until a UN-backed peace led to the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1988 and declaration of a neutral state. The victorious guerillas had been trained in Pakistani military camps, financed by the CIA and the rich Saudi engineer and mullah Osama bin Ladin, The latter, a prophet in a reactonary branch of Muslim faith that accepts murder and suicide in the interests of preservation of the Islamic faith and Muslim church state, declared a fatva ("judgment," commonly accepted as a holy war) against the Americans as desecrators of Mecca, and became the enemy of the Gulf states that accepted and gave bases to the US forces in the gulf war, as well as of the secular Libyans and Syrians (the latter had actually killed off their reactionary Islamists). Some of these alliances have changed.
But the various religious, secular and national factions of guerillas refused to accept the "puppet" Najbullah regime and continued advancing to the leadership in Kabul, fighting each other. Najbullah resigned in 1992, and Burhanuddin Rabbani became President. Two million Afghans had been killed in the fighting, and six million had fled to Pakistan and Iran, both sometime enemy countries. Fearing Iranian and now Russia’s influence, Pakistan had empowered the Pushtans allied in the Taliban led by the Mullah Muhammad Oman to overthrow Rabbani, and they succeeded
These are homogeneous people, Of the 22 million inhabitants, the Parthans, basic supporters of the Taliban are 38% , Tajiks, Uzbeks and nomadic Turkmens of the North form another % Shiite Iranians are about 1 million. Texas-size Afghanistan has border disputes with the slightly larger Pakistan, because Afghan-populated North-West Province (Peshawar) was voted into Afghanistan during the partition of British India in 1947 by by giving the inhabitants only two choices, to be in India or Pakistan. When Pakisrtan’s eastern part became independent Bangladesh in 1972, there were calls for an independent Pushtunistan.
History’s crossroads, Afghanistan was conquered by Darius the Great of Persia 2,500 years ago, then by Alexander the Great ("Bactria"), and a Buddhist empire. Muslim Arabs came starting 1300 years ago., then Genghis Khan (1220) and Tamerlane 150 years later. His descendant Babur (1483-1530) out of Kabul established the mighty Moghul Empire and ruled the Indian subcontinent The rulers of Kabul changed frequently, until the off-and-on Dost Muhammad dynasty lasted until a republic was proclaimed in 1973. Last king, Mohammad Daud Khan, lives in NYC
Romance about Afghanistan and the ferocious Pushtos or Parthans or xx abounds. Khyber Pass, a 28-mile long narrow road with 34 tunnels and 92 bridges connecting Peshawar and Kabul has been the eeentranceway for the various conquerors entering India fron the North. It has been fateful for the British conquerors. Rudyard Kipling in 1899 wrote:
In 1879 Dost’s successors’ dallying with the Russians provoked another British invasion, resulting in the occupiers being massacred in Kabul, and a war, involving suicide warriors, ghazis. The occupation failed; the only salvation for the invaders was to install a popularly accepted Emir, Dost’s grandson Abdur Rahman, and withdraw. His pro-British. son Habibollah Khan was assassinated by nationalists in 1919 and grandson Amanollah Khan secured autonomy from the Empire. The country remained friendly with the USSR through changes into secular dictatorships in 1973. Attempts to establish a friendship with the US led to the Soviet invasion and murder of the last Marxist dictator Hafizullah Amin in 1979. Babrak Karmel accepted the USSR ocupancy, but partisans, trained with US help, continued attacking Soviet army (it lost 15,000 men) until a UN-backed peace led to the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1988 and declaration of a neutral state. The victorious guerillas had been trained in Pakistani military camps, financed by the CIA and the rich Saudi engineer and mullah Osama bin Ladin, The latter, a prophet in a reactonary branch of Muslim faith that accepts murder and suicide in the interests of preservation of the Islamic faith and Muslim church state, declared a fatva ("judgment," commonly accepted as a holy war) against the Americans as desecrators of Mecca, and became the enemy of the Gulf states that accepted and gave bases to the US forces in the gulf war, as well as of the secular Libyans and Syrians (the latter had actually killed off their reactionary Islamists). Some of these alliances have changed.
But the various religious, secular and national factions of guerillas refused to accept the "puppet" Najbullah regime and continued advancing to the leadership in Kabul, fighting each other. Najbullah resigned in 1992, and Burhanuddin Rabbani became President. Two million Afghans had been killed in the fighting, and six million had fled to Pakistan and Iran, both sometime enemy countries. Fearing Iranian and now Russia’s influence, Pakistan had empowered the Pushtans allied in the Taliban led by the Mullah Muhammad Oman to overthrow Rabbani, and they succeeded
These are homogeneous people, Of the 22 million inhabitants, the Parthans, basic supporters of the Taliban are 38% , Tajiks, Uzbeks and nomadic Turkmens of the North form another % Shiite Iranians are about 1 million. Texas-size Afghanistan has border disputes with the slightly larger Pakistan, because Afghan-populated North-West Province (Peshawar) was voted into Afghanistan during the partition of British India in 1947 by by giving the inhabitants only two choices, to be in India or Pakistan. When Pakisrtan’s eastern part became independent Bangladesh in 1972, there were calls for an independent Pushtunistan.
History’s crossroads, Afghanistan was conquered by Darius the Great of Persia 2,500 years ago, then by Alexander the Great ("Bactria"), and a Buddhist empire. Muslim Arabs came starting 1300 years ago., then Genghis Khan (1220) and Tamerlane 150 years later. His descendant Babur (1483-1530) out of Kabul established the mighty Moghul Empire and ruled the Indian subcontinent The rulers of Kabul changed frequently, until the off-and-on Dost Muhammad dynasty lasted until a republic was proclaimed in 1973. Last king, Mohammad Daud Khan, lives in NYC
Romance about Afghanistan and the ferocious Pushtos or Parthans or xx abounds. Khyber Pass, a 28-mile long narrow road with 34 tunnels and 92 bridges connecting Peshawar and Kabul has been the eeentranceway for the various conquerors entering India fron the North. It has been fateful for the British conquerors. Rudyard Kipling in 1899 wrote:
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 2:53 AM 
