to download The Great Game: Afghanistan - the Public Theater

The public TheaTer
IN ASSoCIATIoN WITh nYu sKirball cenTer
preSeNTS
The TricYcle
TheaTre companY’s
The greaT game:
afghanisTan
bY richard bean, lee blessing, david edgar,
david greig, amit gupta, ron hutchinson,
stephen jeffreys, abi morgan, ben ockrent,
simon stephens, colin Teevan and joy Wilkinson
direcTed bY nicolas Kent and indhu rubasingham
at nYu skirball center for the performing arts
pLAY gUIDe
dec
01 dec
19
Through
1

2
Table of
conTenTs
The greaT game:
in conversaTion pg 3
a leTTer
from nicolas KenT pg 4
afghanisTan
Timeline pg 5
glossarY of
Terms pg 7
glossarY of
people pg 9
Information compiled by The Tricycle Theatre, The Guthrie Theater and The Public Theater.
A US Army soldier on patrol shakes the
hand offered by a young Afghan boy in
Jairez, Wardak province, Afghanistan.
The plaYs
in conTexT pg 10
parT 1: invasions & independence – 1842-1930 pg 11
parT 2: communism, The mujahideen &
The Taliban – 1979-1996 pg 13
parT 3: enduring freedom – 1996-2010 pg 17
religious laWs
of The Taliban pg 21
furTher & recommended
reading pg 22
isaf currenT Troops
and faTaliTies
charT pg 30
phoTo crediTs pg 31
Th
in
afr
af
T
gl
T
gl
p

The greaT game:
in conversaTion
e greaT game:
conversaTion pg 3
leTTer
om nicolas KenT pg 4
ghanisTan
imeline pg 5
ossarY of
erms pg 7
Shereen martineau and
Sheena Bhattessa in a scene from
ossarY
The
of
great game: Afghanistan.
eople pg 9
rick Warden and Vincent ebrahim
in a scene from The great game:
Afghanistan.
presented by The public Theater, The play Company, and
New York University’s Skirball Center.
please visit ThegreATgAmeoNSTAge.org for tickets and more
information about the events and panelists.
reporTing afghanisTan
Wednesday, december 1 (after part 1)
A conversation with former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent
Kim barKer, BBC correspondent david loYn, and TIme
magazine photojournalist roberT nicKelsberg moderated by
WNYC’s john hocKenberrY.
Co-sponsored by New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
film screening and discussion
Tuesday, december 7 at 7pm
A film screening of Camp Victory, Afghanistan and a post-screening
conversation with filmmaker carol dYsinger, photojournalist
ed grazda and the Tricycle Theatre’s nicolas KenT.
The road To governing afghanisTan
Thursday, december 9 (after part 2)
A conversation with U.S. Army Colonel randY george,
Afghanistan Ambassador to the United Nations zahir Tanin, Columbia
University’s ausTin long, and journalist nir rosen moderated
by NYU’s Karen greenberg.
Co-sponsored by The Center on Law and Security, New York University’s
School of Law
righTs and developmenT in afghanisTan
friday, december 17 (after part 3)
A conversation with UCLA’s nushin arbabzadah, NYU’s
ishaq nadiri, The Bond Street Theatre’s joanna sherman,
and the International rescue Committee’s michael Young
moderated by pollster craig charneY.
Co-sponsored by New York University’s hagop Kevorkian Center for Near
eastern Studies and the British Council
The greaT game sTore:
arTs and crafTs, booKs, and music
The skirball center lobby
Zamani gallery and Antiques is selling rugs, jewelry, and other handmade
crafts made by Afghan artisans who have recently returned to Afghanistan
after fleeing the war. Fifty percent of all Zamani gallery’s proceeds go to
these artists, most of whom work in rural and traditional settings. The greAT
gAme Store will be open around performance times only.
The greAT gAme: AFghANISTAN In photographs exhibit illuminates the
context of the plays through striking images of daily life in Afghanistan by
photojournalists ed grazda and robert Nickelsberg. ed grazda’s work is
located throughout the Skirball Center lobby. robert Nickelsberg’s work can
be seen outside in the windows from the Laguardia place and West 3rd
Street sidewalks.
3

4
in 2008, When i
commissioned The plaYs
that make this trilogy, Iraq had been the big story for the world’s media for
most of the preceding 15 years. For a short period in the autumn of 2001, just
after 9/11, Afghanistan took centre stage. But after the fall of the Taliban both
Bush and Blair ensured that the world’s attention moved swiftly back to Iraq.
Almost every day in those past 15 years, Iraq was in the headlines, and artists,
writers, film-makers and theatres produced much work about the invasion and
its aftermath. The Tricycle, in common with many other London theatres,
mounted a number of plays on the subject - indeed, in 1993, the first of our
‘tribunal plays’ was a dramatization of Lord Scott’s Arms to Iraq inquiry.
even four years ago, no one was paying much attention to the war in
Afghanistan, and the British Defense Secretary was committing British troops
to the ISAF force in helmand province to protect the reconstruction. however
two years later, the world’s political focus was very slowly but inexorably
swinging back towards Afghanistan. The insurgency was strengthening,
increasing numbers of British soldiers had been killed and injured, and the West
looked dug in for the long haul.
It was becoming clear Afghanistan was going to be the main focus of British,
european and American policy for at least the next decade. But still two years
ago, not only was almost no public debate about this, there was very little
reporting and almost no artistic response - except a handful of novels,
including the work of Khaled hosseini.
I knew vaguely about the three Anglo-Afghan wars, the British and russian
imperialist ‘great game’ maneuvers, and something about the factions of the
mujahideen fighting the civil war after the Soviet withdrawal. But there were
huge gaps in my knowledge of Afghanistan’s history, and the causes of where we
are now. And I was sure I was not alone in this ignorance.
Information sparks debate, and theatre can often be the catalyst, but how to
tackle Afghanistan? Well, two experiences came to my aid - some years ago the
Tricycle had produced a trilogy LoVe SoNg For ULSTer by Bill morrison,
which looked at Northern Ireland’s politics, and from that experience I knew
that day-long theatre events could be both exciting and stimulating - this
feeling was reinforced in April 2008 by seeing the royal Shakespeare
Company’s ‘histories’ season at the roundhouse. The other experience was a
response we had to the Darfur crisis when, three years ago, the Tricycle
commissioned six dramatists from our Bloomberg playwrights group to come
up with ten minute plays, and all the writers rose enthusiastically to the
challenge. The resulting evenings played to a week of full houses.
So I had my template - a day-long event using a number of playwrights, but
where to start? Initially I did a trawl for writers, including novelists, from the
nicolas Kent
Artistic Director, The Tricycle Theatre
19Th JULY 2010
sub-continent, but apart from Siba Shakib I met with little success. Next I
turned to ‘political’ writers working here or in America. David edgar’s play
TeSTINg The eCho was on at the Tricycle at that time so who better to get the
ball rolling? ron hutchinson’s play mooNLIghT & mAgNoLIAS had just played
the Tricycle, and a new political play of his was about to open with us, so he too
was quickly enlisted. Some of the other writers already had associations with
the Tricycle, for the rest I must thank Jack Bradley, the Tricycle’s literary
consultant, who as well as deploying his excellent dramaturgical skills,
suggested further names, as did purni morell of the National Theatre Studio.
Literary agents mel Kenyon, rose Cobbe and Alan Brodie were all important
keys to the project.
All the writers have embraced The greAT gAme with huge enthusiasm - some
of them have chosen their own subjects, and some have been ‘coerced’ into
periods of Afghan history about which they knew nothing and have now
become expert. I am incredibly grateful to them for collaborating on this
project and to the brilliant production team led by Indhu rubasingham and
pamela howard.
In the Autumn of 2008, between commissioning and receiving the plays, I
visited Kabul. my time there was invaluable. The warmth of the welcome I
received from my Afghan hosts, British aid workers, Afghan politicians,
journalists, Afghan film-makers and craftsmen, as well as many, many others
that I met contributed greatly to this program of plays and the events
surrounding them; as did the invaluable help of two of the BBC’s foremost
correspondents – Lyse Doucet and David Loyn. Lyse and David together with
richard Norton-Taylor of The guardian all helped by making the connections or
doing the interviews with most of those people who are represented in the
verbatim parts of the trilogy.
As I write this, British deaths are 322 and those injured have reached in excess
of 1,282. US fatalities are 1,188 with over 6,468 injured. The situation in
Afghanistan is constantly changing, and we have tried to keep abreast of these
changes during the run of The greAT gAme. Sometimes events have
conspired to make this difficult – for instance we did manage to get an
exclusive interview with general mcChrystal just seven days before his
resignation, and as I write I am uncertain whether this will be included in the
version of the trilogy that you see.
I am extremely grateful for the enthusiasm and support of the directors and
staff of the public Theater who have given us the wonderful opportunity of
bringing these plays to New York, and to Liz Frankel (the Literary manager of
the public) who first planted the idea of coming to America with them.
meanwhile I hope these performances are an educational, rewarding,
stimulating and exciting experience for you.

afghanisTan
Timeline
Map taken from Ahmed Rashid’s Taliban (Yale University Press).
1774
Durrani family established as the
Amirs of Afghanistan.
1839
First Afghan War. Shah Shujah
installed by British as loyal ruler.
1842
16,000 British and Indian army
soldiers and camp followers killed
on retreat from Kabul. The biggest
defeat of the British army.
1879
Treaty of gandamak - Afghanistan
established as country. Second
Afghan War. British defeat at
maiwand (Afghan soldiers led by
a woman – malalai). retributive
expedition followed. Amir Abdul
rahman installed with British
patronage.
1893
Sir mortimer Durand established
the border between British India
(now pakistan) and Afghanistan
which divided the pashtun homeland
of Waziristan (the Durand Line).
1901
Abdul rahman’s son, habibullah
rahman, becomes king.
1919
Amir habibullah assassinated.
his son, Amanullah Khan, becomes
Amir. Brief Third Afghan War.
Afghanistan becomes fully
independent from Britain.
1929
Amanullah forced to abdicate by
tribal chiefs. general Nadir Khan
becomes Amir.
Map taken from Ahmed Rashid’s Taliban (Yale University Press)
1933
Nadir assassinated and his son,
Zahir Shah, succeeded.
1946
Kabul University established.
1950s
&60s
Cold War, US and USSr vied for
influence using aid packages.
5

6
TImeLINe (cont.)
1964
Liberal constitution established.
1964–
1973
reforms were made. First woman
minister appointed. regulations on
purdah (the seclusion of women
from public observation) and the
burqa relaxed.
1973
Coup installed mohammed Daoud as
president. republic declared. Daoud
accepted extensive aid from USSr.
1978
Communist party launched a coup.
Daoud is killed. Nur mohammed
Taraki became president; he
too was assassinated and Amin
became president.
1979
Communist government under
hafizulla Amin requested help from
the USSr. Amin poisoned by the
Soviets, and 100,000 red Army
troops invaded Afghanistan. Babrak
Kamal installed as president.
1978–
1988
The mujahedeen organized
insurrections against the procommunist
government and Soviets.
They were supported by USA, Saudi
Arabia and pakistan.
1986
mohammad Najibullah became
president of Afghanistan under the
geneva Accords.
1989
Soviet withdrawal. Ferocious
civil war between mujahideen
and the pro-communist
Najibullah government.
1991
US and russia withdrew support
from all factions.
1992
mujahideen takes Kabul,
Burhanuddin rabbani becomes
president. The city suffers much
more damage than under the 10
years of Soviet occupation.
Najibullah sought refuge in the
UN compound. Devastating
civil war between warlords with
gulbuddin hekmatyar rocketing
Kabul for months.
1994
Taliban takes Kandahar with
support from pakistan’s Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI).
1996
Taliban takes Kabul and the
government of rabbani and Ahmed
Shah massoud forced to retreat to
the north. Najibullah dragged
from the UN compound and
hanged. Civil war continues.
1997
Taliban controls most of the country
except the north where the
government under rabbani and
massoud is still resisting. Northern
Alliance formed. UN Security
Council calls for ceasefire and
arms embargo.
2001
Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed
by the Taliban.
sepTember 9Th: Ahmed
Shah massoud assassinated in
northern Afghanistan.
sepTember 11Th:
Twin Towers attacked.
ocTober 7Th: US launched
attack on Afghanistan.
november 13Th: Fall of
Kabul and defeat of Taliban. hamid
Karzai leader of interim
government.
2003
NATo takes control of security
in Kabul.
2004
New constitution. Islamic republic
declared. presidential elections.
Karzai elected.
2005
First parliamentary elections.
International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) takes over
operations in Afghanistan.
2006
NATo takes responsibility for security.
British troops go to helmand. Defense
Secretary says they will be serving in a
policing role. Taliban insurgency
increases in the south.
2008
13 provinces under Taliban control.
2009
januarY 20Th: Barack
obama inaugurated as president of
the United States
februarY 17Th: president
obama announces additional
17,000 troops.
december 1sT: president
obama announces a further 30,000 US
troops and sets July 2011 as date for
start of withdrawal of military forces.
2010
februarY: NATo-led forces
launch offensive in bid to secure
government control of southern
helmand province.
june: general Stanley mcChrystal
resigns and general David petraeus is
appointed Commander of ISAF and US
Forces in Afghanistan.
julY: Announcement of
redeployment of British troops from
Sangin to central helmand. major
international conference endorses
president Karzai’s timetable for
control of security to be transferred
from foreign to Afghan forces by
2014. Whistleblowing website
Wikileaks publishes thousands of
classified US military documents
relating to Afghanistan.
augusT: The Netherlands ends
its Afghan military mission after a
domestic split, amid concerns over
the US-led alliance’s long-term
strategy. president Karzai announces
a ban on foreign security firms. eight
foreign aid workers killed in
Badakhshan province.
sepTember: Violence mars
run-up to parliamentary elections held
on September 18th. general petraeus
announces that representatives of the
Taliban had reached out to senior
Afghan government officials to begin
peace talks.
november: At the November
20th NATo Summit, the 48 nations
contributing to the ISAF in
Afghanistan, with support from
russia, agreed on a clear vision for
sustainable transition to greater
Afghan security responsibility. NATo
and Afghanistan entered into a
long-term partnership, via which
NATo will stay as long as necessary to
support Afghanistan until it is no
longer a haven for terrorism. The goal
is that Afghan forces will have
country-wide security control by 2014.
russia re-affirmed its commitment on
November 23rd by approving a deal
which will allow NATo to transport
military supplies through its territory.
After over two months of fraud
investigations, Afghanistan’s election
commission released final
parliamentary election results for all
but one province, leaving the election
and vote counting open to further
controversy. US Afghan officials
announced that the lead Taliban
negotiator in the ongoing peace
talks was an imposter, and thus little
was ultimately achieved during the
weeks of negotiations.

