The wind is turning
Progressive movements are now spreading throughout Latin America after the colossal economic fiascos created by the neoliberal predators, in particular the Chicago boys under Milton Friedman, in the final decades of the last century. This is of course a major thorn in the commanding finger of Washington, a problem that they have more or less had to set aside to deal with another center of insurgence in a very different part of the world.
Central Asia, the Middle East and the Big Game hunters
How Washington could be so naïve as to believe that they could simply take over Iraq, bomb it to ruins and rebuild it as a client state under the sign of American-style democracy, without any serious resistance from the people, is today a source of wonder among most of the people of the world. Iraq is at the present time hobbling along, insurgence emerging now and then but by and large as calm as it has been since the U.S. invasion in 2003. But still Iraq and Western-style democracy are light-years apart.
But Iraq is just one piece of the puzzle. The plan was not really to invade and conquer Iraq alone. No, the hubris of Washington knew of no common-sense limits. They are now first of all trying to propagandize the world into believing that the war in Iraq is won, something the Iraqis would certainly be the first to deny. It is true for the moment though, that the murders and the bombing, civilians always making up the majority of the victims of course, have essentially moved to another stage.
In the wishy-washy way of U.S. warfare, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area is now the major stage in Central Asia where bombs are falling from U.S. unmanned drones. So the state of things is utterly unclear. Is Pakistan an ally or an enemy? Confusion reigns.
The Bush/Cheney administration had a vision, born and nursed by the neocons, that the whole Middle East/Central Asia region would be under Washington's domination when the several easy wars were over. Afghanistan was more or less rendered helpless in the brief pre-Iraq war, and a puppet regime was installed in Kabul. Pakistan was bought up as a faithful ally, but is now disintegrating with corrupt leaders and anti-USA insurgents popping up not just in the border areas. Religious enmity is a factor but also the millennia-old tribal set-up of these artificially created nations. But what has most effectively poured fuel on the fire is of course the anti-American feelings that are nursed by the fact that the United States is practically running the governments in both countries.
A look back on history
In fact, nobody had managed to conquer Afghanistan since Genghis Khan and his wild Mongol hordes devastated the land in 1219. Much later these invaders made Kabul the capital of the Mughal Empire, which at its peak in 1700 included most of the Indian subcontinent.
During the 19th century, Afghanistan served as a buffer state between the British and Russian empires, both having serious expansionist ambitions. The British failed miserably in their attempt to include Afghanistan into the British Indian Empire in three Anglo-Afghan wars. The first war began in 1838 and during long periods of the latter part of the 19th century, British forces occupied large areas of Afghanistan and had even taken over the handling of its foreign politics. Finally in 1919, after the third Anglo-Afghan war, king Amanullah Khan declared Afghanistan an independent country and the same year established diplomatic relations with the new government in the very young Soviet Union.
The war against the Soviet invasion in 1979, at the request of the Marxist government in Kabul in their fight against the mujahedeen rebels, was at first fought locally by regional warlords. The mujahedeen gradually gained increasing power as the main fighters against the Soviet occupiers and the Soviet-friendly government in Kabul. However, in spite of extensive support from the United States and various other countries, they were too divided into multiple factions and the country descended into civil war. [1] After the Russians were forced to withdraw in 1989, the mujahedeen were defeated by the Taliban. This armed movement organized by a village mullah and supported by Pakistan developed as an increasingly powerful politico-religious force. At the time of the U.S invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban had largely defeated the militias and controlled most of the country.
The United States military was not much more successful after their invasion in October 2001, largely due to the fractured nature of the country. The warlords who are still today powerful tribal leaders and the once again increasingly powerful Taliban leaders had never been used to bowing down to presumed authority from Kabul and this spirit of independence made the war pretty much unwinnable. Also, from the very beginning, the neocons had their minds set on Iraq and did not take the war in Afghanistan very seriously.
Another country with an unruly history
Pakistan was founded in 1947 at the end of the British rule over India. The partition from India might not actually have taken place if it had not been for the stubborn insistence by the Muslim leader, the lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The lawyer had quite wide support from the Muslim people but he was also opposed by some other Muslim leaders.
The short history of Pakistan is filled with examples of flagrantly corrupt leaders, a violent history of assassinations and coups d'état.
General Pervez Musharraf came to power through a military coup in 1999 when he ousted the elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He immediately assumed dictatorial powers and in 2001 declared himself President. In 2007 he instated military emergency rule and ousted his bitter enemy, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and several other judges whom he saw as a barrier to his continued place in power. Later facing impeachment and seeing that he had lost all support from home and abroad he chose to bow out. His successor Asif Ali Zardari, the equally corrupt husband of the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, assassinated in December 2007, also refused to reinstate Chaudhry.
