From war to war and vice versa

Afghanistan is located at the crossroads that connect Europe with China and India. One of those roads in history was the reason that all the invaders of India had to pass through Afghanistan first and that all the rulers of India sought to control it as a natural bastion of defence. In his campaign against India, Alexander the Great crossed the Hindu Kush in 329 AD and conquered Bactria, today's northern Afghanistan. After a short period under the rule of the Seleucids and India, over the course of several centuries, the territory of today's Afghanistan was replaced by different peoples in constant migration. The Arabs appeared in the middle of the 871th century, but they conquered Kabul only in 1747. The Afghan tribe was first mentioned in the 1773th century as part of the Turko-Arab army that threatened India. They inhabited the mountains of today's western Pakistan, from there spreading to the north and west until the XNUMXth century. Meanwhile, Afghanistan was ruled by Turks and Mongols. The modern history of Afghanistan begins with Ahmed Shah Durrani (XNUMX-XNUMX), who managed to gather various tribal leaders by payment and, relying on the Afghan cavalry, conquered Kashmir and a large part of the Punjab. His successors maintained a loose cooperation between tribes and tribal leaders with more or less success.

RUSSIA I BIG BRITAIN: The interests of the great powers in Afghanistan directly clashed in the defense of Herat against the Persian attack in 1837. The defense was commanded by an English officer, while the attackers were directed by the Russians. Great Britain's attempt to bring Afghanistan under control before Russia did caused the conflict of 1838-42. in which Afghanistan defended its independence. After the second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-1880), the British left internal administration to Emir Abdur Rahmani, which he used to break the resistance of tribal leaders and religious leaders, establish a centralized autocratic government and form a regular army on the Western model. The British did not lose the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919), but it enabled the Afghans to conduct foreign affairs independently.

SOVIET THE ALLIANCE: King Mohammad Zahir Shah was overthrown by a military coup in 1973, the Republic of Afghanistan was proclaimed, and General Sardar Mohammad Daud became its first president. Five years later, General Babrak Karmal is in power: powerless to overcome his political-tribal opponents, he turns to the Soviet Union. "Brotherly aid" was approved in 1979 by the General Secretary of the CPSU, Leonid Brezhnev. Ten years later and with at least 14.000 lives lost, the Soviet army withdraws from Afghanistan: the withdrawal date, January 15, 1989, is considered by some analysts to be the beginning of the collapse of the USSR and the "collapse" of communism. Be that as it may, the war between at least eight Afghan factions continued unabated. It is estimated that about two million Afghans died in the almost continuous twenty-year war, and that there are about six million people in exile.

MUJAHEDIN, TALIBAN I NORTHERN ALLIANCE: The resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was supported materially, financially, with weapons and training of fighters (mujahedin) by many countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States have a special place there. Pakistan's intelligence services are considered best versed in the intricate relationships of alliances, rivalries, cooperation and factional conflicts. The Taliban - which is the name for students of Islam - appeared on the political scene in 1994, and two years later entered Kabul and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Propaganda myth says that the prophet Muhammad personally, albeit in a dream, ordered Mullah Omar to stop the civil war, which he started with only about thirty supporters and 17 guns. In fact, Omar's movement was directly aided by General Nasrullah Babar, the interior minister in Benazir Bhutto's government, with the support of the Muslim party Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), which organized religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden met for the first time in one of those madrassas and recruitment centers. Since then, the latter will finance the Taliban, bribe their opponents and, finally, find refuge in Afghanistan. According to some Western analysts, Bin Laden's 55th Brigade, composed mainly of Arabs, holds the front towards the positions of the Northern Alliance, a coalition that has been fighting the Taliban since 1996 and under whose control is ten percent of the Afghan territory near the borders of the former Soviet republics. The Northern Alliance and its commander Ahmed Shah Massoud - who gained fame and nickname the Lion of Panjir in the fight against Soviet troops and was killed in an assassination on September 8 - are receiving strong political support in the spring of this year in the form of an opportunity to address the European Parliament. Whatever the purpose of the assassination, which the Taliban and Bin Laden are suspected of, the Northern Alliance did not fall apart. On the contrary, the greatest hopes are currently placed in it for "field support" for the American-British attack on Afghanistan, with Russia taking on the role of the main supplier of weapons and equipment. It is a paradox only at first glance: along with Pakistan, Russia has the most Afghan experience; in addition, the new first man of the Northern Alliance, General Fakhim, is said to have been trained in the centers of the former KGB.

TACTICS DEFENSE: Afghanistan has never relied on regular military forces, in which the tradition of tribal leadership and refusal to submit has always played a significant role. On the other hand, local leaders perfectly know the configuration of "their" terrain, which in any conflict - especially with an attacker coming from outside - allowed them to reduce or eliminate the lack of modern weapons. The British in Afghanistan were not defeated by the regular army, but by local tribes rebelling against the collaborators.

In the war against the Soviet occupation, practically all formations of the regular army disappeared (11 infantry and three armored divisions, each with about 2500 men, a mechanized infantry and artillery brigade, as well as most of the other specialized military units). On the other hand, commando units loyal to the regime suffered devastating losses from what can most accurately be called the armed populace; in Afghanistan, veterans of the third Anglo-Afghan war (1919) joined armed children in the fight against the Russians. The Afghan experience shows that, although tribally, religiously, politically, ideologically and regionally divided, an opponent of the central authority or the occupier can always control four-fifths of the country's territory. Estimates of the number of active Mujahideen in the 1979/89 war. they range from 90.000 to 750.000 men under the command of at least 90 prominent local leaders.

The traditional Afghan cavalry was replaced by the Ahu (deer), the original way of using trucks. Against the Soviets, they were the basic means of transport, either instead of armored personnel carriers - for transport, or tanks - for action on the move. Some Taliban units today have (mostly confiscated and obsolete Russian) tanks and heavy artillery in their composition. Their use was limited to shooting at stationary targets from stationary positions or mostly to ineffective infantry support.

FOREIGNERS: Ten years of resistance to Soviet occupation led to an increase in the power of local warlords over traditional authority based on social, religious or political position and reputation. On the other hand, through the hard-earned experience of fighting against a modern armed enemy, an awareness of the necessity of at least temporarily neglecting local differences and animosity in favor of operational cooperation was developed. However, immediately after the withdrawal of the Soviet army, things were restored in this respect. The Taliban "army" today is a police coalition of various armed groups of more or less dubious degrees of loyalty, training, organization, experience and numbers. Their combat potential depends on many factors, starting with the readiness for mutual cooperation in operations. It is estimated, however, that there are also 8000-12.000 "holy warriors" from other Muslim countries in Afghanistan, well trained and relatively well equipped with heavy weapons. Estimates of fighters under Osama bin Laden's command are also unreliable: apart from the 55th Brigade, which consists of 400-600 fighters along the Old Road north of Kabul, his army could consist of another 2000-3000 Arabs who joined him after the American bombing of a training camp in Afghanistan, August 1998. Although mostly equipped with light infantry weapons - automatic weapons, hand-held launchers and mortars - these units enjoy the reputation of being the most reliable and combative. To this should be added a large number of volunteers from Pakistan, who make up more than half of all foreign fighters in Afghanistan.