glossarY of
Terms
The greaT game: a term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict
between the British empire and the russian empire for supremacy in
Central Asia. The classic great game period is generally regarded to span
approximately from the russo-persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-russian
Convention of 1907. A second, less intensive phase followed the Bolshevik
revolution of 1917. The great game (in the classic sense of the term) dwindled
after the United Kingdom, the United States and russia became allies in
World War II. The term The great game is usually attributed to Arthur Conolly
(1807-1842), an intelligence officer of the British east India Company’s Sixth
Bengal Light Cavalry. It was introduced into mainstream use by British novelist
rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim (1901).
baTTle of maiWand, 1880: one of the principal battles of the
Second Anglo- Afghan War, and one of the most serious defeats ever sustained
by the British Army in the region.
durand line: name of Afghanistan’s eastern border with pakistan,
agreed to after negotiations between the Amir Abdur rahman and Sir henry
mortimer Durand in 1893.
ghazi: religious warrior.
ghilzai: sub-tribe of pashtuns living mostly in eastern border area.
isi: Created in 1948, The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence is the
largest intelligence service in pakistan. It is one of the three main branches of
pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
Three wounded US Army soldiers from the
10th mountain Division are moved for
evacuation to a helicopter August 27,
2006 in Kamdesh, Nuristan, eastern
Afghanistan. The soldiers suffered
shrapnel wounds to their eyes and
foreheads during a firefight with Islamic
militants. The Kamdesh position, later
renamed Combat outpost Keating, was
abandoned following an intense battle
with 300 militants october 3, 2009 with 8
US Army soldiers killed.
jihad: struggle; word used to describe duty of muslims to wage war.
loYa jirga: great gathering; word used in Afghanistan for gathering of
elders to discuss issues of national importance.
mujahideen: fighters who have taken up requirements of jihad.
pashTu: majority language in southern Afghanistan and frontier region.
pashTun: largest tribe in Afghanistan; based mainly in the south of the
country and across the frontier in what became pakistan in 1947.
pashTunWali: honor code of pashtun tribe.
sharia: Islamic legal code.
shura: Arabic for ‘consultation’; used in Afghanistan as word to describe
meeting of elders. Soviet means ‘council’ in russian and corresponds to shura.
shuravi: Shuravi or shurawi is the name the Afghans gave to the Soviet/
russian occupiers of their land over a decade ago.
WazirisTan: A mountainous region northwest of pakistan, the
scene of several British military defeats from the late 1800s until pakistani
independence and now a Taliban stronghold.
7

8
Sir henry mortimer Durand
King Amanullah Khan
president ronald reagan and general Secretary
mikhail gorbachev signing the Intermediaterange
Nuclear Forces Treaty in the east room of
the White house, 8 December 1987.
Sen. Barack obama shakes hands with a US
Soldier outside multi-National Division South
east headquarters in Basra, Iraq July 21, 2008,
as part of a middle east tour which included.a
visit to Afghanistan prior to the stop in Iraq.

glossarY of
people
ahmed shah durrani: first Amir of united Afghanistan known as
‘father of the nation’; founder of Sadozai dynasty; died 1772.
dosT mohammed: ‘the great Amir’; Barakzai dynasty; took power in
1826 after fighting his way to the top of large family of competing brothers;
forced out by British invasion 1839; returned to power in 1843; ruled until
death in 1863.
malalai: Afghan national heroine, remembered for her bravery during
the Battle of maiwand. She used her veil as a flag to rally the flagging Afghan
troops, who went on to win the battle. malalai Joya, one of the few female
Afghan politicians, is named after her.
sir henrY morTimer durand: foreign secretary of India;
negotiated frontier between British India and Afghanistan in 1893 that was
named after him; went on to become envoy to Tehran.
sir Thomas salTer pYne: engineer who operated weapons
factories for Abdur rahman in Kabul; left Afghanistan during cholera epidemic
in 1900 and opened chemical factory in Britain.
abdur rahman: ‘the iron Amir’; grandson of Dost mohammed;
Barakzai dynasty; lost five-year civil war after death of Dost in 1863 and fled
north to russian controlled territory; returned to Kabul and installed as Amir
by British in July 1880; united Afghanistan for first time in a century; agreed to
Durand line as border with British India 1893; stirred up frontier tribes to fight
jihad against British control; died in 1901.
amanullah Khan: reformist Amir who succeeded his father
habibullah in 1919; lost war against Britain, but succeeded in winning full
Afghan independence; embarked on radical program including rights for
women; ousted in violent uprising against reforms in 1929.
mahmud Tarzi: intellectual whose magazine inspired Amanullah’s
radical reforms in 1920s; became foreign minister. his daughter, Soraya, was
married to Amanullah.
ahmed shah massoud: mujahideen commander nicknamed ‘Lion
of panjshir’; trained as guerrilla by pakistan, and led first uprising against
reformist government in Afghanistan in 1975 (four years before Soviet
invasion); successfully blocked seven Soviet attempts to take the panjshir
valley; defense minister in post-Soviet government in 1992; lost Kabul to the
Taliban 1996; killed by bomb in TV camera two days before attacks of 9/11.
gulbuddin heKmaTYar: mujahideen commander who began as
Islamist student leader; fled to pakistan in early 1970s after crackdown by
Afghan government; trained as guerrilla by pakistan; received largest share of
US funding to defeat Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; his forces rocketed Kabul
ferociously during the Civil War; in 2006 announced he was now fighting US
under al-Qaeda banner.
mohammad najibullah: communist leader of Afghanistan
installed by gorbachev in 1985; had been head of Khad secret police; remained
in office after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989; forced out by mujahideen in
1992; and took refuge in UN compound; tortured and murdered in 1996 when
Taliban took Kabul.
masood Khalili: son of the famous poet; Khalili political advisor to
Commander massoud; now Afghan Ambassador to Turkey.
benazir bhuTTo: prime minister of pakistan, 1988-1990 and
1993-1996. on both occasions dismissed from office for alleged corruption;
assassinated 27th December 2007 whilst running for office in first pakistani
election to be held since 1999.
robin raphel: head of South Asia desk at the State department
when Taliban emerged in mid 1990s; worked on Iraq reconstruction effort
after 2003; currently vice president of the National Defense University in
Washington DC.
garY schroen: former Central Intelligence Agency field officer in
Afghanistan. Also in charge of the initial CIA incursion into Afghanistan in
September 2001 to topple the Taliban regime and to destroy Al Qaeda.
us presidenTs since 1981:
ronald reagan: 1981-89
george h. W. Bush: 1989-93
William J. Clinton: 1993-2001
george W. Bush: 2001-2009
Barack h. obama: 2009-
general secreTaries of The communisT parTY
of The ussr since 1964:
Leonid Brezhnev: 1964-82
Yuri Andropov: 1982-1984
Konstantin Chernenko: 1984-1985
mikhail gorbachev: 1985-1991
9

10
The greaT game:
afghanisTan
in conTexT
A land of high mountains and desert-like plains, Afghanistan occupies the
heartlands of eurasia. Bordering some of the highest mountain ranges in
the world, to the east lie the Karakorams, the hindu Kush and the Wakhan
range, with the bleak landscapes of Waziristan beyond the pakistan
borders. high passes link eastwards to pakistan, and neighboring China,
russia and the republics to the north, with Iran to the west. No wonder it
is a place where cultures have intermingled as invading bands and armies
arrived from different directions.
Its areas of high mountains or lower desert plains provide little land and poor
conditions for agriculture; traditional herding dominated with small-scale
intensive cultivation of vegetables or tree crops: almonds, apricots, pomegranates
and vines.
Afghanistan is a mix of ethnic groups, with cultural ties and allegiances that
spread across its borders. Today pashtuns make up 42% of the Afghan population,
living in a swathe across the south and separated from pashtuns in pakistan
by the Durand Line. In the north live Tajiks (27%), Nuristanis (14%) and
Uzbeks (8%), while in the west, making up 9% of the population, the hazaras.
Sunni Islam predominates, with hazaras as the only Shia grouping.
In the ancient world, cities were important trade centers. In northern Afghanistan,
Balkh, reputed to be one of the earliest cities in the world, lay on the route
linking India and Samarkand. The birth-place of Zoroaster, it was briefly taken
by Alexander’s greeks in 329 BC. In AD 645, it was conquered by Arab invaders,
who introduced Islam. Bamiyan, on an east-west route, was the center of
an important and quite remote Buddhist kingdom, which until the ninth century
had a Buddhist king. In AD 970 a Turkish governor from Balkh seized Bamiyan,
and the whole Afghan area became muslim, apart from Nuristan.
In 1220 ghenghis Khan, with 100,000 horsemen, crossed the river oxus in the
north and destroyed Balkh. Fifty three years later marco polo passed through
on his way to China. In 1359 Tamburlaine was proclaimed king. Babur, a
descendent of Tamberlaine and founder of the moghul dynasty, reached Kabul
in 1504. After conquering northern India, he returned to Kabul for the summer
cool, with its trees and gardens. on his death he had wanted no monument, but
wished to be buried in a tomb open to the sky.
herat in the east was another important center, offering an example of the
humane and liberal tradition of Islam, and a flourishing artistic community.
Afghanistan was ruled by different tribal leaders. however traditional
gatherings of the tribal leaders, Loya Jirgas, were called to decide on matters
of substance. In 1747, a Loya Jirga declared Ahmad Shas Abdali to be their
Amir (ruler). Changing his name to Ahmed Shah Durrani, he ruled until 1773
and conquered areas as far as Tibet. The future Amirs of Afghanistan were
descended from this family.
Taliban soldiers fire a Bm-12 rocket at
retreating forces of Ahmed Shah massoud
September 26, 1996, north of Kabul. The
Afghan government headed by president
Burhanuddin rabbani fled the capital once
Taliban forces broke through front lines
on the eastern part of the Kabul.
massoud’s forces retreated to their native
panjshir Valley.

parT 1: 1842-1930
invasions
and independence
Throughout the early nineteenth century, russia was conquering areas of
Bokhara and Tashkent, territories close to the north of Afghanistan. This
alarmed the British, aware that any further move could be targeted on India,
their ‘jewel in the crown’.
The ‘Afghan Crisis’ developed in the 1830s. Upon hearing the russians were
attending the persian and Afghan courts, and persian forces had besieged
herat, the British decided to remove the Afghan ruler, Dost mohammed, to
install someone more loyal to them: Shah Shujah. The Afghan War was one of
the first major conflicts in the ‘great game’, the competition between russian
and Britain for power and influence in Central Asia.
The ‘Army of the Indus’ set off from India in 1839, under Lord Auckland, with
16,000 British and Indian troops and 30,000 camp-followers. What quickly
became clear was they had chosen the wrong man; Shujah was deeply
unpopular. During the expedition Shujah had ordered some prisoners to be
brutally executed. There was an outraged response against Shujah and the
British. When the expedition arrived at Kabul they found Dost had fled, but
because of Shujah’s unpopularity there would be no peace.
Kabul became the pleasant residence for the British officers and their wives,
who ignored Shujah’s brutal methods in suppressing opposition. They also
ignored the impact of huge bribes used to buy support; food prices rose because
of the troop numbers, and Shujah imposed high taxes to pay for his court.
In 1841, the cabinet in London requiring savings, ordered the British troops to
leave. Bribes made to border tribes were to cease, which increased their anger.
In November Sir Alexander Burnes, a British officer, was attacked near Kabul,
no aid arrived from the garrison despite his request, and he was hacked to
death. As one British officer wrote: “the unwelcome truth was forced upon us
that in the whole of the Afghan nation we could not reckon on a single friend.” A
large and well-organized rebellion developed under the command of Dost’s son,
mohammed Akbar Khan, leading 30,000 foot and cavalry, seven times the size
of the British force and immediately the garrison prepared for a siege.
In the following months, many outlying forts fell to local Afghan chiefs, while in
Kabul British forces were attacked and routed, with 300 killed. The British
were offered a negotiated settlement: surrender Shujah and reinstate Dost.
They refused, arguing they would take Shujah to India and release Dost there,
too. The Afghans seemingly agreed, but mohammed Akbar Khan believed the
British to be scheming and had four of their officers killed. In terrible January
weather, the British departed Kabul, leaving weapons and hostages, one of
whom was the intrepid Lady Sale. having no fuel, tiny rations, and suffering
bugles
aT The
gaTes of
jalalabad
durand’s
line
campaign
noW is
The Time
bY STepheN JeFFreYS
characTers: Lady Sale,
mcCann, Dickenson, hendrick,
Winterflood and Afzal
seTTing: gates of Jalalabad, 1842
In January 1842 a contingent of
British soldiers, 16000 strong,
retreated from Kabul. only a few
stragglers were left alive in the
British Army’s worst defeat in
history. The general’s wife, Lady Sale,
documents the battles in the hindu
Kush while four buglers sound the
advance at the gates of Jalalabad as
a signal to any survivors.
bY roN hUTChINSoN
characTers: Sir henry
mortimer Durand, Abdul rahman,
Thomas Salter pyne and Servant
seTTing: Kabul, 1893
Amir Abdul rahman has kept
the Indian Foreign Secretary, Sir
mortimer Durand, cooped up in
Kabul for weeks. Sir mortimer
is desperate to negotiate the
division of Waziristan to avenge
the humiliation of his father’s
name. rahman fights to protect his
country’s borders from imperialist
map-making.
bY AmIT gUpTA
characTers: harry hawk
mp, professor Tariq Khan, Tom,
martin Speed
seTTing: Foreign office,
present day
harry hawk mp, parliamentary
private Secretary to the Foreign
Secretary needs to find a new
approach to policy in Afghanistan.
hawk summons the expert,
professor Khan to advise on the
potential success of the
‘supplementary plan’ conceived by
the civil service. While hawk hopes
that history can repeat itself, Khan
is not convinced that it will.
bY JoY WILKINSoN
characTers: Amanullah
Khan, Driver, mahmud Tarzi,
Soroya Tarzi
seTTing: North of Kabul, 1929
King Amanullah, his wife Soroya
and his father-in-law Tarzi
are fleeing the capital. Their car is
marooned in the snow, while
pashtun tribes and Tajik forces
march towards Kabul. Will
the Soviet Union help? Will the
British interfere?
11

12
from frostbite and hunger, the British were constantly attacked from all sides.
over 3,000 died in two days out of Kabul. The slaughter continued and
eventually only one man, Dr. William Brydon, out of the 16,000 who had left
Kabul, reached Jalalabad. It was the worst defeat for the British, often called
Auckland’s Folly. retribution was immediate. British troops returned. In Kabul
they found Shujah had been killed, and Akbar had left with 22 British officers
and 70 other ranks, wives and children. Shujah’s son was made Amir but
Kabul was badly looted and many areas destroyed, and when the British left a
month later, the Amir was killed and Dost returned.
Lady Florentina Sale wrote a journal of her experiences during the first Afghan
war. She was held in captivity for nine months before being rescued by British
troops. her journal was published in 1843 and became a bestseller in Britain.
After 1842, the British continued to consolidate control over the western
frontiers of British India while relations with russia remained wary. Apart from
the mutiny of the Indian troops in 1857, everything appeared calm, until in 1878,
Amir Shir Ali (Dost’s successor) received a russian emissary in Kabul. The
British declared war, and a 35,000 British force captured Jalalabad and
Kandahar. The Amir died while trying to get russian support.
The peace terms for the new Amir, Yakub Khan, were immensely harsh. While the
Treaty of gandamak (1879) formally established the country of Afghanistan, he
had to relinquish West Baluchistan, Quetta and much of the North-West Frontier
to the British. All foreign affairs were to be conducted through the British and a
British resident, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was installed. on Sept 2nd 1879 a message
was received from Cavagnari saying “All well.” Nothing further was heard until
three days later, when Delhi was informed that the British mission had been
attacked and all killed. In october, general roberts led a retaliatory force who
fought their way to Kabul. The Amir was found to be “culpably indifferent” and
was sent into exile while 100 Afghans, found guilty on hearsay evidence, were
publicly hanged.
In February 1880, Abdur rahman, the grandson of Dost, armed with russian
weapons, crossed the river oxus, and became Amir with British agreement.
however Ayub Khan, Abdur rahman’s cousin who ruled herat, announced he
would remove the British. With a force of 28,000 he advanced to attack the small
British contingent at Kandahar; the battle took place at maiwand, a village close
to Kandahar. Underestimating the size of the opposing forces and the experience
of Ayub Khan, the British were “outnumbered, outmanoeuvred and outgunned.”
In the battle a young woman, malalai, (now a national heroine), seeing that the
Afghans were under pressure and their flag bearer had been killed, used her veil
to rally the troops. over 1,000 British and Indian troops were killed and the rest
sought refuge in Kandahar, which was besieged. After 35 days, roberts lifted the
siege and defeated Ayub Khan, who fled to persia.
Afghanistan became a client state of Britain and the new monarch, Amir Abdur
rahman was provided with weapons. he set up a state bureaucracy similar to
that in India, although smaller and far less efficient; a secret police force and a
standing army and ruled with great brutality.
In 1893, Sir mortimer Durand, the British India Foreign minister arrived in Kabul
to negotiate the borders of the ‘buffer state’. he insisted on dividing Waziristan
– the pashtun homeland – along an arbitrary line between Afghanistan and India
and gave India the strategic advantage of high ground for its defense. Set to run
for 100 years, the treaty is still the cause of endless disputes. The strategic
advantages given to the British in the nineteenth century are proving to be less
than useful for the British forces in the twenty first century. opposed by Abdur
rahman in 1893, on the grounds that it divided the pashtuns, in 1947 when
pakistan was formed, the Loya Jirga again refused to confirm the boundary.
In the early part of the twentieth century Afghanistan was still at the mercy of
the two european powers, Britain and russia. Fear of the latter ensured that
Amir habibullah, ruling from 1900, would reluctantly accept British protection.
But under the Anglo-russian Convention in 1907 (because of British fears of
dangers to India from russian influence in persia, Afghanistan and Tibet) it
was agreed that Afghanistan would be a semi-protectorate of Britain.
poverty was endemic and peasant agriculture dominated throughout
Afghanistan. But in the cities, an educated wealthy elite developed who had
connections throughout the Arab and muslim world. The family of mahmud
Tarzi was part of this class. his family left in 1882 for the ottoman empire and
lived in Damascus for 20 years, where the young mahmud was educated.
Influenced by the thinking of Al Afghansi and the emerging nationalist and
modernist movements, he returned to Afghanistan convinced that a progressive
form of Islam could be integrated into modern politics. Determined to move
Afghanistan towards real independence and social progress, he quickly became
influential in the court, but his real impact came through his close relationship
with Amanullah, a son of the king, who married his daughter, Soraya.
Amanullah was aware of the backwardness of Afghanistan; in part, he
believed it was caused by Afghan society itself, but he felt it was also a
consequence of British control. Amanullah and Tarzi were influenced as
young men by the radical developments through the middle east, especially
the ‘Young Turk’ movement under Ataturk. They too wanted modernization,
mass education and social rights for women.
In 1919 Amanullah became king, after Amir habibullah was assassinated - there
were rumors that Amanullah was involved in the assassination. Tarzi became his
foreign minister. Immediately they demanded an unconditional independence
from Britain. A short Third Afghan War followed, ending in a treaty with Britain
agreeing to full independence. meanwhile the British began supporting any tribal
unrest in the south. The young Soviet government in 1921 offered to help in the
‘anti-colonialist struggle’, and built a telegraph line between Kabul and Kusht, as
well as sending engineers to establish the nucleus of an airforce.
While accepting Western ideas, the new rulers maintained a clear view of Afghan
national sovereignty and in 1924, the first Afghan constitution was written.
gravelled roads were built, post and telegraph offices established and a radio
station opened. education for girls was encouraged and the first girls’ school
opened. Amanullah returned from a tour of europe, russia and Turkey and
demanded urgent progress on the women question. Impressed by Ataturk’s
Turkey, he pressed for changes in dress in Kabul forcing tribal leaders to wear
suits and cut off their beards. he was, however, becoming defenseless against
the tribes and religious movements who opposed him. In 1928 a rebellion of the
pashtun chieftains in the south, instigated by the British, demanded that he
withdraw his reforms. With dwindling support, he knew he would have to resign,
and after hoping in vain to regain his throne militarily, both he and Tarzi were
forced into exile in europe.
Later with British support, general Nadim Shah became Amir. Assassinated in
1933, his son Zahir Shah ruled until 1973, but with none of the vision or
determination of Amanullah. Whatever was to follow, there was now both national
and international recognition that Afghanistan had become an independent
monarchical state, albeit dependent on the goodwill of its neighbors.

parT 2: 1979–1996
communism,
The mujahideen
and The Taliban
From the start of the Cold War in the 50s, aid was used by the Big powers to
extend political influence. The USSr provided Afghanistan with $2.5B, while
$0.5B was allocated from the US. It was in this relatively stable period that the
country became a destination on the hippy trail.
In 1973, the Durrani dynasty ended. Amir Zahir Shah was overthrown by his
cousin, mohammed Daud, who had the support of the small Communist party.
Afghanistan became a republic. opposition to the government grew and in
1975, a small Islamist movement, under Burhanuddin rabbani, together with
gulbuddin hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah massoud, began to gain influence.
however under pressure from the government, they moved to pakistan where
they forged alliances with the Jamiat–e–Islam and the muslim Brotherhood.
guerrilla training was provided for them by the ISI, the Inter-Services
Intelligence (the pakistani secret services).
This incipient insurrection continued to develop, and when Iranian followers of
Ayatollah Khomeini moved into herat in early 1978, marxist army officers used
the opportunity to overthrow Daud and install Nur mohammed Taraki in ‘the
April revolution’.
Taraki was the first communist president. The new communist government
moved to immediately modernise the country, demanding secular education,
education for girls and young women, and land reform. however the pace of
change was far too rapid and too radical and the insurgency increased.
Taraki was overthrown and hafizullah Amin, the new communist president,
requested military support from the Soviets. The old Soviet leaders were
alarmed at developments and initially resisted getting involved, but as the
mujahideen increased their activities, 100,000 Soviet troops crossed the river
oxus on 24th December 1979, and under Soviet occupation Amin was deposed
and Babrak Kamal installed.
The entry of Soviet forces fundamentally changed the situation. Immediately
pakistan received US aid to support the mujahideen and to ensure war in
Afghanistan would not spread eastwards. William Casey, reagan’s head of the
CIA, described the insurgency in Afghanistan as attacks on “the soft
underbelly of the Soviet Union”. Under US direction and with Saudi funding,
pakistan’s ISI established camps along the pakistan border to train the
mujahideen in all forms of terror and insurgency warfare: missiles, plastic
explosives, precision weapons, car bombs. The operations were run under the
banner of Islam against the godless communists, with no funds going to
secular or democratic Afghan movements. gulbuddin hekmatyar’s party,
hizb-e-Islami, was the one most favored by the pakistanis, and the most
extreme. (he is still fighting today).
blacK
Tulips
Wood for
The fire
minisKirTs
of Kabul
The lion of
Kabul
bY DAVID eDgAr
characTers: Several
members of the Soviet 40th Army,
an Interpreter, Nahid, meena
seTTing: a briefing room for new
conscripts to the Soviet 40th Army in
1987, 1985, 1984, 1982 and 1981
Christmas 1987. A superpower
invaded Afghanistan eight years
ago. Its troops were sent to combat
backwardness and banditry, to
defend women’s rights, to build
hospitals and schools, but it didn’t
work out quite like that. Now another
group of russian conscripts gets its
final briefing before going in.
bY Lee BLeSSINg
characTers: owens,
general Akhtar, Karen, Abdul
seTTing: ISI headquarters in
rawalpindi, CIA offices in
Islamabad, a little way outside
peshawar, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985
and 1986
In order to destabilize the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan, the CIA
and ISI (pakistan’s Intelligence
agency) formed an unholy alliance
with the mujahideen. American
weaponry was supplied to support
the Jihad, and the russians were
eventually forced to withdraw. Wood
for the Fire explores one of many
facets of this secret war.
bY DAVID greIg
characTers: Writer and
Najibullah
seTTing: UN compound,
Kabul, 1996
The Taliban are closing in on Kabul:
shells and rockets are exploding
around the capital. A woman is
interviewing president Najibullah,
who has sought refuge in the UN
compound. he talks about fashion,
communism, torture and whisky, but
time is running out…
bY CoLIN TeeVAN
characTers: rabia, Ismael,
Khan, herati, guards, prisoners
seTTing: Kabul, 1998
Two Afghan aid workers disappear
while distributing rice. rabia, their
UN Director of operations, is
determined to discover what has
happened to them. The problem is
her organization does not recognize
the Taliban, and the Taliban does not
recognize her. She seeks justice, but
who is to dispense it?
13

