Notes from Carter Malkasian’s "The American War in Afghanistan" April 2021
People, History
·
There are 14 ethnic groups recognized in our national anthem — Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks,
Balochis, Turkmens, Nooristanis, Pamiris, Arabs, Gujars, Brahuis, Qizilbash,
Aimaq and Pashai. Religions: , Sufi and Shiite Muslims.
·
Afghanistan has several ethnic groups. The
Pashtuns are the biggest at about 40 percent of the population, roughly 13
million people at the beginning of the 21st century.
·
A larger Pashtun population exists across the
border in Pakistan, partitioned by the 1893 Durand Line. Pashtuns speak Pashto,
one of Afghanistan’s two national languages.
·
The second-largest ethnic group is the Tajiks.
They make up about 30 percent of the population and live primarily in the north
and east of the country. Much of the population of Kabul has long been Tajik.
They speak Dari, a dialect of Farsi, the other of Afghanistan’s two national
languages and the preferred one for official government business.
·
After the Tajiks are the Hazaras. They are about
15 percent of the population, speak Dari, and, because of their East Asian
features, are rumored to be descendants of the Mongols who invaded Afghanistan
in the 1200s.
·
Unlike the Sunni Pashtuns and Tajiks, Hazaras
follow Shi‘a Islam.
·
Uzbeks, about 10 percent of the population. They
live in the north. They generally speak Dari but also have their own Uzbek
language. Their community has ties to Central Asia, Russia, and Turkey
·
The country and people of Afghanistan have a
long history that precedes the founding of the state in 1747 and includes three
wars with Britain and one war with the Soviet Union.
·
Afghans defeated the British in 1880, became a
symbol that appeared in daily speech and writing.
·
The British spent nearly a century trying to
control Afghanistan. Their efforts looked like one misadventure after another.
Their first attempt to conquer the country was in 1839. It was a disaster. Only
one man survived the retreat from Kabul. They tried again in 1879.
·
The Afghan state in many ways began with Pir
Roshan and Khwashallah Khan Khattak, warrior-scholars who revolted against the
Mughals in the 1500s and 1600s.
·
Abdur Rahman Baba (born in approximately 1650),
even more revered, wrote poems against the oppression of the Mughal emperors.
The history of resistance reached new heights with the overthrow of the Safavid
Persian Empire
·
more than 70 percent of Afghanistan’s
population is under 25 years old.
·
PAfgan roverb:”Me and my brother against my
cousin. Me and my brother and my cousin against the outsider.”
Leaders’s who’s who
Current
1. Hibatullah
Akhundzada
Hibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the
Taliban in May 2016.
In the 1980s, he participated in the Islamist resistance against
the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan, but his reputation is more that of
a religious leader than a military commander.
Akhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s.
After first seizing power in the 1990s, the Taliban introduced
and supported punishments according to their strict interpretation of Islamic
law: they publicly executed murderers and adulterers and amputated thieves'
limbs.
2. Abdul Ghani Baradar
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.He became a lynchpin of the insurgency after the Taliban were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.But he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.
3. Mohammad Yaqoob
Mohammad Yaqoob is the son of the founder of the Taliban, Mullah
Mohammed Omar.
He is believed to be little more than 30 years old and is
currently the leader of the group's military operations.
Following the death of former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in
2016, some militants wanted to appoint Yaqoob as the group's new supreme
commander, but others felt that he was young and lacking in experience.
According to the local press, Yaqoob lives in Afghanistan.
As the Taliban continued to make its advance last week,
4. Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani is another of the group's top deputy leaders.
After the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he became the
new leader of the Haqqani network, which has been credited with some of the
most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces
and their Western allies in recent years.
The Haqqani network is currently one of the region's most
powerful and feared militant groups. Some say it is even more influential than
the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
Past leaders
of significance
USA enters Afgahnistan
- With 110 CIA officers, 350 special operations forces, and roughly 5,000 marines and Rangers, backed by overwhelming air power, the United States toppled the Taliban. As many as 15,000 Taliban had been killed or taken prisoner.131 Until March, only twelve Americans were killed.
- Popular resistance had been minimal. The tactical combination of special operations forces working with local forces and precision air strikes would be a model for future campaigns. It is the foundation for how the United States waged war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria from 2014 onward.
- The campaign was also notable for the negotiation of a political settlement between long-feuding Afghan leaders. Whatever his future faults, in 2001 Hamid Karzai was an enlightened choice. He was conciliatory and personally brave, with political legitimacy unmatched by any of the contenders other than the aging king himself.
The 2006 Taliban offensive
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