But to others who were concerned about the money it cost to destroy Afghanistan in 1843, they were assured - with the opium war won, the increased demand for opium after the Opium War in China would pay for the Afghan war!
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Neville Chamberlain reports of a village where all males over puberty were bayoneted, the women were raped and their goods plundered: “This is one of the most beautiful valleys in Affghanistan, but we left it a scene of desolation”
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Reverend Allen: “One woman was the only live thing in the fort. She was sitting, the picture of despair, with her father, brother, husband and children lying dead around her.”
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The British debate whether to destroy Kabul or not, and also whether or not to kidnap the king’s child and bring him up as a Christian in London (which they did to Prince Duleep Singh after the Anglo-Sikh wars).
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They take Kabul and commit another mass atrocity, rape, murder, indiscriminate killing, enslaving and trading of women, burning of wounded people alive. “Many a hiding mother hen and newborn infant died. But such things like these you know must be at every famous victorie.”
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More on Kabul: “All day the sack went on, and great booty did the captors get, rich dresses, shawls, carpets, silks, horse trappings, arms, emblazoned Korans, etc”
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They leave Jalalabad “a smoking mass of ruins”.
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When the British leave Afghanistan, one officer writes in 1843: “The work of retribution was now deemed accomplished, and, indeed, it was severe...nor will years repair the damage and evils inflicted”.
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Roebuck: “Ghuznee, Cabul, Istalif and Jalalabad have shared a common doom; havoc and desolation have marked the path of our conquered armies, and as fell a revenge has been inflicted on our foes as the warmest advocate of retaliation could desire”
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The British then install a 12-year old on the throne in Kabul.
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One British MP says: “We might relinquish all hope of advantages from opening the Indus to our trade; we had destroyed every town which could afford us a market, and centuries would elapse before Affghanistan recovered from the misery and desolation in which it had been plunged.”
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(we cover all this in Civilizations episode 36a - which uses Farukh Husain's book)
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What was the 1839 British war on Afghanistan about? Basically the British Empire, whose primary goal was squeezing what would eventually be $45 trillion out of India, destroyed Afghanistan to make it a “buffer zone” against any kind of incursion.
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They said they were worried about Russia but that’s nonsense – they were more worried about Iran and other Asian powers allying with those they were still working on completely dispossessing on the subcontinent itself.
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Dispossessing the whole of India was a job they completed in 1857, at the cost of 10 million lives in India (covered in episodes 20a and 20b of Civilizations).
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Once they decided that Afghanistan was a “buffer zone”, they then had to ensure its compliance through more wars. The Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878-9, another round of atrocities, and Britain imposed a humiliating treaty of Gandamak on Afghanistan.
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Like other humiliating treaties the imperialists were imposing across North America and Asia at the time, the Gandamak Treaty basically gave Britain control over Afghanistan’s foreign policy.
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In 1893, Durand goes to Kabul and divides the Pashtun lands of Asia into the British India side and the Afghanistan side ("The Durand Line"), setting up centuries of conflict.
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In 1919, the Third Anglo Afghan War. Modernizer Amanullah Khan wins the war and wins back control of foreign policy.
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From 1919-1929, Amanullah tries to modernize and develop independently. He’s overthrown in a British backed regime-change operation and a series of short-lived rulers follow, until king Zahir Shah takes the throne in 1933.
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Zahir Shah is also a modernizer type, who rules from 1933-1973. All the European powers are present, in various development aid capacities, including the USSR.
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From 1964-1973, there’s a famous “democratic opening”, which the US takes advantage of to exercise influence over pro-US Afghan politicians and try to exclude left-wing politicians.
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The story of US manipulation in 1964-1973 is in the US PLUSD cables that we wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Julian Assange – who is imprisoned by these same empires at the moment so take a moment to do whatever you can to
#FreeAssange
.
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Zahir Shah’s cousin Daud Khan was one of the modernizing leaders holding various portfolios including defense minister and prime minister. He opposed the Durand line and wanted Pashtunistan, which upset Pakistan.
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Pakistan, which has a bigger Pashtun population than Afghanistan does, came to associate Afghan nationalism with the Pashtunistan proposal (which would take away a big chunk of Pakistan’s land and tens of millions of people).
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So Pakistan from the 1970s on found it useful to sponsor the Islamic tendencies in Afghan politics as an alternative.
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During the “democratic opening” of 1964-1973, Daud was excluded from political office because the constitution barred the royal family from participating.
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The constitution also didn’t allow political parties, but a strong left-wing political party did form (People’s Democratic Party), and had to operate more or less clandestinely.
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In 1973, Daud overthrew the constitution in a coup. There is evidence in the cables that the US were themselves planning a coup to counter the growing influence of left-wing politics.
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In 1978, Daud himself was overthrown by the left-wing, and Muhammad Taraki became president.
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Co-founder of this Saur Revolution was Hafizullah Amin. I’ve read two diametrically opposed views of Amin in two books. One by Phil Bonosky, and the other by Beverly Male. Bonosky says Amin was a CIA asset; Male says he was a good revolutionary.
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Here’s the timeline: Taraki is president from April 1978-September 1979. Then he’s killed (maybe by Amin). Then Amin takes over from September 1979-December 1979, when he is also killed (maybe by Soviet troops, who invade).
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During the Taraki year and a half, there was a land reform, which was very popular with farmers and very unpopular with landlords.
Continuity: Taraki, like Daud Khan, kept up the "modernizing" efforts that Amanullah and Zahir Shah had made.
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The US began to organize the landlords straight away, in exile, in a familiar pattern if you know Central America, Cuba, Haiti, in these decades.
You can read about it in Steve Coll, and the like.
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Basically it’s a violent regime change campaign, which Pakistan is happy to sponsor and which the other US allies also sponsor. The Afghan government calls for Soviet help, and the Soviets are in a position to aid the regime (unlike in the Americas).
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From 1979-1989, Afghanistan becomes the epicenter of a US-supported insurgency against the Afghan government and its Russian ally.
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You know this part of the story from US pop culture, but as usual, what you know is full of myths. It wasn’t the magic of stinger missiles, for example. How could it be? The Afghan government that was just overthrown had more advanced weaponry than stinger missiles.
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Myths of magic weaponry aside, there's 10 years of lavishly US-supported insurgency, unlimited support from the open border with Pakistan, the organization and reorganization of an international fighting force of "mujahadeen" under various commanders.
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The commanders later came to be known as warlords, each with one or more external sponsor, and their war on the government took an immense toll.
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When the USSR collapsed in 1989, its troops also left. The Afghan government held on, though, until 1992, when Yeltsin basically made a deal with the Americans to stop all supply to Russia’s ally, Afghanistan.
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Had Putin made such a deal over Syria in 2015, Syria would be owned by the Islamic State today.
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