14
620,000 Soviet troops fought in Afghanistan during the decade of occupation,
with a peak force of over 110,000. But eventually Soviet forces were massively
overwhelmed by the mujahideen, with Soviet troops often embattled in
makeshift hilltop forts. The Soviets claimed 14.453 of their soldiers were
killed, whilst others estimate as many as 75,000. half a million were wounded
and many returned to face poverty in a Soviet Union undergoing its final
crises. Around 1–1.5 million Afghans were killed and 2 million displaced. In the
1980s one in every two refugees in the world was an Afghan.
As the Soviet troops withdrew in 1989, the US continued to ensure allocated
funding went to the Islamists or to the pakistani ISI, and in the following ten
years the ISI became immensely powerful: almost a shadow state in pakistan.
Between 1982 and 1990 over 35,000 Islamic militants had been trained in the
camps near to peshawar to fight the Soviets. many were from the huge
refugee camps that had grown up along the Afghan/pakistan border; others
were poverty stricken young men from the madrassas in northern pakistan. In
a program supported by the US, an international brigade of so-called ‘Arab
Afghans’ flocked from around the world to join the jihad: idealistic young men
from countries including Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and egypt, many with their
own radical agendas at home. Amongst these fighters was a young Saudi with
a talent for fundraising called osama bin Laden.
The training, supervised by the ISI, was designed to inflict the maximum
terror and create complete social breakdown. As Ahmed rashid states: “This
global jihad launched by Zia (president of pakistan 1978–1988) and reagan
was to sow the seeds of Al Qaeda and turn pakistan into the world center of
jihadism for the next two decades.“
The effectiveness of the training of the mujahideen was evident in Kabul towards
the end of the 1980s when car bombs and explosions were rife. This terror
intensified in the year the Soviets were withdrawing, when an extremely large
bomb was used in an attack on president mohammad Najibullah’s compound, and 22
people were killed. Najibullah begged president Bush to put a brake on these actions.
When the Soviets decided to leave, the geneva Accords, signed in 1988, laid out
the withdrawal procedure to be completed within 12 months. The US agreed to
close their operations and to scale back aid to the mujahideen, but both sides still
wanted to maintain influence. The Soviets supported Najibullah’s government,
and the US supported the mujahideen. There was no agreement on any form of
interim government.
With the sudden and dramatic break-up of the Soviet Union in late 1989, backing
for Najibullah’s government diminished, and he was asked by the russians to
step aside in favor of his prime minister, Fazal haq Khaliqyar. With no
international agreement about the future of Najibullah himself, a diminished
Afghan national army (down to under 30,000 troops), and a worsening economic
situation, Najibullah faced mounting difficulties. he was losing support, and
pressures mounted as six of the 31 provinces fell to the mujahideen.
Throughout 1991, the mujahideen warlords were fighting to enlarge their areas
of power, and ethnic differences undermined any possible unity. By the end of
1991, both russia and the US had stopped arms shipments. Becoming
increasingly desperate, Najibullah tried to find the basis for an interim national
government, even offering to permit the king to return and an agreement with
the mujahideen. These offers were refused. While Najibullah was still in
control of the army, it was demoralized, poorly equipped and under attack from
the mujahideen throughout the country. In 1992 when the new russian
government refused to sell him oil, he was severely weakened. In April 1992
general Abdul rashid Dostum and his Uzbek militias entered Kabul, and
Najibullah was arrested. Burhanuddin rabbani was installed as president with
Ahmed Shah massoud as minister of defense and the Islamic state of
Afghanistan was declared.

Immediately any alliance between the warlords fractured, and warring
factions jockeyed for power in Kabul. each had overlapping spheres of
influence, different and yet similar external backers and all had income from
drugs and local taxes. With the complete breakdown of any form of
centralized state, and no external power interested in the great game,
warlords replaced the proxy powers.
Under a plan devised by the UN, power would have transferred from the
pro-Communist president to a wider grouping, but the proposal failed.
In August 1991, gorbachev had told Najibullah: “The impression is being
created that the Americans are actually concerned about the spread of Islamic
fundamentalism. They think, and they frankly say this: that the establishment
today of fundamentalism in Afghanistan, pakistan and Iran would mean that
tomorrow this phenomenon would encompass the entire Islamic world. And
there are symptoms of this, if you take Algeria, for example. But the Americans
will remain Americans. And it would be naive if one permitted the thought that
we see only this side of their policy and do not notice the other aspects.“
After Najibullah was arrested, he managed to live under house arrest in a UN
compound. Neither president rabbani nor massoud were prepared to bring
him to trial, nor to let him go into exile. At the same time gulbuddin hekmetyar
and the Tajiks, supported by pakistan’s ISI, started to battle against the
government of rabbani and massoud to seize Kabul.
During this period, hundreds of tons of refined heroin were transported from
the poppy fields and the laboratories to Karachi. The opium poppy could be
grown easily in the conditions found in the southern areas of the country. It
was a crop requiring tending and watering during its growing season, and
although the farmer received about one percent of the total profits generated,
it was a crop for which there was increasing demand. other new overland
routes to the north opened up after the fall of the Soviet government, and were
An Afghan Army soldier hands a flag to
a Soviet Army soldier during the public
ceremony celebrating the Soviet
Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan,
may 15, 1988. In may, 1988,
Afghanistan, pakistan, the USSr and
the United States signed agreements
providing for an end to foreign
intervention in Afghanistan.
controlled by the russian mafia. By the early 1990s, Afghanistan was
competing with Colombia and Burma as the main source of the global heroin
supply. production of the drug was largely controlled by the warlords and was
increasingly the basis for financing their militias and wars.
From the middle of 1992, the civil war flared up into a terrible confrontation for
power, with pashtuns, under hekmatyar, fighting the alliances of nonpashtuns.
Kabul was constantly under bombardment and almost totally
destroyed. It was during this time that most damage was inflicted on the city; it
became the scene of a massive series of battles and attacks. The civilian
population fled in huge numbers and government buildings and property was
looted and destroyed. Between April 1992 and December 1994, about 20,000
people were killed, more than during the whole of the Soviet occupation. rabbani
and massoud refused to relinquish the presidency and controlled Kabul and the
areas to the north-east. Ismael Khan created an almost independent state
around herat in the west, whilst to the north Dostum ruled six provinces.
meanwhile hekmatyar constantly bombed and attacked the city with rockets
from areas to the north-east.
The ensuing battles were devastating and continuous, but there was no pressure
to negotiate. There was no international aid or pressure on the warlords to
relinquish any of their power, and no support for the 5 million refugees.
Najibullah was incarcerated in the UN compound for four years, with no
possibility of leaving. It was in late 1996 when the Taliban captured Kabul that
he was dragged out, and brutally murdered. his body was left hanging from a
pole at a roundabout.
The Taliban, ferocious adherents from the Deobandi tradition, a strict and
fundamentalist form of Islam, had become active in the south, around
Kandahar. general Babur, a key backer and favorite uncle of Benazir Bhutto,
then president of pakistan, had suggested that an oil and gas pipeline could be
built between pakistan to the states in the north. In october 1994, 30
15

16
pakistanis in a convoy reconnoitering a route to Turkmenistan, were kidnapped
by some local mujahideen. held for ransom they were only released after
intervention by a group of Taliban. Following this incident, and allegedly with
the tacit and grateful support of Babur, they captured Kandahar.
Well armed from stores of weapons left over from the mujahideen’s conflict
with the russians found along the pakistan border, within a year they took
herat. They were evolving into a highly political movement with the goal to
seize the whole of the country and to establish a truly Islamic state. Using
Japanese pickups in order to speedily attack or retreat, they became an
efficient fighting force.
Throughout the next two years the war continued, with the pashtun forces of
the Taliban pitted against the warlords, but in 1996 the victorious Taliban
entered Kabul. massoud, who had assumed leadership of the Northern
Alliance, retreated north with the Tajiks, whilst Dostum remained secure in
mazar in the north. hekmatyar sought refuge in Iran.
In 1996 osama Bin Laden arrived at Kabul. The CIA had just opened a new
office to track him down and he realized that there would be both security and
support amongst the Taliban who controlled most of Afghanistan.
In 1998 Al Qaeda had mounted major operations in Kenya and Tanzania killing
391 and wounding 5,077 people in total. By 2000 Al Qaeda was effectively
supporting the Taliban against the Northern Alliance and massoud’s
stronghold at Talogan was captured by a force of ‘foreign fighters’. The entry
Afghan mujahideen forces advance toward
the front lines march 15, 1989 during the
battle for Jalalabad in eastern
Afghanistan. The battle between Afghan
mujahideen groups based in peshawar,
pakistan and government troops of
president Najibullah was undertaken to
establish a mujahideen interim
government in Jalalabad after the Soviet
Army withdrawal from Afghanistan in
February, 1989. The Najibullah
government managed to hold onto power
until April, 1992.
of Al Qaeda marked only one part of a wider movement of armed radical
Islamists entering Afghanistan. pakistani and Arab intelligence agencies
operated there, but most of the fighters were refugees or the young men from
pakistani madrassas.
For many Afghans whose religion had been influenced by elements of Sufism,
the Taliban’s intolerant outlook on Islam was unwelcome. But as they quickly
took over towns and controlled areas, the Taliban began to radically alter lives,
instituting order, stability and a sense of justice, though with harsh
punishments speedily enacted. They removed checkpoints and opened many
roads which had previously been impassable because of warlords exacting
tolls. The Taliban were accepted by many who had been subjected to war and
banditry for over 16 years and had almost forgotten stability. however the
Taliban’s strict rulings meant that women were removed from public life:
women in any public office lost their jobs and schools for girls were closed,
female teachers were sacked and universities were closed to them. Traditional
pastimes, like playing marbles and flying kites, were no longer allowed, music
and dancing prohibited. Televisions were removed, cigarettes banned, and in
herat, mohammed mashal’s mural was destroyed.
In 1997, with much of the country under Taliban control, the UN appointed
Lakhdar Brahimi as the UN special representative to try to bring the civil war to
an end. A Six-plus-Two group was established – US and russia, with
Afghanistan’s neighbors of pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran
and China – to bring influence on the warring groups. It too came to nothing.

