veteran’s corner
Tom Krabbenhoft
There is a far off land where soldiers fight and die. It is haunted with ghosts of soldiers over a thousand years back.
What do the Persian Empire, Alexander The Great, Ghengis Khan, Mughal Empire, British Empire, The Russians and the United States have in common?
They’ve all endured warfare in Afghanistan.
The degrees of success can’t be measured in time, money or anything else as the degree of success of any level in Afghanistan is measured in blood and misery.
It’s a land divided by mountains, tribalism, Islam and hundreds of years of fighting. Bandits to this day use the terrain to hide and rob at will. Throw in even more years of distrust of foreigners you have a toxic drink no country will ever be able to slake their thirst of conquest on.
Afghanistan is strategically located between many former empires, religions and cultures.
Alexander the great said of the place “soldiers will always suffer, especially here”. Ghengis Khan was so infuriated he had a great city burned, razed and plowed the remains with salt so nothing would ever grow again. He lists a Grandson and a Son-in-law there. The British called Afghanistan the poison jewel in the crown, an empire the sun never set on. The Russians called it their Vietnam and we may likely call it our second Vietnam.
Alexander The Great and Ghengis Khan were arguably the most successful at ruling Afghanistan. Why? Absolutely brutal unwavering force. Alexander suffered more casualties in one day in Afghanistan than he did on one of his entire campaigns. Alexander paid them back by slaughtering 10s of thousands of people forcing them into submission.
Great Khan sent an emissary to the Khwarezmia ruler in Afghanistan. The emissary was never heard from again. A second emissary was sent. He returned with his hat nailed to his head. For this they were met with even more brutality than Alexander showed them.
Resistance in the Bamiyan valley that most of the original residents were killed. Most of the Hazara that live there now are decedents of a Mongol garrison that was placed there.
Watch for the name Hazara. They are the most discriminated group in Afghanistan and are hated by the Pashtuns mostly due to their Chinese appearance.
The Mughals success was through bribes and payoffs. As the saying goes give someone an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Modern military thinkers list the 5 hardest countries to conquer. 1. USA 2. Russia 3. Afghanistan 4. China 5. India. Let that sink in ahead of China.
Next week more on Afghanistan. My own personal insight and opinions on what went wrong.
Some good news; Drew Nathan pedaled his way across ND to raise money for PADs. You can still help by going to Patriotic Assistant Dogs and donating.
Story ideas? Contact me at 11btwk@gmail.com.