Afghanistan was once treated as an en-route country. One had to go through it to get anywhere, and it is valuable because it is well-endowed with
natural resources. The Greeks, Arabs/Moghuls, Turks, British, USSR, and CIA/USA saw it as the route to
India and conquered it to secure "safe" transport for travelers and for goods (such as an oil pipeline). The same was true for the
Mongols from the east.
In the
19th century, Afghanistan became a
buffer state in "
The Great Game" between the
British Empire in India and
Russian Empire. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained full independence from the
United Kingdom.
For the rest of
20th century, the British had an additional reason to continue to work in Afghanistan: It was a spying post on the
Soviet Union. But that was not a
military occupation.
When the British finally moved out after about 1975, a vacuum existed between Afghanistan and the rest of the region. The
USSR invaded to prevent numerous incursions into their territory. The Russians' Afghan experience was not successful and collapsed completely after reform (
perestroika) 1985, when Red Army funding was reduced. Its invasion is referred to as "Russia's Vietnam."
NATO is there now as a front for the USA in our
so called "War on Terror," which has included the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The official belief is that Osama bin Laden is holed up in Afghanistan (or maybe
Pakistan, or maybe
Iran, or maybe
Yemen, or maybe
Libya, or maybe any other place we want an excuse to attack with drones).
In addition, America wants to control the opium trade, which is centered in the country. Since the USA invaded Afghanistan in 2001, opium output has
increased by an estimated 22 per cent in value; Osama bin Laden has not been found (and Pres. Bush said it wasn't really important if we ever found him);
the Taliban seems to have more adherents than ever (as planned because we need an enemy or how do we justify occupation and exorbitant military expenditures?); Army atrocities (
war crimes) are reported regularly, as is CIA backed torture; and thousands of non-Afghans have died violently (to say nothing of the many thousands of civilians we've killed, sometimes as "collateral damage," other times as targeted victims, as revealed in famous WikiLeak footage). No one knows, and no one keeps track of, how many
Afghan civilians have died violently.
There may be other reasons for American and other Western involvement: Afghanistan's natural resources include rare earth minerals, gold, silver, copper, zinc, and iron ore; precious and semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, emerald, and azure; and potentially massive petroleum and
natural gas reserves as yet untapped. The country also has uranium, coal, chromite, barites, sulphur, lead, and salt.
Afghani Buddhism in the Gandharan-style
The wondrous riches found in a Buddhist monastic complex at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan
More precious, but apparently less important to American military forces, are the pre-Arab, pre-Islam cultural riches of a region which was once a part of ancient India called Gandhara. The Buddha of Bamiyan was once the largest Buddha statue in the world -- and for good reason. The real Kapilavastu, Siddhartha's hometown, was nearby. One of the world's greatest Buddhist monastic sites, built near a copper and gold mine used in the making temple ornaments as was the custom of artisans in ancient times, is Mes Aynak. The Afghan government signed a contract with China to extract ore and rare earth minerals before the site was discovered. China has said it will give just enough time to begin to list and document all the magnificent riches and archeological artifacts that are there before destroying them in the interest of extracting the resources for the benefit of the Chinese mining interest, a massive corporation tied to the Chinese government.
From the perspective of profiteering and neo-colonialism (the practice of going into countries and making them our imperial colonies), Afghanistan is quite a good place to occupy. Our businesses "invest" billions to control production and movement of resources, the allocation of booty. That is, in imperial terms, we "extract resources" for profit. War is very profitable, not for the taxpayers that pay for it, but for individuals, US officials, and businesses with government contracts loosely referred to by Pres. Eisenhower as the "military-industrial complex."
The country seems set for another century of occupation and civil war by unfriendly powers. It seems that Pashtun culture actually has no history of "warlords" and provincial chieftains bent on selling drugs and in fighting. That was imported from adjoining countries at the behest of Americans preparing for an extended stay starting three decades ago. "Charlie Wilson's War," a movie about CIA involvement starring Tom Hanks, is misleading propaganda promoting a narrative that ignores the complexities of what has been happening this side of the Durand or Zero line.
Crossing Zero: The Afpak War at the Turning Point of American EmpireThe Wikipedia entry on
Afghanistan is interesting but often inaccurate: It presents the current situation as progressive and encouraging, although very few Afghans would agree. Two expert American scholars who have long been used by the media for their expertise on this largely impenetrable region are Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald (
who visited LA's Whittier College and the
Levantine Center in April).
John Clossick thinks that The Boy Mir offers a stunning account of the trials of life in Afghanistan.