parT 3: 1996-2010
enduring freedom
The impact of the Taliban on the region was of increasing international
concern, especially given its relationship with Al Qaeda. In 2000, Iran and the
US for the first time held secret negotiations about how to undermine the
Taliban. A general initiative was formed with the US, Iran, germany and Italy
but met little success.
pakistan continued to play its own game. Following a coup in 1999, general
pervez musharraf had become president. he insisted that they were
persuading the Taliban to stop fighting the Northern Alliance. In January 2001
with mounting pressure on the UN, the Security Council passed a resolution
instituting sanctions against the Taliban in an attempt to stop the arms flow
from pakistan. pakistan remained loyal to Kabul, and there was little public
questioning about the extremism that was developing within pakistan itself.
UN sanctions were then instituted against pakistan.
pressure mounted on the Taliban government in Kabul, but the fighting against
the Northern Alliance continued – particularly targeting the hazaras because
they were Shias. In march 2001, the Bamiyan Buddha statues, a major part of
the Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan for almost two millennia were destroyed.
The Taliban claimed this was in retaliation against the UN in failing to provide
humanitarian aid. A drought had occurred across the whole country resulting
in the death of 70% of the livestock and devastating over 50% of cultivable
land. Again huge numbers of people became internal refugees, and the UN was
unable to raise the $221m required for humanitarian aid.
Despite sanctions, pakistan continued to provide fuel and supplies to the
Taliban government, ISI trucks constantly crossing the border. In explanation
president musharraf said: “The Taliban is the dominant reality in Afghanistan
and a unilateral arms embargo on the Taliban government is unjustified,
discriminatory and will further escalate the war.” hundreds of pakistani
volunteers continued to enter Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban.
Washington was reticent about giving wholesale support to the Northern
Alliance. The leaders were either narcotics dealers themselves or were funded
through the opium trade, and it was obvious that many of them had no concept
of human rights. however, in 2000, the CIA received the go-ahead to use
$125m to arm massoud and the Northern Alliance and to establish a permanent
base in panjshir Valley. massoud, increasingly seen by the US as a viable
leader, was not optimistic about being able to defeat the Taliban, when they
were supported by Al Qaeda and volunteers from the madrasas of pakistan. on
September 9th, 2001, he was killed in northern Afghanistan by an Al Qaeda
suicide bomber disguised as a reporter.
The US had withdrawn from any direct involvement in Afghanistan in 1989;
however within ten days of September 11th 2001, president george W. Bush
honeY
The nighT
is darKesT
before
The daWn
on The
side of The
angels
canopY of
sTars
bY BeN oCKreNT
characTers: masood
Khalili, robin raphel, gary Schroen,
Ahmad Shah massoud, Attendant,
reporter and Cameraman
seTTing: US embassy, Islamabad,
Austrian embassy Kabul, Northern
Afghanistan from 1996 – 2001
While civil war rages, a lone CIA
agent realizes the dangers of
American disengagement. he’s
found an “in” to persuade
Commander massoud, the Lion of
panjshir, to help them get back into
the game. But with the Taliban
closing in on Kabul, will it be enough?
bY ABI morgAN
characTers: minoo, huma,
Alex, omaid, Berukh, elmar,
Tribesmen
seTTing: South of Kandahar,
April 2002
The widowed huma is trying to
re-open her husband’s school
following the American bombing and
“liberation” of Afghanistan; however
she needs to persuade six more girls
to attend. But Berukh’s father is
more concerned with his opium crop
and who will harvest it.
bY rIChArD BeAN
characTers: Fiona, Jackie,
Jonathan, graham, Jalaluddin,
Dawood, Tribesmen
seTTing: Several locations
within Afghanistan and the Ngo
London offices.
Jackie and graham are working for
Direct Action World poverty east of
herat. They are thrown together to
work on a new project about land
rights. In trying to help and settle
local disputes, the results are not
what they expected, as Bollywood,
women’s rights and tribal disputes
create a toxic mix.
bY SImoN STepheNS
characTers: Sergeant Jay
Watkins, private richard Kendall,
Soldiers, Cheryl
seTTing: Kajaki Dam and
helmand, Afghanistan, and a house
in Levenshulme, manchester, 2010
In a bunker guarding the Kajaki
Dam, two soldiers talk of chips and
gravy, football, women and whether
the British should start to negotiate
with the Taliban insurgents. A searing
insight into soldiers at war, and what
happens when they go home.
17

18
announced operation enduring Freedom. Deciding the attack on the Twin
Towers was the work of Al Qaeda, located in Afghanistan, retaliation was to be
instantaneous. 110 CIA officers and 316 Special Forces operatives with a
budget of $1billion were to overthrow the Taliban and destroy Al Qaeda. No US
ground troops were to be involved, and the initial attack would involve large scale
intensive bombing. With worldwide sympathy and support, the US was able to
use bases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for their operations, and other states
permitted overflying.
on october 7th, the Northern Alliance commanders were instructed to ground
their helicopters and Taliban military targets were attacked by 50 cruise missiles
and laser targeted bombs. Within two days there were hardly any ‘targets’ left.
As the Taliban had around 60,000 troops, including 31,000 Arab fighters and
9,000 others from pakistan, the US strategy was to pay the Northern Alliance
warlords to fight them on the ground. huge sums were allocated for warlords to
individually seize areas of Afghanistan.
Within weeks the Taliban were weakened and retreating. By November they had
left herat. Kabul was taken by mohammed Fahim. Thousands of Taliban
prisoners were killed by Northern Alliance forces, often with great brutality. In the
aftermath we now know that pakistan’s ISI got their own men out to Waziristan
together with 3,000 Talib fighters. Al Qaeda leaders fled to the caves of the Tora
Bora, which were extensively bombed. They later moved into northern pakistan.
‘Law’ was again in the hands of the strongest local leaders. extortion, arbitrary
arrests, kidnappings and killings were rife. There being no coordination, each
warlord controlled their area seizing any duties for themselves. Their finances
were increased by control of poppy production and the smuggling routes,
particularly through to Uzbekistan and the northern states. As soon as the
Taliban had gone and with them the ban on production, the farmers again turned
to the poppy crop.
With victory over the Taliban seemingly assured, the Bonn Agreement was
signed in December 2001 and mohammad Karzai, who came from an old pashtun
family, was chosen as interim leader. All the militias were to leave Kabul, but this
did not happen. Sanctions against pakistan were removed in return for
permitting around 60,000 secret flights out of their airbases, previous loans
were wiped clear, and $597m granted in aid packages. musharraf later said
pakistan had made millions in selling so-called Taliban suspects to the US and
coalition forces.
The ‘war’ had been won by the payoffs to the warlords and their militias. After
removing the Taliban, the Americans turned their attention to Iraq, and over the
next two years large numbers of people continued to be killed as warlords battled
for supremacy. With Dostum in power, numbers of pashtuns, living in the north,
fled south terrified. many of the atrocities carried out by the militias against the
pashtun population may have influenced the re-emergence of the Taliban. huge
numbers of cluster bombs were dropped resulting in many people being killed
and maimed. No-one knows the numbers of civilians who died in this period but
there was great social disruption and another terrible drought caused many to
die from starvation and disease.
In June 2002, an emergency Loya Jirga was called and an interim government
was established. In it, Northern Alliance held 17 cabinet posts, including defence,
interior, intelligence and foreign affairs, with 11 seats for the pashtuns, 8 Tajiks, 5
hazaras and 3 Uzbeks. A constitutional Loya Jirga was to be held in 2003.
In the 2004 UN human Development report, Afghanistan was the 172nd most
poverty-stricken of the 178 countries surveyed. Infant mortality rate was 165 per
thousand, the worst in the world, with a life expectancy for women of 45 and for
men of 46.
In 2003 there was a clear disparity of wealth and power between the interim
government and the warlords. There was too a great disparity in the offers of
aid and the resultant inflow of funds. A US think-tank, the rand Corporation,
estimated $167 per head was required to stabilise a country. Bosnia had
received $679. Afghanistan had received a mere $57 by 2003.
There had been some limited success in the reopening of schools: in Kabul
there was a 45% enrolment of girls. But in most areas there was no significant
change. Unemployment and poverty were rife. migration increased from the
countryside, and all the cities swelled with large numbers of homeless living in
shanties and tented cities. Kabul’s population of 400,000 in the 1970s rose in
2005 to 3.5m. By June 2003, the US had supplied $1.9 billion in aid packages,
but the money was often spent on contracts for US firms. There was concern
that there was little to show for the large sums allocated. Corruption was rife.
US contractors over-charged and were grossly inefficient, unwilling to
consider ‘value for money’ while some Ngos and Afghan government ministers
were similarly unaccountable.
A Constitutional Loya Jirga was held in 2003 and the Islamic republic of
Afghanistan was established. No law could be passed unless it was seen to be
Islamic, but Sharia law was not introduced. Freedom of worship was accepted
as part of the constitution, and discrimination on grounds of gender or ethnicity
were deemed unlawful. human rights were to underpin the constitution.
After August 2003 NATo led the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF,
as a peace-keeping force, with participation of around 40 countries. A section
of the US forces were operating under a separate command of counterterrorism,
as part of operation enduring Freedom. however, security steadily
worsened. In helmand and Zabul, a major Taliban offensive began attacking US
bases and compounds. By August, the International Committee of the red
Cross and other Ngos were leaving the southern provinces and the UN
suspended travel for their officials. By winter 2003, over 80% of Zabul
province was controlled by the Taliban. The provincial reconstruction Teams
(prTs) established to operate outside Kabul were often reliant on warlords
and showed little success. The defense minister wanted an Afghan army of
200,000 soldiers, but the US would only fund 37,000. many men were illiterate
and desertion rates were high. policing too was a problem, with similar issues
of literacy, training being too short, and little essential equipment.
The october elections in 2004 had 10.3 million registered voters, 40% of
whom were women, and Karzai was elected president on a 55% vote. The
following year parliamentary elections were held. Despite the political
developments, for many life was getting worse. The insurgency was
increasing, the warlords maintained power and one of the most intransigent
problems was that Afghanistan was developing into a narco state. Warlords
paid by the coalition to stop the crops pocketed the money while crops
increased. In 2003 the yield was 3,600 tons; by 2007 it had reached 8,200
tons (93% of world heroin production).
Today 90,000 US troops are part of the NATo-led ISAF Force, while the US also
has 10,000 soldiers under its separate command operation enduring Freedom.
The two operations are seen by most Afghans as one force. Counterinsurgency
is overshadowing nation building. For many Afghans it is dangerous to be seen
as close to the occupying forces. The NATo forces are largely from the US, with
Britain contributing 9,500 troops, germany 4,341, France 3,850 and Italy
3,688. other countries are training the Afghan army and police force, but there
has been criticism of the length and quality of courses, with poor equipment
and inadequate follow-up.
British policy was the ‘stabilization’ of a ‘fragile state’ and development
activity is directed towards this. But with declining security, development
projects rely on links with the occupation forces, creating problems for
Afghans involved. There is no real political stability. Karzai’s government,
elected in 2004, was, and is, dependent on foreign forces, which in the eyes of
the population undermines its legitimacy. The government is often seen as
corrupt: many close to Karzai are warlords who have profited from drug money.

many with parliamentary positions enjoyed amnesties and maintained their
individual power. meanwhile a grim and difficult economic situation depends
almost entirely on foreign donors.
Since 2006, pakistan too has become more dangerous, and is of greater
significance. There the Taliban, together with Al Qaeda, have become more
confident about taking on pakistan’s army in the tribal areas. Fighting has
escalated, with the army recently withdrawing from parts of Waziristan. In
2008, the Swat Valley, an area of 4.3 million people in the North-West Frontier
region (not one of the traditional Tribal Areas), was eventually handed over to
tribal leaders who, with Taliban influence, have instituted Sharia law there.
Increasing numbers of US bombing operations in the border regions have
fuelled further anger against the pakistan government and the occupation
forces in Afghanistan.
2007 saw the largest increase in opium production, rising to 92% of global
production. given the demand for this illegal commodity, there is an economic
rationale for farmers to grow poppies. profits stemming from its illicit nature
produce better returns than any legal crops and encouraging farmers to switch
from poppies is immensely difficult. The counter narcotics strategy of the US
of uprooting crops or using crop sprays was deeply unpopular and Karzai was
adamantly opposed to it, knowing it would make his fragile government even
more unpopular.
A further critical problem is the number of civilian deaths. The Taliban operate
in mainly rural areas with a measure of support ensuring that military
engagements often find civilian targets. It is in the very nature of modern
warfare that civilians will be killed, and their deaths have been mounting. each
one ensures increased support for the insurgents.
The future does look bleak without answers to accusations of corruption and
to the dominance of the drug trade, unless there are dramatic reductions in
civilian casualties, evidence of major reconstruction and development, and a
radical change in the political situation in pakistan. For some Afghans, the very
presence of foreign troops will not be the answer. The Taliban are reputed to
say: “You foreigners have the fancy watches. We have the time.”
Afghan men are questioned by a US Army
officer from the 4th Infantry Division
about the presence of local Taliban
fighters September 8, 2009 during an
operation along the pech river in the
remote Shuryak Valley, Kunar province.
Nearly a dozen Taliban fighters were seen
fleeing the immediate area during the
predawn air assault.
Two Afghan National policemen stand at
an entry guard post at the district center
march 13, 2009 in Qarabagh, Afghanistan.
The US military is responsible for training
and equipping local units of the Afghan
National police throughout Afghanistan.
more than 40 of the 464 villages in the
Qarabagh district are controlled by
Taliban forces. In 2008, with 85 policemen
for Qarabagh district, 24 were killed by
Taliban IeD’s in ambushes or gun battles.
19

