The British Empire was at its peak during the later years of the 19th Century. In 1898 Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, wrote, “I confess that countries are pieces on a chessboard, upon which is played out a great game for the domination of the world.” He was referring to Afghanistan whose trade routes Britain felt vital to their control over central Asia and the area around the Caspian Sea. So, from their Indian bases a British Army had first invaded Afghanistan in 1839.
The operational intent was to restrict Russian influence in the said areas. By 1841, however, after continuous Afghan rebellion against occupation, an entire British Army with families and support units started the long withdrawal back to India. Under constant attack some 4,500 soldiers and 16,000 civilians and camp followers died. It was one of the greatest British military disasters of the 19th Century. An oil painting by William Barnes Woolen portrays the last stand made by the 44th Regiment at Gandamack, near to the Khyber Pass, the action was fought on the 13 January 1842, a medical officer, Doctor Brydon was the sole survivor he escaped the carnage and brought the news to India.
Other invasions
Did we learn from this debacle, of course not, in 1878 another invasion, again to restrict Russian influence, was more successful but at huge cost. Again in 1919 a brief war was fought which ended with Britain having to recognise Afghan independence. Now, let’s fast forward to the 21st Century and once again we see that British military forces seeing active service in Afghanistan. There is a major difference this time round as we were allied with the USA. How did this come about? Well, it was not post 9/11 as some would have us believe, in fact, today, we are witnessing the consequences of a pre 9/11 imperial power grab.
Combatting Russian influence
In the late 1970s American President Jimmy Carter and his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brezinski, bankrolled a northern alliance of warlords to combat Russian influence in the area. Brezinsky was scared of a new movement, The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) which opposed King Zahir Shah. The PDPA overthrew this regime in 1978 in what was a popular revolution reported by both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and, indeed, most of the world’s press. This new government introduced a reform programme that abolished feudal power, introduced freedom of religion, equal rights for women and the granting of rights to ethnic minorities. 13,000 political prisoners were released and police files publicly burned. (Observer September 2001).
These were radical changes in anyone’s language. Sairi Noorani, a female surgeon, said “Every girl could go to school and university. We could go where we wanted and wear what we liked. we would go to cafes and the cinema to see the latest Indian films, on Friday evenings. we could listen to the latest Hindi music. It all started to go wrong when the Mujahideen started winning. They kiiied teachers and burned schools and to think these were the people that the west were supporting” (Observer September 30 2001). “These people ” as Sairi called them were Islamic hard liners to a man with a medieval attitude toward womanhood, the new government reforms had to be destroyed.
The problem with the PDPA government was it was supported by the Soviet Union, anathema to the west. Brezinsky, Carters Advisor, believed that the recent American defeat by Vietnam could not be allowed to lead to further humiliation. there were liberation movements springing up and Anglo-American clients had to be protected. The Brezinsky plan was the overthrow of Afghanistan’s first secular government. Carter authorised, without the knowledge of Congress, 500 hundred million dollars to support the Mujahideen war lords and it was these groups which eventually split and formed the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Between 1978 and 1992, the life of the PDPA government, Washington poured 4 billion (billion) dollars into the Mujahideen. Brezinsky wanted to spread Islamic fundamentalism and destabilise the Soviet Union, he was in effect, funding terrorism. ( Independent 1 November 1998). He was successful. The PDPA finally fell in 1992 with American supplied missiles killing 2000 people in Kabul. The last PDPA President, Mohammed Najibullah, went before the UN general assembly pleading for help for all the good it did for him and his country. The Taliban took over in 1996 and hanged him from a lampost.
In his book ” The Grand Chessboard ” Brezinsky writes of the Soviet Union he helped to destroy, the Islamic Jihad he encouraged and the terrorism he supported. He muses “Did all this matter, it’s only created a few stirred up Muslims”?
On 11 September 2001 “a few stirred up Muslims ” gave him his answer.
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