AfghanistanicaAfghanistanicaAn exploration of Afghanistan-related issues. Articles
Pakistani Refugees Fleeing to Afghanistan
2008-01-03 04:25:00 January 3, 2008. According to a report from Bakhtar News Agency over 3000 Pakistani refugees from the Kurram Agency have arrived in Afghanistan over the last two days: These people migrated to Afghanistan due to the worsening security situation and ongoing sectarian clashes in the agency. Din Mohammad Darvesh spokesman of Paktia governor told on Tuesday some 500 families have migrated to these two districts of the province. Darvesh said the numbers of refugees were increasing day by day and they have stayed at barren land having no accessibility to basic facilities. “Heaters, shawls and tents have been sent from Gardiz for the refugees but it does not cater to the needs of refugees”, he informed. He said a number of refugees mostly women and children were suffering from various ailments due to the harsh winter here. Pic from boell.de: Paktia Province, Eastern Afghanistan. I don’t want to overstate the importance of this first significant, and h... More About: Refugees
Counter-Snowball-Insurgency in Afghanistan
2008-01-03 00:53:00 January 2, 2008. Arrogant Americans! You doubt the throwing arms of the Mujahideen-i Barf? Once again, an ill-prepared foreign power underestimates its adversary in Afghanistan . These soldiers are lucky the Afghan kids spared them a face-washing in the snow. PS: “Barf” is the Farsi/Dari/Tajiki word for snow. PS#2: I’ve just “coined” a new term; counter-snowball-insurgency (COSNIN). Use this term without paying me a royalty and you shall hear from my lawyers. More About: Counter , Insurgency , Urge
Alice in the Dystopic Afghan Pufferstate, Or: Fetishized Afghan Women invad
2008-01-02 04:08:00 January 1, 2008. By the end of this blog entry that title will make sense, I swear. The background to this apparently nonsensical title is one of my many side projects: to create a database of theses and dissertations on Afghanistan. I’ve scoured the internet and the library database Worldcat and came up with about 600 papers. It’s a for-profit project that will make me rich beyond my wildest dreams. Not really. Actually, it’s for my other website, which is a volunteer, independent and non-profit website. The database will mostly just point to the location of the theses, which many libraries will fetch for you through inter-library loan. But I will be hosting many theses and dissertations online. So if you have written a thesis or dissertation on Afghanistan you can send it to me and I will host it (or you can send a link to where it is hosted elsewhere.) I will post about this project again. But for now I just wanted to share some titles I came across that made me think... More About: Women , Alice
Blog Break Until January
2007-12-17 07:16:00 December 18, 2007. OK, I don’t have computer access until sometime in the new year. Don’t bother checking back for new posts until after the first week of January . More About: Break , Blog
Afghan Products For The Beautiful People
2007-12-11 03:09:00 December 11, 2007. As far as I know, everybody who reads Afghanistanica is beautiful. So this concerns you. If you are beautiful, which you are, and you want to become even more beautiful, there are some Afghan products that will help you reach those ends. I’m talking about the scents, oils, lotions, cosmetics and whatnot manufactured by Gulestan. You can order Gulestan’s products through their website. Sort of, maybe. This page gives dealer locations in Afghanistan but states that Gulestan does not have distribution outside Afghanistan yet. There is, however, a form on that page for making enquiries about how to get your hands on some of their products. This is what they say about themselves: Our objective is to foster rural development in Afghanistan. We are looking for maximal value added by Afghan farmers. Gulestan’s products are formulated from 100% natural products. We use no preservatives, no artificial color or fragrance. We only use vegetable oils, essential ... More About: Products , People , Beautiful , Beautiful People
At War Again?
2007-12-10 03:56:00 December 10, 2007. Yes, again. The producers of the forthcoming Afghanistan war documentary At War have released a new trailer. And no, I’m not their publicist. But I am looking forward to seeing this film in the new year.
