Has any foreign power conquered Afghanistan?
Invaders have overrun the country many times, though the region’s unruly tribes have never succumbed to foreign rule. In 329 B.C., Alexander the Great vanquished the mountainous area that is now Afghanistan as he marched through to conquer India; his armies spent the next six years trying to put down rebellions, before quitting the country. Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde crashed into the country in 1219, leveling cities and slaughtering thousands. The Mongols ruled the land for a century and a half, at a time when it was a vital part of the lucrative trade route to China called the Silk Road. “Indians from the south and Turkic peoples from the north, Mongols from the east, and Arabs from the west—who in the 10th century brought Islam to the region—all made the land their own,” said historian David Greenberg in Slate.com. “But always temporarily.”
What were the invaders up against?
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An unforgiving terrain and the fierce, resourceful people shaped by it. Afghanistan’s craggy mountains, which rise higher than 13,000 feet, straddle the trade routes joining Iran, central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. This harsh geography has kept its inhabitants isolated in small, distinct tribes, and it’s been the Afghans’ salvation. Whenever invaders storm this gateway to other lands, mountain warriors retreat to the safety of its caves and cliffs. From these hiding places, they launch brutally efficient and relentless raids on their more modern enemies, inflicting large numbers of casualties until the invaders give up and go home.
Why did the British empire become involved there?
To keep Russia from seizing control of Afghanistan and the border regions of India. The First Afghan War began in 1838, when the army of the British East India Co. invaded to keep Afghanistan and British-controlled India safe from a covetous Russia. The British writer Rudyard Kipling called this struggle over Afghanistan “the Great Game.” The British stormed to victories in the cities and installed a friendly ruler, Shah Shujah. Their success was fleeting, however, and a nationwide uprising drove the British out. On Jan. 6, 1842, 4,500 British and Indian soldiers and 12,000 civilians fled for the safety of Jalalabad. They were ambushed crossing the snow-covered mountains. Of these 16,500 people, only one man, William Brydon, survived to tell the story of the massacre.
Did the British then give up Afghanistan?
Yes, but not for long. England mounted a second invasion in 1878, after the Afghan emir, Sher Ali Khan, began building a close diplomatic relationship with the Russians. The British quickly took Kabul and Sher Ali fled the country. But the Afghans assassinated the British representative in Kabul, and a 90-year-old Muslim cleric rallied tens of thousands of tribesmen to wage a “holy war.” British soldiers mowed down their attackers by the thousands with Gatling guns; the Afghans continued to fight. Looking for an exit, the battle-worn British installed a ruler picked to please all sides and negotiated Afghan borders still observed today. Then they left.
Why are the Afghans so hard to defeat?
They travel light, can drink local water sources that would poison foreign soldiers, and are adapted to both altitude and cold. They’re also fearless: Afghanistan’s mountain warriors view it as a great honor to be killed in a holy war against invading infidels. Officers from many defeated armies have said that belief accounts for the mountaineers’ willingness to take extraordinary risks in combat. Rudyard Kipling described the Afghan tribesmen as gifted and fierce fighters, who, “being blessed with perfect sight, pick off our messmates left and right.” In his poem The Young British Soldier, Kipling did little to bolster the confidence of the invader: When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains / And the women come out to cut up what remains / Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains / An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Why did the Soviets fail?
They learned nothing from the British. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979, installing new leaders, but even with the help of 120,000 foreign soldiers they could not establish authority. Like the British, the Soviets drove the Afghan fighters into the mountains and occupied the major cities. More than 1 million Afghan soldiers and civilians died in the Soviet onslaught. But the mujaheddin resistance fighters—armed with modern weaponry by the U.S. and several Arab nations—never gave up. Soviet soldiers faced devastating ambushes that decimated their convoys and morale. “Watching them fight was like watching an old Western,” said Tom Carew, a British special-forces officer who trained mujaheddin fighters, in The Guardian. “The cowboys would come into a valley and down would come the Indians.” The Soviet army lost 15,000 men before pulling out in 1989. A faction of rebels led by religious leaders called the Taliban has ruled in recent years, though it faces opposition by another faction called the Northern Alliance.
Has Russia offered the U.S. advice?
Yes: Don’t try to fight a conventional ground war. Russian veterans say the apparent U.S. plan for a mix of commando raids and cooperation with anti-Taliban Afghans is the smartest approach. A commando war, with a precise aim such as capturing suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, could prove successful, they say. The Taliban regime, which controls most of Afghanistan, has numerous internal enemies. Most of the population does not support the strict Islamic law the Taliban has imposed. The greatest potential ally could be the Afghan rebels opposed to the Taliban; these rebels know the countryside and the guerrilla tactics of the mujaheddin. What is the
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