On Afghanistan

 

On Afghanistan

 The Biden Marxist government, in a sophomoric, ill thought out and precipitous action, ordered all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, forthwith.  Other NATO forces are right behind the U.S. withdrawal.

 After Twenty years of war, over 2400 American military lives, and over $2.2 trillion in U.S. taxpayer funds, are to be for naught, since the same Taliban that ruled the country as a seventh century fiefdom, is poised to once again subjugate the country to a brutal form of Wahhabism inspired, literally, by seventh century, Islam.

 Not to say that we should not be getting out of Afghanistan after America’s longest war, but not via a juvenile, naïve, total withdrawal on the spur of the moment, leaving billions of war materiel behind for the Taliban, but no residual exit forces.

 Joe Biden’s assurances to the uninformed masses, that the non-Taliban Afghan forces are strong enough to fend of the ever-encroaching Taliban are marvels of wishful thinking and dishonesty.  Our Rock’n’roll Secretary of State, Blinken, must have told Grandpa Joe this bedtime story with his warm milk.

 This article is somewhat dated, from 2014. (It’s interesting that the author talks about a NATO withdrawal in late 2014).  These are some quotes about Afghanistan being “unconquerable”. –

 “It is clearly not true, as is sometimes said, that its impossible to conquer Afghanistan -many Empires have done so, from the ancient Persians, through Alexander the Great to the Mongols, the Mughals and the Qajars.

 But the economics means that it is impossible to get Afghanistan to pay for its own occupation - it is, as the then Emir said as he surrendered to the British in 1839, "a land of only stones and men".

 Any occupying army here will hemorrhage money and blood to little gain, and in the end most throw in the towel, as the British did in 1842, as the Russians did in 1988 and as NATO will do later this year.”

 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26483320

 

This article by “The Diplomat” gives a brief description of the various powers that have invaded Afghanistan over the centuries, with mixed success.  To be noted is the fact that Afghanistan in nearly 100% Muslim, owing to the fact that the territory was conquered and converted to Islam by invading Arabs during the 7^th century.

 “During the 7th century, the Rashidun Caliphate Arabs entered the territory that is now Afghanistan after defeating the Sassanian Persians in Nihawand. After this colossal defeat, the last Sassanid emperor, Yazdegerd III, fled eastward deep into Central Asia. In pursuing Yazdegerd, the Arabs entered the area from northeastern Iran via Herat, where they stationed a large portion of their army before advancing toward northern Afghanistan.

 Many of the inhabitants of northern Afghanistan accepted Islam through Umayyad missionary efforts, particularly under the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and Umar ibn AbdulAziz. In the south, Abdur Rahman bin Samara made incursions into Zabulistan which was ruled by the Zunbils.

 https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/why-is-afghanistan-the-graveyard-of-empires/

 

The U.S. is not the first world empire to founder on the rocks and mountains and Mujaheddin of Afghanistan.  One would think that we would have learned something from the past invaders, particularly the USSR in 1988, and the British Empire in the nineteenth century, who, in 1842, lost 4,500 troops, along with about 12,000 civilians: the latter comprising both the families of Indian and British soldiers, plus workmen, servants and other Indian camp-followers, annihilated by Afghan tribesmen.

 A quote from Rudyard Kipling’s “Young British Soldier”, -

“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.

Go, go, go like a soldier,”

 

Ray Gruszecki

July 10, 2021