Unconventional Counter-Insurgency in Afghanistan
2007-12-09 05:59:00 December 9, 2007. It’s nice to see that the American military publishes master’s degree thesis papers online. Share, share, share. I’ve read a few thesis papers by officers in military post-graduate schools and they are quite decent. This one is next on my reading list: Major John R. Dyke and Major John R. Crisafulli. “Unconventional Counter -Insurgency in Afghanistan ,” Master’s of Science in Defense Analysis Thesis Paper. Naval Postgraduate School - Monterey, California. June 2006. So what have the Army Majors John R. come up with? Here’s the abstract: Immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001, a small number of U.S. Army Special Forces (USSF) invaded the Al Qaeda safe haven of Afghanistan. USSF A-teams, operating with almost total independence, conducted highly successful Unconventional Warfare “through, with, and by” the indigenous Afghan militias of the Northern Alliance. The USSF and their indigenous Afghan ar... More About: Urge
Random photo commentary #7
2007-12-07 01:55:00 December 6, 2007. Commentary : From the Footprints in Afghanistan photo gallery comes this image of a mangy Afghan dog of unknown breeding lineage who, when not begging American soldiers for beef jerky, is having a nice meal of freshly picked marijuana. Time for some tough love: Bad dog! No eating cannabis! Don’t you remember how proud the Afghan dog used to be? Need proof? Back in 1961 they put you on an Afghan stamp. Look at yourself: head up, proud, well-groomed, and with a sense of purpose. And now what are you doing? Hanging out at an American military base, stoned out of your mind and begging for scraps of food. Bad dog. How about the Afghan Hound diaspora? Just look at this handsome Afghan-American Hound. I realize not every dog in Afghanistan can be an Afghan Hound with such high standards, but it’s something to aspire to. Further reading: Afghan Hound stamps and Pamela Constable’s Afghan dog and cat shelter. More About: Photo , Random
Totally out of context quotes #22 and #23
2007-12-05 22:08:00 December 5, 2007. “I am very happy with the result. If the government had been in charge, there would have been a lot of paperwork and who knows how it would have ended? But this is good. I was given a gun and I shot my brother’s killer. The government wouldn’t let us do that. The Taleban decide cases very quickly, without wasting time. And they give people the right to carry out the punishment.” Context : This IWPR article suggests that some people are looking to the Taliban’s parallel justice system in Helmand for help with their grievances. However, the Taliban court system doesn’t just wack people on your say-so. And that is a problem for this guy who can’t come up with any witnesses: “I fell in love with my brother-in-law’s sister,” he explained. “One day I was at her house to see her, and her brothers caught me. They beat me severely, then they raped me.” The speaker, a 26-year-old man, said that he brought his case to the Taleban. “The Tal... More About: Quotes
Rashid Dostum Documentary Now Online
2007-12-02 20:17:00 December 2, 2007. I knew that Brian Glyn Williams, a professor at U Mass and the owner of an excellent personal-academic website, had produced a documentary on Rashid Dostum. I couldn’t find any info on the documentary so I had plans to ask Dr. Williams about how I could get my hands on a copy. But now I see that he has put the one hour documentary online, free for all to see. What do I think of the documentary? I have no idea. I’m on a dial-up internet connection (yes, they do still exist in rural areas) so I can’t see these vids. Maybe I’ll post my opinions on the documentary when I get back to civilization. The documentary, Dostum: A Story of Afghanistan, is chopped up into seven videos. I’ve embedded them here to save you the trouble of clicking on a link. More About: Documentary , Online
Afghanistanica Retraction #897
2007-12-01 22:55:00 November 1, 2007. [Retraction#898: Apparently it is December] OK, last month I claimed to have tracked down Afghanistan’s last pig. It was in Doshi in the late 1980s hanging out with some Russians. Case closed. But what do I know? Apparently if I had used the internet googler I would have found this quote from an April 2007 travel article: The Zoo must be the saddest places in Kabul, full of mud pathways, half-collapsed buildings and forlorn animals by the banks of the polluted Kabul River. The colony of monkeys looked sickly and morose, the lone pig is pelted with stones in a country that hates them… Throwing rocks at a helpless pig? That’s so cruel. You are supposed to cut their throats (or fire a bolt into their head), remove their head, gut them, chop them up and eat them, not throw rocks at them. But I don’t know about Muslims hating pigs. Last year when a Texas farmer staged protest pig races next to a mosque (it’s a long story involving miscom...
