The Unconquerable: Afghanistan's Historical Resistance

Afghanistan has a long history of domination by foreign conquerors and strife among internally warring factions. The land has been invaded many times due to its location on the main land route between Iran, Central Asia, and India. Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the territory in 329 B.C., and since then, many empires and nations have attempted to conquer Afghanistan, including the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and most recently, the United States.

The Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989)

The Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted from 1979 to 1989, was a conflict between the Soviet Union and the Afghan Mujahideen. The war was sparked by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, which aimed to prop up the struggling communist government that had been established in the 1970s and was facing opposition from the Mujahideen, a group of Islamic resistance fighters.

The Soviet Union had several motivations for invading Afghanistan. Firstly, they wished to expand their influence in Asia and protect their interests in the region from Iran and Western nations. Additionally, they wanted to preserve the Communist government, which was collapsing due to a lack of popular support beyond the military. The Soviets also saw Afghanistan as a strategic foothold in the ongoing Cold War with the United States.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan faced strong international condemnation. The United States, seeing the conflict as a proxy war with the Soviet Union, began providing the Mujahideen with weapons and financial support. The conflict in Afghanistan also prompted the US Senate to refuse to ratify the SALT II arms-limitation treaty, and led to a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics by the US and 64 other countries.

The war in Afghanistan quickly settled into a stalemate. The Soviet Union deployed around 100,000 troops and controlled the major cities and garrisons, while the Mujahideen operated with relative freedom in the countryside, using guerrilla tactics to attack Soviet forces. The Soviets attempted to crush the Mujahideen by bombing and depopulating rural areas, but this only resulted in a massive exodus of refugees, with millions fleeing to Pakistan and Iran.

Despite their superior numbers and firepower, the Soviets struggled to defeat the Mujahideen due to the challenging terrain and the latter's knowledge of the local area. The Mujahideen were also supported by the local population, who saw the atheist Soviets as a defilement of their Islamic faith and traditional culture.

The war proved to be a costly quagmire for the Soviet Union, resulting in thousands of casualties and billions of dollars spent. Recognizing that they were unable to defeat the Mujahideen and facing increasing international pressure, the Soviets signed an accord with the US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in 1988, agreeing to withdraw their troops. The Soviet withdrawal was completed on February 15, 1989, bringing an end to their nine-year occupation of Afghanistan.

The Soviet-Afghan War had far-reaching consequences. It contributed to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and left Afghanistan in a state of prolonged civil war. The conflict also had a lasting impact on US-Soviet relations and shaped the subsequent involvement of the US in Afghanistan following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842)

The British Indian force occupied Kabul and endured harsh winters. The force and its camp followers were almost completely massacred during the 1842 retreat from Kabul. The British then sent an Army of Retribution to Kabul to avenge the destruction of the previous forces. After recovering prisoners, they left Afghanistan by the end of the year.

The First Anglo-Afghan War was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game—the 19th-century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between Britain and Russia. The British feared a Russian invasion of India via Afghanistan and wanted to control Afghanistan to protect their interests in India.

The British invasion of Afghanistan was the first time that, after Alexander the Great, a Western power had invaded Afghanistan. The invasion was also the first of four European and Western interventions in Afghanistan, including the second British invasion in 1878, the Russian invasion in 1979, and the American invasion in 2001. All four invasions had some things in common: an initial quick military victory for the invader, a victory turning into a stalemate, an eventual face-saving withdrawal, and Afghanistan becoming an economic liability for the invader.

The First Anglo-Afghan War was extremely costly and included the disastrous retreat from Kabul in 1842. The British force of 4,500 soldiers and 12,000 camp followers left Kabul and headed for Jalalabad. Afghan tribesmen attacked and harassed the force, and only a small number were taken hostage, with even fewer making it alive to Jalalabad. The retreat and destruction of an entire army was one of the worst military disasters in the history of the British Empire.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880)

The Second Anglo-Afghan War was fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880. It was part of the Great Game, a series of conflicts between the British and Russian empires. The war was triggered by Russian attempts to expand their empire into Afghanistan, which the British wanted to prevent as they saw it as a threat to their Indian colonies.

In November 1878, the British invaded Afghanistan with a force of about 50,000 men, mostly Indians, divided into three columns that penetrated the country at different points. The British quickly achieved victory at the battles of Ali Masjid and Peiwar Kotal, leaving the approach to Kabul undefended by Afghan troops. The Afghan Emir, Sher Ali Khan, fled to Mazar-i-Sharif, hoping the British would struggle to occupy Afghanistan indefinitely and that the Afghan tribes would eventually rise up against them.

In May 1879, Sher Ali's successor, Mohammad Yaqub Khan, signed the Treaty of Gandamak, allowing a British mission to be established in Kabul led by Sir Louis Cavagnari. However, this mission was slaughtered on 3 September 1879, reigniting the conflict. The British defeated an Afghan army at Charasiab on 6 October 1879 and occupied Kabul two days later. However, they faced an uprising of 10,000 Afghans in the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment in December 1879, which eventually collapsed.

In July 1880, the British suffered a defeat at the Battle of Maiwand. They responded by marching from Kabul to Kandahar, covering over 500km in 20 days, and defeated Ayub Khan outside Kandahar on 1 September 1880, ending the Afghan uprising. The war concluded with Abdur Rahman Khan, a nephew of Sher Ali, becoming the new Amir. He agreed to conduct his foreign policy through the British Government of India and ceded several Afghan districts in the Khyber and Kurram border areas. The British abandoned their policy of maintaining a resident in Kabul but continued to handle Afghanistan's foreign policy in exchange for protection and a subsidy.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War was expensive for Britain, costing around 17 million pounds, three times the estimated cost. Despite their attempts to reduce Russian influence in Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman adopted an autocratic government inspired by the Russian Tsars and often acted against British interests.

The Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919-1921)

The Third Anglo-Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from May to August 1919. The conflict was sparked by the new Amir of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan, who repudiated the Treaty of Gandamak, which had given the British control of Afghan foreign policy. Amanullah Khan declared full independence and called for a 'jihad' or Holy War, hoping to seize Peshawar and the old Afghan provinces west of the River Indus. The British mobilised their forces, and sporadic fighting occurred in the tribal districts of Chitral in the far north. The main mountain passes between British India and Afghanistan became the focus of the fighting on the ground.

The British forces were short on men, artillery and machine guns, but they were able to defeat a larger Afghan force that had occupied Bagh and attacked Landi Kotal at the western end of the Khyber Pass. The Afghans were forced back across the border towards Jalalabad, and the British occupied Dakka on 13 May 1919. However, the British camp at Dakka was poorly situated and soon came under attack from Afghan artillery and infantry. The British launched a counter-attack the following day, but it was not until 17 May that the area was secured.

On 27 May 1919, the British successfully stormed the Afghan fortress of Spin Baldak in southern Baluchistan, which guarded the strategically vital road from Kandahar to Quetta. Over 200 of the 500-strong garrison of Afghan regulars were killed in the action, with the British losing 18 killed and 40 wounded. The largest Afghan attack took place in the Tochi-Kurram valley area, where the militia in adjacent Waziristan mutinied against their British employers. The situation became critical, and the British garrison at Thal, guarding the Kurram Pass, was besieged by a large Afghan force.

The British launched a counter-attack, and on 3 June 1919, a truce was signed. However, fighting continued in Chitral and North Baluchistan until 8 August 1919, when the Treaty of Rawalpindi was signed. The treaty recognised full Afghan independence and their right to conduct their foreign affairs. The Durand Line was reaffirmed as the border between the two countries, and the Afghans agreed to stop interfering with the tribes on the British side of the line.

The conflict resulted in around 1,000 Afghan casualties and approximately 1,751 British and Indian casualties, with hundreds more dying of disease. The Third Anglo-Afghan War was one of the shortest in history, lasting just a matter of weeks, but it featured sharp fighting across a 500-mile frontier.

The US-Afghan War (2001-2021)

The first phase was brief, lasting just two months. It involved toppling the Taliban, the ultraconservative political and religious faction that ruled Afghanistan and provided sanctuary for al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. The second phase, from 2002 until 2008, was marked by a US strategy of defeating the Taliban militarily and rebuilding core institutions of the Afghan state. The third phase, a turn to classic counterinsurgency doctrine, began in 2008 and was accelerated by US President Barack Obama's decision to temporarily increase US troop presence in Afghanistan.

The US-Afghan War was part of a larger international conflict in Afghanistan that began in 2001. The joint US and British invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 was preceded by over two decades of war in the country. The invasion was launched to capture Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, who was being sheltered by the Taliban. The US military forces did not capture him, though they toppled the Taliban government and disrupted bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

The US-Afghan War resulted in severe consequences for the Afghan population. The war-induced breakdown of the economy, public health, security, and infrastructure impoverished Afghans. 92% of the population faces some level of food insecurity, and 3 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition. The war has also inflicted invisible wounds, with two-thirds of Afghans suffering from mental health problems. As of March 2023, more than 70,000 Afghan civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war.

The US-Afghan War ended in 2021 with the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan. However, the war's legacy continues to impact both countries.

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