Why No One Can Hold On To Afghanistan
The history of Afghanistan is as old as history itself. They found some of the remains of the Neanderthal in one of the caves in sixties. That is how old the place is. Throughout centuries many tribes of different origins migrated to Afghanistan and dispersed around the country. The indigenous population got mixed up with Indo Aryan new comers. The oldest documented signature of these moves is in Zoroastrian RigVeda , where it says something like "oh , and Aryans came ,herd by herd".
Afghanistan as a unified nation was a part of Iran's achaemenid Empire about 2500 years ago for about 300 years. When Alexander invaded Persia he pursued Darius lll to north eastern Iran. Then he continued toward northern Afghanistan. He went through the Hindu Kush Mountains to get to western India. He did his worst cases of killing in Indian cities, until his army rebelled and he had to come back to die in city of Alexandria by the Euphrates river in Iraq. After him there was a couple of hundred years of Greek dominance who were replaced by different dynasties for a couple of thousand years. The rulers were mostly tribes of Iran and Central Asia . Each one of these dynesties would lose their dominance to the next dynasty , but they would never totally disappear . The country is so mountainous and connections between villages and cities are so limited , that tribes would move from one area to another area. If one goes though Afghanistan one can see left overs of every invader of history. When Arabs took over the entire area, Afghanistan became a Moslem country .However, each city or tribe kept some of their old heritage and language , turning the country to a jigsaw puzzle of different nations.
For example, Herat which was the last city which was taken away from Iran is a left over from the Jewish tribes that left the holy land 2000 years ago and settled in Herat. Currently they are Moslems but they keep Sabbath and have many Jewish rituals. You can find different sects of Islam as well as different sects of different sects of Islam. Each tribe lives in their own territory and fight with each other all the time. Wars between tribes and fights within the tribes.
The main source of revenue beside agriculture is cultivation of Opium. There you see the origins of organized crime. Opium is brought to Balochi areas of Pakistan and turned to Heroin .Then it is taken through Iran to Italy and the rest of the world. It is a lucrative business with all those rich costumers. The smugglers are the kind of fighters you do not want to see in your nightmares. Governments either are on pay role or look the other way. There is some superficial mountain police of locals who are on pay role too. Tons of that opium is used in Iran Itself. Ironically, with all that inflation in Iran ,the price of opium in Tehran is reasonable. Adding to suspicion that smugglers are more powerful than the governments. The Iranian laws against smuggling opium and Heroin is very harsh, but total number of addicts keep on going up.
A country so heterogeneous, full of illiterate fighters, with money of opium and Gun Shops that you can buy everything kind of pistols to tanks. With a history of wars that includes defeating the British and the Soviet army. What should we expect?
(Article changed on Aug 13, 2021 at 8:55 PM EDT)
