Afghanistan: Losing the New Great Game
GNN
Afghanistan & the Ghost of Kim
The Imperial War Museum in London still celebrates the men of the Black Watch regiment, the fusiliers, and the dragoons who fought a seemingly endless war along what is now the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are no monuments, however, to the real victims of the "Great Game," the Pashtun, the Tajik, the Hazara, and the Uzbeks, pitted against one another in a deadly chess game played by men whose capitals lay half a world away.
The Great Game Revisited
How just like the old days it must be for British Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in southern Afghanistan. NATO, taking over from the United States, is pouring troops into Helmand Province, 8,000 of which will be British.
Speaking in Kandahar, not all that far from England's old colonial fortress at Quetta, he announced, "I have the force, the rules of engagement, and the caveat-free environment to do everything I need."
One wonders what Greek commander in Alexander's army made that same speech, what Soviet general thought he also had "the force" and a "caveat-free environment" to do as he pleased.
In truth, General Richards holds exactly the ground he stands on-so long as it isn't nightfall. After four years of war, the U.S.-led coalition is scrambling to contain a spreading insurgency, not only in the south, but the north and the east as well. In late May, Taliban insurgents overran a district capital in Oruzgan Province, and according to the Financial Times, a government presence doesn't exist outside the Helmand Province capital of Lashkar Gar. Two weeks ago Kabul exploded, with tens of thousands of people stoning American military vehicles and chanting for foreign troops to leave.
This ground and history is familiar for the British. It will be, after all, England's fourth war in Afghanistan.
The first (1838-42) was ignited when the Brits forcibly installed Shah Shujah as the Afghan king. That went rather badly, and riots finally forced the British out of Kabul in 1842. As the army was retreating to India, it was ambushed, overrun, and destroyed. The war ended when the English marched back, ravaged Kabul, burned the great bazaar, and killed 20,000 Afghans. Read more
Afghanistan & the Ghost of Kim
"He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - the Wonder House as the natives called the Lahore Museum. Who hold Zam-Zammah, that 'fire-breathing dragon,' hold the Punjab; for the great green bronze piece is always first of the conqueror's loot."So Rudyard Kipling opens his Magnus opus - "Kim" - the tale of Kimball O'Hara, orphan of an Irish color-sergeant in England's colonial army, then warring with the locals in India's northwest frontier. It is a story of the 19th century "Great Game," when the Russians and British blackguarded one another in remote villages and frozen passes, fighting for glory, empire, and the crossroads of Central Asia.
The Imperial War Museum in London still celebrates the men of the Black Watch regiment, the fusiliers, and the dragoons who fought a seemingly endless war along what is now the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are no monuments, however, to the real victims of the "Great Game," the Pashtun, the Tajik, the Hazara, and the Uzbeks, pitted against one another in a deadly chess game played by men whose capitals lay half a world away.
The Great Game Revisited
How just like the old days it must be for British Lieutenant General David Richards, commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in southern Afghanistan. NATO, taking over from the United States, is pouring troops into Helmand Province, 8,000 of which will be British.
Speaking in Kandahar, not all that far from England's old colonial fortress at Quetta, he announced, "I have the force, the rules of engagement, and the caveat-free environment to do everything I need."
One wonders what Greek commander in Alexander's army made that same speech, what Soviet general thought he also had "the force" and a "caveat-free environment" to do as he pleased.
In truth, General Richards holds exactly the ground he stands on-so long as it isn't nightfall. After four years of war, the U.S.-led coalition is scrambling to contain a spreading insurgency, not only in the south, but the north and the east as well. In late May, Taliban insurgents overran a district capital in Oruzgan Province, and according to the Financial Times, a government presence doesn't exist outside the Helmand Province capital of Lashkar Gar. Two weeks ago Kabul exploded, with tens of thousands of people stoning American military vehicles and chanting for foreign troops to leave.
This ground and history is familiar for the British. It will be, after all, England's fourth war in Afghanistan.
The first (1838-42) was ignited when the Brits forcibly installed Shah Shujah as the Afghan king. That went rather badly, and riots finally forced the British out of Kabul in 1842. As the army was retreating to India, it was ambushed, overrun, and destroyed. The war ended when the English marched back, ravaged Kabul, burned the great bazaar, and killed 20,000 Afghans. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 3:14 PM
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