UK Armed Forces at War
Military History
of War in Afghanistan
by Mike Condray
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The note below provides an interesting perspective on some of the challenges we will face if push comes to shove over the Taliban's sheltering and permitting the training of murderers. This should not make us flinch from action, but we need to carefully tailor our action to the situation. For example, the Brits did have some success in pacifying the Afghans (at least to the extend of cutting down on their raids into India, as opposed to pacifying Afghanistan itself) when they would go in, bash the perps of some outrage or another, then leave. If I remember correctly, the Second Afghan War began with Sher Ali entertaining a Russian mission. When the Brits broke through he decamped to Turkestan. His son Yakub Khan cut a deal with the Brits, but was unable to prevent the massacre of the Brit mission. Roberts (Bobs Bahadur) returned to Kabul, but was attacked by Afghans stirred up by a Mad Mullah, one Mushki-Alam. Roberts took position in a fortified camp outside of Kabul after trying and executing those responsible for massacre of the mission (the Koran's admonitions about the sacredness of embassies seems to be lost on Mullahs and Ayatollahs.) Yakub Khan was turned out. His son Ayub Khan took up the struggle. He even won a battle. But eventually Roberts turned him out, and a deal was cut with Amir Abdur Rahman-no British or Russian envoys. So there were a series of Afghan governments. But eventually the Brits got what they wanted, which was mostly out with no great threat from the Afghans and Russians. Another point--given the suffering already in the country and the time of year (yes, winter is coming on fast up there)--we must anticipate a humanitarian relief operation (HUMRO in DOD speak) and plan accordingly. After all, the Taliban are not loved among all in Afghanistan, and one of the key points in "draining the swamp" of terrorism is to make sure the locals realize that we aren't gunning for them. We were surprised by the HUMRO after the Gulf War and the HUMRO triggered by the Kosovo War; it would be rather embarassing to be surprised again. Just another sign that the military is a vital but nowhere near sufficient tool for addressing this challenge. Warfare in Afghanistan
Military History of War in Afghanistan Fighting in Afghanistan by former SAS Commando Back to Veteran Campaigner October 2001 Table of Contents Back to Veteran Campaigner List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Pete Panzeri. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |