The Graveyard of Empires

Soviet Afghan War, 1979-89

The Graveyard of Empires

What We Never Seem to Learn

In Vietnam, military arrogance led us to believe that notwithstanding the vast array of underground tunnels, built over hundreds of years and thoroughly known by local fighters, the use of helicopters to isolate and annihilate fleeing “hit and run” irregulars before they could descend into those passages would accomplish what no other combatant in that area could ever do. They did not read history. Going back to the 15th century to the complaints of China’s Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor that these damned Annamese (ancient name) would never stand and fight but hit quickly and disappear. Or the annihilation of the French Foreign Legion as Communist forces dragged howitzers up through muddy jungle peaks for a year before decimating the Legion post at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, driving the French out of Indochina (of which Vietnam was a huge part). We ignored history. We lost. We lost big.

And we did not appreciate the challenges of some of the most rugged lands on earth, Afghanistan The reasons have decimated conquerors throughout recorded history. “Afghanistan is a notoriously difficult country to govern. Empire after empire, nation after nation have failed to pacify what is today the modern territory of Afghanistan, giving the region the nickname ‘Graveyard of Empires,’ even if sometimes those empires won some initial battles and made inroads into the region. If the United States and its allies decide to leave Afghanistan, they would only the latest in a long series of nations to do so. As the British learned in their 1839-1842 war in Afghanistan, it is often easier to do business with a local ruler with popular support than to support a leader backed by foreign powers; the costs of propping up such a leader eventually add up. The closest most historical empires have come to controlling Afghanistan was by adopting a light-handed approach, as the Mughals did. They managed to loosely control the area by paying off various tribes, or granting them autonomy. Attempts at anything resembling centralized control, even by native Afghan governments, have largely failed.

“Afghanistan is particularly hard to conquer primarily due to the intersection of three factors. First, because Afghanistan is located on the main land route between Iran, Central Asia, and India, it has been invaded many times and settled by a plethora of tribes, many mutually hostile to each other and outsiders. Second, because of the frequency of invasion and the prevalence of tribalism in the area, its lawlessness lead to a situation where almost every village or house was built like a fortress, or qalat. Third, the physical terrain of Afghanistan makes conquest and rule extremely difficult, exacerbating its tribal tendencies. Afghanistan is dominated by some of the highest and more jagged mountains in the world. These include the Hindu Kush, which dominates the country and run through the center and south of the country, as well as the Pamir mountains in the east. The Pamir Knot — where the Hindu Kush, Pamir, Tian Shan, Kunlun, and Himalayas all meet is situated in Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan.” TheDiplomat.com. Most recently, the Soviet Union collapsed and splintered shortly after its failed, decades-long Afghan war to shore up a friendly government.

Until his removal by a military coup in 1973, Mohammed Zahir Shah reigned as a stabilizing monarch in Afghanistan beginning in 1933. Having administered a thriving business selling a local goat wool as insulation in military jackets (particularly valuable for pilots) during WWII, Shah wanted to use that windfall to build dams, for agricultural and hydroelectric power. He hired American engineers to implement that strategy in the 1950s. US installations and literally white picket fenced homes, designed for the Americans, sprouted up. The dams were constructed, but the land was so poor (too salty) that only commercial crop that could take root was the opium poppy. The result was worse than a horrible failure. The region soon became the planet’s major supplier of opium/heroin. What was more surprising is American decayed construction in Helmond province created ideal defensive positions for the local insurgents who would claim that region in the years to come.

As we learned again in Iraq, our military was good at blowing stuff up and toppling under-equipped local militaries… but the US military was absolutely the wrong American policy vehicle to create a viable and sustainable post-conquest governments, particularly in less-than-modern regions. The Afghan government we installed to substitute for the Islamist Taliban we removed – obviously only temporarily – was considered among the most corrupt and incompetent on earth. We never truly controlled much more than the capital and its environs during our never-ending war there. War lords and Taliban jockeyed for sporadic control of the rest of the country.

Two trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths later – including thousands of American soldiers – the United States is going. The promises of equal treatment for women and girls and general notions of personal freedom and a secular system of justice are vaporizing. Educational opportunities for girls are likely to disappear. Sharia law under Taliban rule seems almost inevitable. Notwithstanding a flimsy “peace treaty” between the Taliban and the US, the Taliban insist that treaty did not include the existing Afghan government. We may still be able to mount air strikes from distant lands, but it seems abundantly clear that the Afghan army lacks the necessary training, and most certainly the necessary will, to resist an all-but-certain return of Taliban autocracy. 

The July 5th Associated Press provides the hard facts: “The Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan gained momentum overnight with the capture of several districts from fleeing Afghan forces, several hundred of whom crossed the border into Tajikistan, officials said Sunday [7/4]… More than 300 Afghan military personnel entered Tajikistan from Badakhshan province as Taliban fighters advanced toward the border, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement. The Afghan troops crossed over about 6:30 p.m. Saturday [7/3]… ‘Guided by the principles of humanism and good neighborliness,’ the Tajik authorities allowed the retreating Afghan national security forces to cross, the statement said.

“Since mid-April, when President Biden announced the end to the ‘forever war’ in Afghanistan, the Taliban has made strides throughout the country. But its most significant gains have been in the northern half of the country, a traditional stronghold of the U.S.-allied warlords who helped defeat the group in 2001… The Taliban now controls roughly a third of all 421 districts and district centers in Afghanistan.

“The gains in Badakhshan province have mostly come to the insurgent movement without a fight, said Mohib-ul Rahman, a provincial council member. He blamed Taliban successes on the poor morale of troops who are mostly outnumbered and without resupplies… ‘Unfortunately, the majority of the districts were left to the Taliban without any fight,’ said Rahman. In the last three days, 10 districts fell to the Taliban, eight without a fight, he said.

“Hundreds of Afghan soldiers, police and intelligence agents surrendered their military outposts and fled to the Badakhshan provincial capital, Faizabad, Rahman said… Even as a security meeting was being held early Sunday to plot the strengthening of the perimeter around the capital, some senior provincial officials were leaving Faizabad for Kabul, he said… In late June, the Afghan government resurrected militias with a reputation for brutal violence to support the beleaguered Afghan forces, but Rahman said many of the militias in the Badakhshan districts put up only a half-hearted fight.”

Indeed as the Taliban regain control, there will be executions, many of them barbaric, and the cruelty of sharia law will be inflicted on a people quite sick of war and conquest. Education for girls will be curtailed if not totally eliminated. Women will be shoved back in time into roles completely alien and inappropriate under human rights standards. We raised hopes. And we did not deliver. Again.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I wonder why we continue to elect leaders who will not read history books… destined to repeat mistakes that centuries of others have made.