Afghanistan Totally Defeated At CNN Debate
2007-11-30 06:17:00 November 30, 2007. The CNN Youtube debate has come and gone. Afghanistan was deemed not very relevant. Anderson Cooper giggled like a Japanese schoolgirl high on sugar, the candidates all made sweet, tender love to industrial agricultural subsidies, and the Boston Redsox baseball team was given at least three minutes worth of fondling by Giuliani and Romney. The name of the country came up three times but only when mentioned along with a laundry list of other items. There was no discussion about Afghanistan. But in all fairness, Afghanistan did not win the World Series of baseball this year. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. I guess a lot more troops and civilians will have to die before the (Republican) candidates notice Afghanistan and recognize it as an issue of some importance. Not that Democrats are much better on articulating a plan for Afghanistan. So hang in there Afghanistan. In just a couple of years you can reach 30 years in a row of war. Won’t that be cool? More About: Debate
Website Announcements
2007-11-27 08:31:00 November 27, 2007. First of all, I’ve been given full funding to get my PhD. Yay for me. That means that I should be able to continue with this blog while pretending to do PhD research. Secondly, I am traveling around long distances visiting family and taking care of all sorts of business so there will be a decrease in both the quality and quantity of blog entries until the beginning of March. I have to borrow family members laptops and I don’t have access to my books. That’s my excuse for the blogging to come. It will be erratic. Thirdly, Canada was somehow mentioned two times in a row in the preceding two blog entries in three out the last four blog entries. That’s so weird. Fourthly, to the person who owns this computer: I’m sorry about the websites in the browser history and in the cache. Reading about Afghanistan online can take you to some weird places. But I promise you that http://abumuqawama.blogspot.com is not a terrorist website even though t... More About: Website , Anno
Afghan Knights
2007-11-27 07:32:00 November 27, 2007. Oh geez. Another Afghanistan related movie being mentioned on Afghanistanica? But wait. This one is especially atrocious. Here is the synopsis: Haunted by the fact that he left a man behind in Afghanistan, an ex Navy SEAL puts together a special task force to endure one last mission to save his comrade. But now his team has become victims to fallen Genghis Khan warriors from an ancient time. It’s ancient Mongol warfare against the most highly trained U.S. soldiers of fortune in a paranormal fight for survival. Ha ha ha ha ha! That is the synopsis of a straight-to-video B-movie if I ever saw one. The subtitle should be Blackwater Versus Genghis Khan. How about a movie poster? You like that? Pretty hot stuff I say. And it is filmed on location near exotic Kamloops, British Columbia, which has a pretty decent junior hockey team and may still have a pulp mill operating. Sadly, as of publication time, the despotic Mayor Terry Lake is still ruling with an iron fi... More About: Knights , Nights
Totally out of context quote #21
2007-11-26 02:37:00 November 26, 2007. “Intuitively when you ask Canadians, ‘Do you think we should commit forces to the UN “peacekeeping force” that would go to Darfur?’ people answer ‘yes.’ The next comment is, ‘Well, Canadian soldiers will take casualties were they to go to Darfur.’ You have fighting among tribes, you have fighting between the government and tribes, you have civilians that are targets, you have a very complex mission without clear lines of command, without clear rules of engagement. This is the future.” Janice Gross Stein, in a roundabout manner, answers the Canadians who want out of Afghanistan and into Darfur. The answer is part of a full Q&A in Embassy about the book she and Eugene Lang authored, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar. Janice Gross Stein’s point of argument has been on my mind regarding Americans’ attitudes towards Darfur. I see kids on campus with signs and petitions for Darfur, I see h... More About: Context , Quote
Will The Republicans Escape The Afghanistan Question?
2007-11-24 03:49:00 November 24, 2007. Possibly. The CNN-Youtube Republican Presidential candidates debate is on Wednesday the 28th of this month. So far there have been 4000 questions submitted. The vast majority of questions are quite bad, either technically (can’t hear what they are saying) or by any standard of common sense. I’ve only been able to find 4 questions about Afghanistan . I’m sure the Republican candidates will be pleased. The Afghanistan question is hard and has no easy answer. Anyways, here is another 30 second question for the candidates regarding Afghanistan: Was that guy wearing a Colts hat? Well, I guess you can’t go around wearing Hoosiers stuff without getting laughed at these days. If you want to submit a question the deadline is the 25th. Info on how to submit a question at this link. More About: Republicans , Question , Escape
I Wanna Be In Dostum’s Cavalry (Sing It!)
