I know America seems the only way things could be, and we fully expect there will be an Afghanistan Republican and Democratic Party, and a Privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. And the same one true god for Iraq, but it is not going to happen.
Afghanistan was made up of 27 minority parties, tribes, all of whom were armed. They once had a King who knew all the tribes. The British invaded because they were both in the Opium business, The British Empire, Civilization and drug monopolies. At the height of Empire, Britain lost two Afghanistan wars.
The wealth of the Empire was based on enslaving India to produce Indigo Dye and Opium, which was sold at gunpoint to China. The Boxer Rebellion, ended opium sales to China, and a German Chemist made better Indigo Dye from Coal Tars, Aniline dyes from a waste product.
The British Empire went from being filthy rich, to running at a loss. The Germans were also working on synthetic rubber, that the French enslaved Cochin China over, so when an anarchist killed the Arch Duke of Austria, Britain and France declared war on Germany, because they still controlled the Guano trade, Nitrates to make gunpowder. Germans learned to fix Nitrogen from the air, and the war slaughtered millions of French and British.
The Soviet Union did try to export their system to Afghanistan, It worked in China and Southeast Asia. The Afghani people preferred a Federal System with broad local autonomy. They demanded Government by the consent of the governed. The Soviet System was top down enforced by a standing army, police, spies, and secret police, like the current American system.
Some of their Opium customers would pay in weapons, so the Afghani people voted to maintain civilian self government, supported by a well regulated militia for each tribe. Other Islamic people had joined in their fight, and after the Soviets left they were feared by their home governments, who did not support the will of the people. They would be jailed, killed, or worse if they went home. They were allowed to stay.
One group rightly held the view that the loss of all of their freedoms would start with western nations establishing a military presence. They fought back when Americans took over the Beirut Airport. They fought back when Americans set up a base in Saudi Arabia.
When in an undeclared act of war Bill Clinton sent waves of cruise missiles into the camps of the exiled freedom fighters, killing and maiming whole families, they fought back and took down the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
When invaded by a huge force of NATO, they fought it to a standstill killing thousands, and holding a hundred thousand at bay for ten years. That is over a million soldier years. They did it with what they could carry on their back.
A free people fight to preserve their form of government and way of life that has worked for thousands of years. Their cause was just when they defeated and drove out Alexander the Great, the British twice, the Soviets, and now NATO.
Most are simple people, they do not know New York, or 9/11, they are fighting because foreign invaders have come to their land.
As for the foreign fighters that fought with them against the Soviets, at a cost of becoming exiles, they were given hospitality, which must be defended with the lives of the host and their family. It is Pashtun Ware the oldest code of the people.
An Afghan knows his ancestors look down upon him and smile.
Welcome to the graveyard of Empires.
17 Oct 2015, 7:00 am