20
A procession of women critical of a new
family law walk past a Shia mosque
and madrassa as Afghan women staged
rival demonstrations for and agains a
new family law in Kabul, Afghanistan.
April 15, 2009.
2002. Young women and a child waiting
for the pre-natal clinic to open. The clinic,
run by the not-for-profit medical relief
organization merlin, was the first to open
in the remote mountain village of
hazasomuch, Taloqan.
A member of the Afghan Independent
electoral Commission advises local
residents how to navigate the presidential
election ballot paper with 41 candidates in
Khan Neshin, Afghanistan. Khan Neshin
has an estimated 1,500 registered voters.
Taliban militants have threatened
residents with ‘night letters’ not to vote.
August 20, 2009.

eligious laWs of
The Taliban
1
All men to attend praYers in
mosques 5 Times dailY.
2
no Woman alloWed
ouTside The home
unless accompanied by a mahram
(close male relative such as a father,
brother or husband).
3
Women noT alloWed
To buY from male shopkeepers.
4
Women musT be
covered by burqa.
5
anY Woman
shoWing her anKles
musT be Whipped.
6
Women musT noT
TalK or shaKe hands
WiTh men.
7
ban on laughing in
public. No stranger should hear
a woman’s voice.
8
ban on Wearing shoes
WiTh heels or that make any
noise as no stranger should hear a
woman’s footsteps.
9
ban on cosmeTics.
Any woman with painted nails
should have her fingers cut off.
10
no Woman alloWed
To plaY sporTs or enter a
sports club.
11
ban on cloThes in
‘sexuallY aTTracTing
colors’, (basically anything
other than light blue or mustard).
12
ban on flared
Trousers, even under a burqa.
13
ban on Women
Washing cloThes in
rivers or any public place.
14
ban on Women
appearing on The
balconies of Their
houses. All windows to be
painted so women cannot be
seen from outside their homes.
15
no one alloWed
To lisTen To music.
16
no Television
or video allowed.
17
no plaYing of cards.
18
no plaYing of chess.
19
no flYing of KiTes.
20
no Keeping of birds
- any bird-keepers to be imprisoned
and the birds killed.
21
men musT noT shave
or Trim Their beards
which should grow long enough to
protrude from a fist clasped at the
point of the chin.
22
All men to wear Islamic clothes
and cap. shirTs WiTh
collars banned.
23
anYone carrYing
un-islamic booKs To
be execuTed.
24
ban on all picTures
in books or houses.
25
All people to have
islamic names.
26
Any street or place bearing a
woman’s name or anY
female reference To
be changed.
27
All boy students to
Wear Turbans.
28
anY non-muslim
musT Wear a YelloW
cloTh stitched onto their
clothes to differentiate them.
29
All sportsmen to have legs and
arms fullY covered.
30
All audiences at sporting events to
refrain from
cheering or clapping
and only to chant Allah-o-Akbar.
21

22
furTher
reading
parT 1: 1842-1930
invasions
and independence
The landscapes of Afghanistan are also ‘awesome’ (in the original sense of this
word) but the feelings of dread and insignificance are not at the power of god
but at the power of modern weaponry. Afghanistan is unique, utterly unlike any
other war-ravaged landscape. In Bosnia, Dresden, or the Somme for example,
the devastation appears to have taken place within one period, inflicted by a
small gamut of weaponry.
however, the sheer length of the war in Afghanistan, now in its 24th year,
means that the ruins have a bizarre layering: differing moments of destruction
lying like sedimentary strata on top of each other. A parallel is the story of
heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of the remains of the classical city of Troy in
the 1870s. Digging down, he found nine cities deposited upon each other, each
one in its turn rebuilt upon the rubble of its predecessor and later destroyed.
Afghanistan keeps similar artifacts in what could be a museum of Archeology
of War. Abandoned tanks and troop carriers from the Soviet invasion of the
80s litter the countryside like agricultural scrap or they have been used as
footings for embankments and bridges, poking from the earth like malevolent
fossils. The land has a different appearance where there was fighting in the
early 90s. In this instance the tidy, picked-clean skeletons of buildings are
separated by smooth, hard earth where de-mining teams have swept the area.
In places destroyed in the recent US and British aerial bombardment, the
building are twisted metal and charred roof timbers (the presence of
unexploded bombs deters all but the most destitute scavengers), giving the
place a raw, chewed-up appearance.
Throughout history, many civilisations have been brought down by barbarians,
but the destruction, no matter how savage, always leaves behind a trail of
clues. A building destroyed by the cataclysm of an American 15,000lb bomb
creates a different historical record to a structure gradually reduced to its
concrete ‘bones’ by thousands and thousands of small Kalashnikov bullets.
mikhail Bakhtin called this kind of landscape a ‘chronotope’: a place that allows
movement through space and time simultaneously, a place that displays the
‘layeredness’ of time. The chronotopia of Afghanistan is like a mirror, shattered
and thrown into the mud of the past: the shards are glittering fragments,
echoing previous civilisations and lost greatness. here there is a modern
concrete teahouse resembling Stonehenge: an Fm radio mast like an english
maypole… Art historical references may be intriguing but the destruction of
Afghanistan is first and foremost a human tragedy in which millions lost their
lives. The people killed in these attacks leave almost no record, only the
forensic traces survive to tell of the carnage. Seeing Afghanistan as a
chronotope can reconnect the evidence in the landscape to the story of this
human disaster. It points to the archaeological remains that are the only
indicators of the appalling suffering that is modern war, a suffering so
atrociously suppressed in the mainstream media’s coverage.
Afghanistan: Chronotopia photographs by Simon Norfolk (DewiLewis publishing, 2002)
In 1970 peter Levi and Bruce Chatwin travelled through Afghanistan to find
evidence of classical greek influences. Finally and in my case with awe and
almost disbelief, we visited the memorial and tomb of Babur. Bruce warned me
that five years before it was already in ruins, with the curved marbles of its
arches being used for water channels. It was therefore a great surprise to both
of us to find that the memorial, which is a very fine grey marble pavilion, had
been completely restored. It was built by Babur’s grandson Shah Jahan in
1640, and the tomb, which is black and green marble and alabaster, by Abdur
rahman in 1880. The site is an old and disused gardens out of sight of the city,
on a hillside above the Kabul river with mulberry trees and one or two
enormous planes of such a girth and such limbs, they may have stood here
since Babur’s death. The mulberries probably date from 1640. What I have
called the memorial is really a mosque, open on three sides like the simple
wooden mosques in many villages. The material is Kandahar marble. The
inscription over the main entrance reads as follows:
“only this mosque of beauty, this temple of nobility, constructed for the prayer
of saints and the epiphany of cherubs, was to stand in so venerable a sanctuary
as this highway of archangels, this theatre of heaven, the light garden of the
godforgiven angel king, whose rest is in the garden of heaven Zahiruddin
muhammad Babur the Conqueror”.
The Light garden of the Angel King: Travels in Afghanistan, peter Levi (pallas editions 2000)
(1838) macnaghten’s candidate for the Afghan throne was the exiled Shah
Shujah, to whom he claimed it legitimately belonged. he put forward a plan
whereby ranjit Singh (the Sikh ruler) who loathed Dost mohammed might be
prevailed on to use his powerful army of Sikhs to help Shah Shujah overthrow
their mutual foe. In return for the recovery of his throne, Shujah would
abandon all claims to peshawar. By using an invasion force of ranjit Singh’s
troops and Shujah’s irregulars, Dost mohammed could be toppled without
British troops becoming involved.
Both palmeston and Auckland were strongly attracted to the plan, which got
others to do their dirty work, much as the russians were doing with the
persians over herat. To replace one ruler with another among a people who had
transferred their allegiance no fewer than eight times in less than half a
century did not seem to be unduly problematic or perilous.
The great game, peter hopkirk (oUp 1990)
When the rebellion broke out in 1841, Lady Sale was with her husband and the
British troops in Kabul. In former times, under the feudal system, when the
sovereign of Cabul required troops, each bold chieftain came forward with his
retainers; but these vassals had been taken from them and were embodied in
corps commanded by British officers, to whom they owed no affection, and
only paid a forced obedience, whilst their hearts were with their national
religion; their chief’s power was now greatly limited, and the chouk (payment)
guaranteed to them was withheld on the plea that the Company had
commanded retrenchments. It is necessary to observe that several months ago
letters calling on all true musselmans to rise up against the Kaffirs (english
unbelievers) were widely disseminated: they bore the King’s signature; but Sire

William macnaughten always insisted that they were forgeries of a very
peculiar description that papers bearing the veracious signature had had their
contents washed out and these seditious writings inserted. …The celerity with
which troops are raised is quite astonishing to us; who are accustomed to see
recruits drilled for a length of time. here, every man is born a soldier; every
child has his knife, that weapon which has proved so destructive in the hands
of a hostile peasantry, incited against us by the moollahss, who threaten
eternal perdition to all who do not join in the cause of the ghazeeas; whilst
heaven, filled with houris, is the recompense for every man who falls in a
religious war… As to the justice of dethroning the Ameer Dost mahommed, and
setting up Shah Shoojah I have nothing to say regarding it: nor regarding our
policy in attempting to keep possession of a country of uncivilised people, so far
from our own; whence all supplies of ammunition, money etc., must be obtained.
A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan 1841-2, Lady Florentia Sale
(Naval & military press Ltd, 2005)
…The great Boer War had just commenced at that time, and the Amir (Abdur
rahman) said he had spent several nights in anxious thought, for it seemed
possible that the russians might take advantage of this to advance through his
country on India, but when he put himself in the place of the russians and
viewed the situation from their side, and he had spent many years in exile in
russia, and knew them and their ways and policy, he found much to fear from
Afghanistan, for a war with them meant a general rising of Islam, which would
spread to russian Asia, and they had not enough troops for all that this meant,
for the mussulman countries she had conquered were insecurely held, and the
people hated their conquerors, and as the Afghans would prefer death to
being enslaved, and their women and children taken, it would be too great an
undertaking to quell these risings, and fight Afghanistan and India at the
same time.
Under the Absolute Amir, Frank A martin (Kessinger publishing Company, 2007)
…two stone towers on which was written Welcome to NWFp - gateway to the
Frontier. At this point Afghans would always say ‘from here starts Afghanistan’
for they do not recognise the border marked by the Durand Line drawn by the
British in 1893 which for the first time split the pashtuns, one of the world’s
Shepherds herding their flock of
sheep along the main road from
Talogan to Kundus in 2002.
largest tribal societies. The line was named after Sir mortimer Durand, Foreign
Secretary of British India who supervised the arbitrary division. It was agreed
to by the then ruler of Afghanistan, Abdur rahman, after a combination of
arm-twisting and a substantial increase in his annual purse from Britain, but
according to the Afghans it was never meant to be an international boundary,
simply an agreement of delineating zones. running about 1000km from one
mountaintop to another, cutting through dozens of pashtun tribes from the
Afridi to the Waziri (though they have always remained free to cross back and
forth), it was described by Sir olaf Caroe, the last British governor of Frontier
province, as ‘a line beyond which neither side would exercise interference.’ For
the British, finding themselves unable to subjugate the pathans, as they called
the pashtuns, the idea was to create a buffer zone between the raj and
Afghanistan as part of their ‘Forward policy’ to block the russians in their
attempts to gain access to the warm-water ports of India. Shortly after
drawing the Durand Line, the British established the so-called Tribal Areas in
which the pashtuns were left to govern themselves under the eye of a political
Agent, a policy pakistan continued after Independence. While on the map this
pashtun belt south of the Durand Line is officially part of pakistan territory, in
practice the Tribal Areas are a no-go land of mud-baked forts and feuds in
narrow valleys and mountains where the word for stranger is the same as
enemy, only these days the pashtuns are armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket
launchers rather than Lee enfields.
many times I had heard pashtuns say, ‘I have been a pashtun for five thousand
years, a muslim for one thousand four hundred and pakistani for only fifty.’ In
fact almost all of them seemed to consider themselves Afghans and openly
advocated the concept of pashtunistan - a greater Afghanistan reaching to
Attock as it once had. The hundred-year agreement on the Durand Line expired
in 1993 which was one of the reasons that pakistan was so desperate to have a
government of its choosing in Kabul that would recognize this border.
if the central asian society exists and is meeting on 50 or
a 100 years, afghanistan will be as vital and as important a
question as it is now.
Lord Curzon at the annual dinner of the royal Asiatic Society. London 1908
23