2007-11-22 05:34:00 November 22, 2007. Lyrics from “Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier,” a song on Corb Lund’s new album: Today I ride with special forces on those wily Afghan horses, Dostum’s Northern Alliance gives their thanks. Jonbesh-i Melli actually. But I’m sure Dostum will be OK with the Northern Alliance designation. Why? Because he just got his first, and probably last, mention in a country music song. Seriously. The lyrics for the song include references from many famous cavalry battles, and Dostum apparently had the most recent, unless you believe Janjaweed murdering Darfuri villagers to count as a cavalry battle. Who’s Corb Lund? He sounds sort of like Johnny Horton meets Dwight Yoakam meets Tom Connors. And he’s from Alberta, which I believe is still part of Canada. Alright, I think about 98% of my readers have quit reading. So for all of you in fly-over country, here’s a video for Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier. It’s sung in Raleigh, N... More About: Sing
Charlie Wilson’s War In Afghanistan
2007-11-18 22:35:00 November 18, 2007. Afghanistan is popular this coming winter movie season. The Kite Runner, Lions For Lambs, and now Char lie Wilson ’s War. And unlike the first two, Charlie Wilson ’s War is based on a true story (the book was published years ago). The trailer explains all: Yeah, I remember when Texas used to send Democrats to Washington. More info at the official website.
Theorizing Conflict In Afghanistan
2007-11-17 18:33:00 November 17, 2007. Funny story: A while ago I was sitting in Starbucks making my $2 coffee last 4 hours while I did some reading. On the table I had a print-out of a UCLA PhD dissertation: Sinno, Abdulkader H. 2002. Organizing to Win in Afghanistan and Beyond: How Organizational Structure Affects the Outcome of Strategic Interaction in Politicized Group Conflict s. Ph.D. Dissertation in Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles. A guy walked by to sit at a table nearby when the title page of the dissertation caught his eye. He asked what I was reading and seemed quite interested. I told him all about the dissertation and how great it was. He seemed amused and then introduced himself as Abdulkader Sinno (good thing I gave the dissertation a good review). He told me that he was working on a book based on the dissertation and that many changes and improvements had been made. He was quite curious as to how I got my hands on an electronic copy of his dissertation (I got it ... More About: Theo
Lonely Planet Afghanistan
2007-11-17 05:46:00 November 17, 2007. Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve been very busy. Anyways, look below at the cover of the book I just bought. No, it’s not fake, Lonely Planet really did publish a travel book on Afghanistan this September. So there you have it; a travel book full of pictures of smiling people. Pack your bags and start your Afghan vacation! I consider this book as a public service by Lonely Planet (and their new BBC overlords). I doubt the Afghanistan guide will be a big money-maker like their guides to France, USA, Spain, etc… So it’s nice of them to put this book out. The strengths of this book are the logistical details it provides on hotels, restaurants, transportation, where to find an internet café in Shiberghan, and the exact degree of disdain that the Pamir Club Hotel staff show their guests, for example. This sort of information will be updated on the Lonely Planet website as information from travelers come in. So if one of the cheap hotels they list is a...
