The Pashtun – IOTW Report

The Pashtun

American Partisan: by NC Scout
So, here we are. Nearly twenty years after the events of 9/11, which kicked off a war in perpetuity spanning campaigns in places both known and unknown, blurring the lines of morality while seeking to define the term the greater good, we find ourselves in no better position than when we began. Unless of course you count the endless bridges to nowhere, the never ending high tech programs designed to give so-called warfighters a better edge on the battlefield. In reality, such prospects are a farce. Overencumbered and micromanaged, accomplishing nothing. Synthesizing information at the fingertips, removing the humanity of war in so much as it creates an artificial superstructure. Unfathomable, insurmountable, impossible.

Indeed.

And yet, Iraq remains the battlefield between peoples, now perpetually in a state of anarchy. Yemen is no such success. Somalia remains impoverished, illiterate, and starving. Libya, once a nation with a relatively high standard of living has now become a battleground between which oil interest seeks to inherit her vast wealth. Syria remains only due to intervention on part of the Russians. Imagine that. But let us take in the case of Afghanistan, the current example of American policy failure, should we be able to call it such.

The land known as the graveyard of empires is once more exactly that. A twenty year epitaph of American opulence ironically known as Operation Enduring Freedom. When this author arrived in Afghanistan, he was sold on romanticized tales of combat on the dusty plains. A Warrior’s War. A hard life against a brutal and cunning enemy. Like all things, reality would be a horse of a different color. The Pashtuns were not exactly the romanticized fighters made of them on either side, rather, an untrustworthy tribal people, loosely conjoined by an overarching cultural resistance, out to make a buck selling their sometimes allies. Sometimes you, sometimes your enemy. Insha Allah. And they were quite honest about it, unlike the American State Department. There, you can sell out your country and allegedly your allies, simultaneously. more here

h/t Brad.

6 Comments on The Pashtun

  1. That’s a great read, with great parallels.

    Speaking of this hodge podge, did you know there is only one Jew in all of Afghanistan? No shit. He lives in Kabul, selling carpets. He sent the wife and kids to Israel, and remained in the land where he has lived since birth.

    I guess even Afghanistan beats some marriages.

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  2. I have a great great grandfather (I think I have the number of greats right) who fought the Pashtuns with an Irish regiment (he wasn’t Irish, but a Londoner) soon after the Sepoy rebellion. He was to have fought against the rebellion but his ship was damaged and had to be repaired en route. Arriving late, his column was redirected to the Khyber Pass region to enforce the British East India Company’s head tax among the tribes.

    So, yes, Afghanistan is unlikely to change anytime soon.

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  3. Should have either turned the place into a parking lot or let them destroy themselves.

    The swampy elitists wanted to keep making money.
    The generals wanted their cushy jobs with defense contractors.
    All at the expense of our own soldiers.
    The heartless sob’s now have the gall to issue statements about how concerned they are for the people there.
    smh

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  4. Excellent article. Stirs passion a bit. Truth of the matter our warriors are lions, our leaders are jackasses, and corrupt to boot. May the souls of all those sacrificed in this mess swarm the leaders sleep and drive them all to suicide.

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