24
once King Amanullah had quelled various tribal revolts around the country, in
may 1919 he declared war on the startled British, provoking the Third
Anglo-Afghan War, with the aim of securing complete independence and
recovering the lands between the Durand Line and the Indus that had been part
of Afghanistan. The advantage of surprise meant that Nadir Shah’s forces at
first scored several victories, particularly as many pashtuns in the Khyber
rifles and Frontier Scouts deserted to join the Afghans. But then the British
escalated the war and sent rAF pilots flying First World War warplanes over
the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan to drop bombs on Jalalabad and
Kabul. It was the first time the country had been bombed, and after one bomb
hit the tomb of his grandfather Amir Abdur rahman, an outraged Amanullah
sent a cable to Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India, complaining: ‘It is a
matter of great regret that the throwing of bombs by Zeppelins on London was
Afghans gaze at a party of visiting
pakistani and western journalists touring
Kandahar, Afghanistan November 1, 2001
following the intense bombing by US Air
Force of al Qaeda and Taliban positions
inside and surrounding the city.
denounced as a most savage act and the bombardment of places of worship
was considered a most abominable operation while now we can see with our
own eyes that such operations were a habit which is prevalent amongst all
civilised peoples of the West.’ Just as the Taliban were to find years later,
Amanullah’s forces had no chance against this lethal new weapon. But nor did
the British have any eagerness to take on these martial people in their
impenetrable mountains once more, particularly so soon after the First World
War when the British units stationed in India had lost most of their experienced
men. Both sides initiated peace moves and the result was the Treaty of
rawalpindi, which ended the control Britain had long exercised over
Afghanistan’s external affairs.
The Sewing Circles of herat: my Afghan Years, Christina Lamb (Flamingo, 2004)

parT 2: 1979–1996
communism,
The mujahideen
and The Taliban
in the decades before the soviet invasion,
afghanistan had been slowly making its
own way into the modern world. it is hard to
imagine now, but for students at Kabul
university, 1968 was no less hectic a year
than it was for the students at columbia,
berkley, oxford and the sorbonne.
Temptations of the West: how to be modern in India, pakistan, Tibet and Beyond, pankaj mishra
(picador, 2006)
Verbatim notes of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist party
discussion on receipt of a request from president Tanaki for support march
1979. gromyko…the situation in herat has deteriorated sharply…there the 17th
division of the Afghan army was stationed and restored order, but now we have
received news that the division has completely collapsed… Bands of saboteurs
and terrorists, having infiltrated from pakistan, trained and armed not only in
parts of pakistan, but China, USA and Iran, are committing atrocities in herat
and joined with local counterrevolutionaries. The latter are religious fanatics,
and the leaders of reactionary masses are also linked in large part with
religious figures. The number of the insurgents is difficult to estimate but our
comrades tell us that there are thousands… in considering the question of aid:
in no circumstances may we lose Afghanistan… of course it is one thing to
apply extreme measures if Afghan army is on the side of the people, and an
entirely different matter if the army does not support the lawful government.
…Andropov: It is completely clear to us that Afghanistan is not ready to resolve
all of the issues that it faces through society. The economy is backward, the
Islamic religion predominates, and nearly all of the rural population is illiterate.
We know Lenin’s teaching about a new revolutionary situation. Whatever
situation we are talking about in Afghanistan, it is not that type of situation. I
believe that we can suppress revolution in Afghanistan only with the aid of our
bayonets, and that is for us entirely inadmissible. We cannot take such a risk.
gromyko: I completely support ruling out such measures as deploying troops
into Afghanistan. The army is unreliable. Thus our army when it arrives will be
the aggressor. Against whom will it fight? Against the Afghan people first of
all, and will have to shoot at them…According to the UN Charter a country can
appeal for assistance and we could send troops if subject to external
aggression. Afghanistan has not been subject to any aggressor. This is an
internal affair.
march 17th 1979. National Security Archives, Vol II. Afghanistan Lessons of the Last War,
Soviet experiences in Afghanistan, russian Documents and memoirs, Svetlana Sanarskaya
october 9 2001
Comrade Shchedorov’s letter, from 1981, contains lessons for those fighting in
Afghanistan more recently, particularly in helmand. ‘Upon completing an
operation, the Afghan-Soviet troops as a rule return to their bases and the
regions fall back under the control of the rebels… In the course of those
operations, housing and the agricultural fields are often destroyed, the civilian
population is killed, and in the end everything remains the same.’ Soviet forces
found, as British forces would later in helmand, that they were fighting over
the same ground again and again.
In Afghanistan, David Loyn (hutchinson, 2008)
Between 2,000 and 2,500 missiles had been given away by the CIA to the
Afghan rebels during the war [in the 1980s]… The going rate per missile ranged
between $80,000 and $150,000… The total cash spent by the CIA on Stinger
repurchases during the mid 1990s rivalled the total cash donations by other
sections of the US government for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan
during those years. president reagan signed the classified NSDD-166, titled
‘expanded US Aid to Afghan guerillas,’ in march 1985, formally anointing its
confrontational language as covert U.S. policy in Afghanistan. his national
security adviser, robert mcFarlane, signed the highly classified sixteen page
annex, which laid out specific new steps to be taken by the CIA. For the first
time the agency could use satellite photographs of the Afghan battlefield to
help the mujahedin plan attacks on Soviet targets. The agency would soon send
in secure ‘burst communications’ sets that would allow rebels to use advanced
American technology to thwart Soviet interception of their radio traffic. The
CIA would begin for the first time to recruit substantial members of
“unilateral” agents in Afghanistan – agents who would be undeclared to the
pakistani intelligence. Also for the first time , by at least one account , the
document explicitly endorsed direct attacks on individual Soviet officers.
ghost Wars: The Secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden,Steve Coll (penguin, 2004)
(1980s) Car bombs were part of the core curriculum at training camps such as
the “University of Dawa and Jihad” outside of peshawar. “Under ISI direction,”
writes Coll, “the mujahedin received training and malleable explosives to
mount car bomb and even camel bomb attacks in Soviet occupied cities,
usually designed to kill Soviet soldiers and commanders. Casey endorsed these
techniques despite the qualms of some senior CIA career officers.” CIA and
Special Forces instructors were supposedly told by Casey’s man-on-the-spot,
gust Avrakotos: “Teach the mujahedin how to kill: pipe bombs, car bombs. But
don’t ever tell me how you’re doing it in writing. Just do it”…The mujahedin
car-bombed and sabotaged Kabul for almost four years. reportage of the
explosions was censored by the russians, but enough news crept out to
suggest carnage on a Beirut scale.
Buda’s Wagon: A Brief history of the Car Bomb, mike Davis (Verso, 2007)
“By the late 1980s the ISI had effectively eliminated all the secular, leftist, and
royalist political parties that had first formed when Afghan refugees fled
Communist rule”. In February 1992, travelers reaching the Tajik capital told
that one of Najibullah’s most important allies in northern Afghanistan, a
communist Uzbek militia commander, Aburrashid Dostum, had defected to
massoud’s Supreme Council of the North….Najibullah’s days were numbered.
The sudden alliance of massoud’s Tajik army with Dostum’s Uzbek militia
– 40,000 strong, in control of tanks, artillery and even aircraft – tilted the
military balance against Najibullah, just as his supplies from moscow had been
cut off. “We have a common task – Afghanistan, the USA and the civilized
world – to launch a joint struggle against fundamentalism.” Najibullah told
reporters in his palace office just as the mujahedin closed to within rocketing
distance. “If fundamentalism comes to Afghanistan, war will continue for many
years. Afghanistan will turn into a centre for the world smuggling of narcotic
drugs. Afghanistan will be turned into a centre for terrorism.”
ghost Wars: The Secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and BinLaden, Steve Coll (penguin, 2004)
“The key image of the Taliban occupation of Kabul that registered in the
international press was the mutilated body of Najibullah banknotes stuffed into
his mouth, strung from a lamp post on one of the central intersections of the city.”
Afghanistan: The mirage of peace, Chris Johnson and Joylan Leslie (Zed Books Ltd, 2004)
The resistance had finally ousted the Communist regime in 1992, three years
after the russians had left and the ill-fated attempt to capture Jalalabad.
hamid had been made Deputy Foreign minister in the mujaheddin government.
But he had quickly become disillusioned and resigned in may 1993 as the
leaders turned on each other, and fighting between the forces of hekmatyar
and Ahmad Shah massoud destroyed much of the capital and killed thousands
of civilians.
The Sewing Circles of herat: my Afghan Years, Christina Lamb (Flamingo, 2004)
25

26
A great deal of controversy surrounds the role of countries other than pakistan
in the orchestration of the Taliban. pakistan’s then prime minister, Benazir
Bhutto, has disclosed that pakistan was not alone in setting up the Taliban.
She has claimed: ‘Weapons were supplied to the Taliban by the USA and Britain
with money from Saudi Arabia… pakistan’s territory was used to train solely
the Afghan refugees - pashtuns, who made up the backbone of the Taliban
movement’…The Taliban suited the interests of not only pakistan, but also
these countries in different ways. given the Sunni, but anti-Shi’a and
anti-Iranian, character of the Taliban, the Saudi, UAe and US objectives were
very much shaped by a common desire to contain the Islamic republic of Iran
and prevent it from gaining influence in Afghanistan and in the newly emerged
mineral and market-rich region of Central Asia. The Saudi and UAe funding
came from both the government and wealthy private citizens, whose past
support, together with that of the USA, had also been critical to hundreds of
Arab volunteers who had come to fight alongside the mujahideen in a jihad
against the Soviets and their surrogates in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
modern Afghanistan: A history of Struggle and Survival, Amin Saikal (I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2006)
It was perhaps only an army of orphans who could have imposed this madness
on Afghanistan with such enthusiasm. many of the fighters were still in their
teens, some as young as 14, and had grown up without the company of mothers
or sisters. They accepted without question that women should be banished into
darkness, and whipped if they were not fully covered up, or appeared outside
without a male relative. The young zealots of the Taliban had no other contact
with women at all, in mosques, restaurants, shops or travelling on the road. All
of their conversations were with men or boys. They dreamt of virgins in
Traditional birth attendants preparing
to leave after a training session in a
remote mountain village in Takjar
province in 2002.
paradise, making no connection between these beings and the shapeless tents
who shuffled along the gutter, or were carried like animals, squatting in the
open boots of cars, while men sat in the front. Although the Taliban seemed
extreme, what they imposed were no more than normal conservative
countryside pashtun values. In some villages, women do not even have a name
outside their own family. I once succeeded in asking some questions of a woman
in a pashtun village near Kabul - a bizarre four-way interview, with her husband
shouting my questions through a curtain… The interview, recorded during the
Taliban years, revealed the frightening isolation of women’s lives. The nameless,
shapeless figure mumbling answers from under her burqa, had lost three sons in
the war, two fighting for the mujahidin against the Soviet occupation, and one
fighting for the Taliban. But she hardly appeared to know that the Soviet army
had left, let alone who was now in power, or whether it mattered.
In Afghanistan, David Loyn (hutchinson, 2008)
it seemed too easy and glib the demonising
of the Taliban, attacked in the west “as
vicious barbarians from the middle ages
instead of the bastard children they
increasingly seemed to me of the West’s
arrogant meddling in afghanistan in very
recent times”.
Temptations of the West: how to be modern in India, pakistan, Tibet and Beyond, pankaj mishra
(picador, 2006)

parT 3: 1996-2010
enduring
freedom
In the last thirty years deobandism and the madrassas have become the
fastest growing education system in South Asia, particularly in pakistan. This
may have been motivated less by parents wanting children to imbibe such
strict Islamic values but more because of the complete collapse of the state
system. pakistan has one of the world’s highest illiteracy rates with only one in
four being able to read, a result of spending only two percent of the gross
national product on education - one of the lowest levels in the world -
compared to thirty percent on defence. militant Islamic groups displayed
much more foresight than the West in coming forward to fill that gap and as a
result the number of madrassas in pakistan rose from 900 in 1971 to 8,000 by
2001 with perhaps as many again unregistered.
The Sewing Circles of herat: my Afghan Years, Christina Lamb (Flamingo, 2004)
(1947 there were around 190 madrassahs in pakistan. By 2002 it had risen to 10,000-13,000.
2005 there were thought to be 12,000 madrassahs with many run by the Deobandis. In 2008,
it was estimated that there were over 40,000)
The Security Council might wish to consider adopting a comprehensive
approach to the settlement of Afghanistan , in its political, military,
humanitarian and human rights dimensions, setting forth the basic
requirements for a settlement of the conflict and the principles on which it
should be based, together with a coherent strategy to resolve the conflict….no
military solution to the Afghan conflict is possible, desirable or indeed
acceptable, that the pursuance of conflict is futile since territorial gains
achieved in the battlefield do not constitute the basis for the legitimization of
power and that a piecemeal , as distinct from a step by step approach is
unlikely to succeed”.
report of the UN Secretary general’s Special representative to Afghanistan to the UN
Security Council , NY, August 17th 2001
“america has replaced the Taliban with
warlords. Warlords are still on the us
payroll but that has not brought a cessation
of violence. not only is the us failing to rein
in the warlords but actively making them
centerpiece of strategy”.
Joe Biden, Los Angeles Times may 2002
Karzai was a moderate, progressive Kandahari pashtun, who had joined the
mujahideen against the Soviet occupation and had briefly served as Deputy
Foreign minister in the rabbani government. he was even nominated by the
Taliban to represent them at the UN, but soon thereafter had denounced
Taliban rule and left to live in the USA, where his family had been running
businesses for many years. he returned to southern Afghanistan following 11
September 2001 to fight the Taliban with full America political and military
backing. The USA and its allies, especially Britain, pledged not to leave
Afghanistan in the lurch again. They promised to do everything possible to help
the Afghans to reconstruct their country, and achieve peace and stability, with
a lasting ‘democratic’ order, as soon as possible, so that the country would
never again become a source of international terrorism. ... The emergency Loya
Jurgah was held in Kabul from 11 to 19 June 2002, and despite some
irregularities in its composition as a largely elected and partly appointed body,
and American intervention to keep the lid on factional discontent, especially on
the part of supporters of Zahir Shah who had himself returned to Kabul in may
2002 after 29 years in exile, the Loya Jurgah proved a success under the
circumstances. probably it was the most democratic Loya Jurgah ever held in
Afghanistan. It ‘consisted of over 1,600 delegates, the majority of whom
represented various ethnic groups within Afghanistan. Some were appointed by
various warlords and power brokers; others came from abroad representing
Afghans living around the world’. After lively and at times heated debate, an
overwhelming majority, 1,295 of the delegates, ‘voted for Karzai as the head of state’.
modern Afghanistan: A history of Struggle and Survival, Amin Saikal, (I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2006)
“us failure to secure this region may well
lead to global terrorism, nuclear
proliferation and drug epidemics on a scale
we have not experienced.”
Taliban, Ahmed rashid, (Yale University press: Nota Bene, 2000)
The Defence Secretary at the time, John reid, said, ‘We would be perfectly
happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot.’ But even before the
end of the first year British forces had fired more than a million bullets in
helmand in fierce fighting, and had had to withdraw from four towns where
they had originally set up - so-called ‘ink spots’. The aim had been to spread
security in widening areas, like ink seeping through blotting paper, until they
all joined up, but the troops came under fierce attack from the day the arrived.
In Afghanistan. David Loyn (hutchinson, 2008)
“The us training program for the police
under dyncorp was an appalling joke…a
complete shambles”.
richard holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN and current Special representative for
Afghanistan and pakistan under the obama Administration, Ap Brussels April 28th 2007
“In committing the alliance to sustained ground combat operations in
Afghanistan …NATo has bet its future. If NATo were to fail, alliance cohesion
will be at grave risk. A moribund or unraveled NATo would have a profoundly
negative geo-strategic impact.”
gen. James Jones, former NATo chief. Letter to Washington post April 10th 2007
In July 2006, Britain’s highly respected commander of international forces in
Afghanistan, general David richards, issued a stark warning: “Afghanistan is a
good and winnable war but, at the pace we are proceeding, we need to realise
that we could actually fail here.” A year on, as yesterday’s defence committee
report indicates, we are indeed beginning to fail in Afghanistan…Failure is not
yet inevitable. But it is now likely, and will remain likely until we increase
resources and redress the disastrous failure of the international community to
get its act together…one can normally at least rely on the military to
understand the importance of unity of command. But in Afghanistan, even this
is absent. The US military are not exclusively under the command of Nato’s
mission in Afghanistan, and frequently conduct operations that run counter to
the NATo force’s basic doctrine of minimising civilian deaths. Worse, US
special forces and CIA operations are run not from the theatre but from
Washington. This is exactly the fractured command structure that led to the
US disaster in Somalia.
paddy Ashdown, guardian July 19th 2007
The usa and naTo have failed to
understand that the Taliban belong to neither
afghanistan nor pakistan but are a lumpen
population, the product of refugee camps,
militarised madrassas, and the lack of
opportunities in the borderland of pakistan
and afghanistan.
Descent into Chaos, Ahmed rashid (Allen Lane, 2008)
27

28
meanwhile tens of thousands of ordinary people from the surrounding hills of
the semi-autonomous tribal belt – the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA) that run along the Afghan border – have fled from the conflict zones,
blasted by missiles from the unmanned American predator drones and strafed
by pakistani helicopter gunships to the tent camps now ringing peshawar. The
tribal areas have never been fully under the control of any pakistani
government, and have always been unruly, but they have now been radicalised
as never before. The rain of armaments from the US drones and pakistani
ground forces, which have caused extensive civilian casualties, daily add a
steady stream of angry foot soldiers to the insurgency. elsewhere in pakistan,
anti-western religious and political extremism continues to flourish, and there
are increasing signs that the instability is now spreading from the Frontier
province to the relatively settled confines of Lahore and the punjab.
William Dalrymple, guardian march 4th 2009
“Just as the CIA sponsored radical Islamists once connected Afghanistan to the
modern world, so US backed warlords have initiated Afghanistan into the
global economy”.
Temptations of the West: how to be modern in India, pakistan, Tibet and Beyond, pankaj mishra
(picador, 2006)
Afghan high school girls tour a US
embassy sponsored exhibit of
photographs in Babur gardens,
Kabul, Afghanistan. April 7, 2009.
Washington’s options are limited. The most favored solution, balkanisation and
the creation of ethnic protectorates, might not work in Afghanistan….Some US
intelligence offices have informally been discussing the creation of a pashtun
state that unites the tribes and dissolves the Durand Line, but this would
destabilize pakistan and Afghanistan to such a degree that the consequences
would be unpredictable. In any event there appears to be no serious takers in
either country. If this is understood, then a second alternative, both preferable
and more workable, becomes apparent. This would involve a withdrawal of all
NATo forces either preceded or followed by a regional pact to ensure Afghan
stability for the next ten years. pakistan, Iran, India, russia and possibly China
could guarantee and support a functioning national government pledged to
preserve the ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan. A serious social and
economic plan to rebuild the country and provide the basic necessities for its
people would become a necessary prerequisite for stability.
The Duel: pakistan on the Flight path of American power, Tariq Ali (Simon & Schuster Ltd., 2008)
“We would all like to have a situation in which our mission in Afghanistan has
been completed and we can bring our troops home. I do not see that happening
any time in the near future and I think it is impossible to put a date on [it]”
robert gates, US Defence Secretary, march 4th, 2009

ecommended
reading:
afghanisTan: a culTural and poliTical hisTorY by Thomas J. Barfield
afghanisTan: a darKness visible by Seamus murphy
afghanisTan: a shorT hisTorY of iTs people and poliTics by martin ewans
afghanisTan diarY: 1992-2000 by edward grazda
afghanisTan, Where god onlY comes To Weep by Siba Shakib
al qaeda noW: undersTanding TodaY’s TerrorisTs by Karen J. greenberg
descenT inTo chaos: The uniTed sTaTes and The failure of naTion building
in paKisTan. afghanisTan and cenTral asia by Ahmed rashid
The enemY combaTanT papers: american jusTice, The courTs,
and The War on Terror edited by Karen J. greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel
from ouTside in: refugees and briTish socieTY by Nushin Arbabzadah
ghosT Wars: The secreT hisTorY of The cia, afghanisTan, and
bin laden, from The sovieT invasion To sepTember 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
globalizaTion challenged: convicTion, conflicT, communiTY by george rupp
The greaT game: The sTruggle for empire in cenTral asia by peter hopkirk
homebodY/Kabul by Tony Kushner
in afghanisTan: TWo hundred Years of briTish, russian and
american occupaTion by David Loyn
journal of The disasTers in afghanisTan 1841-42 by Lady Florentia Sale
Kabul by m.e. hirsch
The KiTe runner by Khaled hosseini
The looming ToWer: al qaeda and The road To 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
a rope and a praYer: a Kidnapping from TWo sides by David rohde and Kristen mulvihill
samira and samir: The hearT rendering sTorY of love and
oppression in afghanisTan by Siba Shakib
The seWing circles of heraT: a personal voYage Through
afghanisTan by Christina Lamb
sTones inTo schools: promoTing peace WiTh educaTion in afghanisTan
and paKisTan by greg mortenson
The sWalloWs of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
Taliban: miliTanT islam, oil and fundamenTalism in cenTral asia,
second ediTion by Ahmed rashid
a Thousand splendid suns by Khaled hosseini
Three cups of Tea: one man’s mission To promoTe peace...
one school aT a Time by greg mortenson and David oliver relin
Three cups of Tea: one man’s journeY To change The World...
one child aT a Time (The Young reader’s ediTion) by greg mortenson and
David oliver relin; adapted by Sarah Thomson
All books will be on sale in the Skirball Center Lobby during performances of The great game.
29

30
The inTernaTional securiTY
assisTance force:
currenT Troops and faTaliTies
counTrY currenT Troop
conTribuTion
(AS oF NoVemBer 15, 2010)
ToTal faTaliTies
(ApproxImATeLY, AS oF
NoVemBer 20, 2010)
albania ......................................................................258 ........................................................ -
armenia .......................................................................40 ........................................................ -
ausTralia ...............................................................1550 ......................................................21
ausTria ..........................................................................3 ........................................................ -
azerbaijan ...............................................................94 ........................................................ -
belgium ......................................................................491 .........................................................1
bosnia and
herzegovina ..........................................................924 ........................................................ -
bulgaria ....................................................................516 ........................................................ -
canada .....................................................................2922 ....................................................152
croaTia ......................................................................299 ........................................................ -
czech rep .................................................................468 ........................................................3
denmarK ...................................................................750 .....................................................39
esTonia .......................................................................140 ....................................................... 8
finland .......................................................................150 .........................................................1
former Yugoslav
republic of macedonia ...................................163 ........................................................ -
france .....................................................................3850 .....................................................50
georgia ......................................................................924 ........................................................5
germanY ..................................................................4341 .....................................................45
greece ..........................................................................80 ........................................................ -
hungarY ....................................................................502 ........................................................4
iceland ..........................................................................4 ........................................................ -
ireland ..........................................................................7 ........................................................ -
iTalY ...........................................................................3688 .....................................................33
jordan ...........................................................................0 .........................................................1
laTvia ..........................................................................189 ........................................................3
liThuania ..................................................................219 .........................................................1
luxembourg ...............................................................9 ........................................................ -
malaYsia ....................................................................30 ........................................................ -
mongolia .................................................................... 47 ........................................................ -
monTenegro..............................................................31 ........................................................ -
neTherlands .........................................................242 .....................................................24
neW zealand ..........................................................234 .........................................................1
norWaY ......................................................................353 ....................................................... 9
poland ......................................................................2519 .....................................................22
porTugal ....................................................................95 ........................................................2
republic of Korea ..............................................246 .........................................................1
romania ...................................................................1648 ......................................................17
singapore ..................................................................38 ........................................................ -
slovaKia ...................................................................250 ........................................................ -
slovenia .....................................................................78 ........................................................ -
spain ...........................................................................1576 .....................................................30
sWeden ......................................................................500 ........................................................5
Tonga ..............................................................................0 ........................................................ -
TurKeY ......................................................................1790 ........................................................2
uKraine ........................................................................16 ........................................................ -
uniTed arab emiraTes .......................................35 ........................................................ -
uniTed Kingdom .................................................9500 ...................................................345
uniTed sTaTes ....................................................90000 .................................................1400

phoTographY
crediTs
photo by john haYnes on cover and page 3
photos by Yvonne hughes on pages 20 (bottom left), 23, 26
photos by roberT nicKelsberg on pages: 2, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20
(top, bottom right), 24, 28, 31
Images on page 6 via WIKImeDIA CommoNS (clockwise, from top):
Sir henry mortimer Durand by W. Thomas Smith, given to the National portrait
gallery, London in 1926.
photo of president reagan and general Secretary gorbachev from the White house
photographic office via National Archives and records Administration ArC.
photo of Barack obama and US troops from Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq.
portrait of King Amanullah Khan from encyclopedia Britannica.
US marine Lance Corporal Nathan Nail,
of oxford, Alabama, walks through farm
fields during a security patrol in Khan
Neshin, southern helmand province,
Afghanistan. Taliban forces, having been
forced to flee with the recent influx of
4,000 marines into helmand province,
have had control of southern helmand
for 3-4 years. August 11, 2009.
31
-
258 -
40 21
155 -
3-
94 1
491
-
924 -
516 152
292 -
299 3
468 39
750 8
140 1
150
-
163 50
385 5
924 45
434 -
80 4
502 -
4-
733
368 1
03
189 1
219 -
9-
30 -
47 -
31 24
242 1
234 9
353 22
251 2
95 1
246 17
164 -
38 -
250 -
78 30
157 5
500 -
02
179 -
16 -
35 345
950 140
900