A brief history of the empires that were broken in the Hindu Kush.
By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
Where is the United States’ war in Afghanistan going? Recently, the Trump administration gave Secretary of Defense James
Mattis the authority to set troop levels there; so far, rumors suggest that 4,000 more American troops may soon be on their
way to Afghanistan. However, this may not be enough; occupying and administering Afghanistan is a herculean task that few
empires have ever had success with. The Taliban continue to gain in strength, while ISIS is expanding throughout the country.
The Taliban, ISIS, various warlords, and the Afghan government all continue to fight each other.
Writing in the Atlantic, Peter Beinart described the current U.S.-led war there as hopeless: the Taliban are unlikely to cut a
deal because time is on their side, and they merely have to wait it out until the United States decides to leave. The United
States has been involved in Afghanistan for almost 16 years, making it the longest conflict in its history (with the possible
exception of Vietnam, depending on how one interprets the chronology of that conflict). Despite spending more on
Afghanistan than on rebuilding Europe after World War II, little progress has been made. It would not be surprising if the
Taliban controlled all of Afghanistan within a decade.
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.
Courtesy The Diplomat
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