Afghan-American Marine Picks Up The Ball And Runs For A Touchdown
2007-11-09 02:47:00 November 9, 2007. A few weeks ago I embedded a video of an Afghan-American Marine who asked a question about Iran for the CNN Youtube debate. I hoped aloud that he would submit another question about Afghanistan. He has: The question was not as erudite as if asked by a PhD and not as slick as if asked by a reporter. But it was authentic, something the CNN Youtube debate is supposed to be about. I hope CNN picks this question and give the Republicans an opportunity to show how knowledgeable (or ignorant) they are regarding Afghanistan. If you would like to submit a question about Afghanistan to the CNN Youtube debate you may find info here. More About: Ball , Runs , Touchdown
Travel Break
2007-10-26 21:48:00 October 26, 2007. No blogging for two weeks. I’m getting on an airplane and I’m never coming back. I’m packing my books, my MA and my slew of superfluous coursework and heading off (next year) to a new institution of higher learning, continuing the ancient grad student lifestyle of academic nomadism. But first I’m going back home to the mountains for a while. More About: Travel , Break
Random Photo Commentary #6
2007-10-26 21:03:00 October 26, 2007. Photo by Scott Kesterson: Commentary : Afghan National Army soldier taking a break in the rocks. This photo could easily be a Victorian-era painting; desolate and barren land, Afghan soldier obscured in darkness, weapon slung over soldier, watching…. I know I already posted this, but the above photo is a still shot from Scott Kesterson’s videography for the At War documentary about Afghanistan. This is one of the trailers: More info at At War. More About: Random
Afghan-American Marine Drops The Ball
2007-10-25 23:09:00 October 25, 2007. If you can remember that far back, I have been attempting to encourage people to submit video questions about Afghanistan for the upcoming CNN-Youtube Presidential debate. I came across a submission that seemed to good to be true: An Afghan-American who served in the Marine Corps and did a tour in Iraq. He started his question with a sense of purpose and was quite concise. He his built momentum up to his question and…..asked a question that was not exactly about Afghanistan. Dude, you are a Marine and an Afghan-American. That’s like finding a twelve-leafed clover or a left-handed unicorn. If CNN would pick anybody, it would be you. So, Yusuf, go ahead and submit another question….about Afghanistan. And yes, I realize that his question does have a relation to Afghanistan. But many people are already asking that question and debating that topic. And most candidates have been quite clear about the issue. Afghanistan, on the other hand, has pretty... More About: Ball , Drop
Khareji Gone Wild: Part 2
2007-10-23 01:42:00 October 23, 2007. Photo edition! Some Khareji (a Brit I think) finds some locals conducive to indulging his opium habit, circa 2004. And then his buddy posts his photo on the internet. Context here. I suppose the security deterioration has had one benefit: no more young nihilist-narcissist western douchebags travelling to Afghanistan attempting to revive the “hippy trail.” More About: Wild , Part
The Myth And Reality Of The Loya Jirga
2007-10-21 18:49:00 October 21, 2007. I’ve always been skeptical of the Loya Jirga’s effectiveness. The most recent incident to induce further skepticism in me was this summer’s Afghanistan-Pakistan Peace Jirga (a sort of spin-off of the Loya Jirga). Apparently Afghanistan and Pakistan worked out their problematic relations over tea. It was good to see that this issue was taken care of: “The participants of this jirga unanimously declare to an extended, tireless and persistent campaign against terrorism and further pledge that government and people of Afghanistan and Pakistan will not allow sanctuaries/training centres for terrorists in their respective countries.” Pic: “Hooray for us. Recommend we break for tea.” So yes, skepticism. But don’t take my word for it. You can read two critical analyses of the Loya Jirga by Benjamin Buchholz and Christine Noelle-Karimi: Noelle-Karimi, Christine (2002). “The Loya Jirga – An Effe... More About: Reality , Myth , Ality
Afghanistan’s Last Pig
2007-10-17 03:43:00 October 17, 2007. I found the photo below at Afgan.ru and it filled me with sadness. The photo of a Russian, his rabbit and a pig was taken in Doshi (Baghlan Province) in spring 1988. Not long after the photo was taken neither pig nor Russian remained in Afghanistan . The Russian returned to the USSR, the pig fulfilled its internationalist duty and was eaten, and the status of the rabbit is unknown but presumed to involve some sort of stew/soup related death. Pic: “Svinka, svinka, thinking of a svinka.” Although pigs have disappeared from Afghanistan, pork is available. Some khareji guy in Afghanistan posted this on his blog: I had pork ribs for dinner last night. In a strictly Muslim country that’s something to brag about. Pork sausages are easy- you can ask for those at the supermarket for foreigners on the edge of town. For pork ribs you have to have a connection. Speaki...
My Jihadi Blog Buddy in The New York Times
2007-10-15 23:46:00 October 16, 2007. Long story short: The New York Times tracks down and outs the author of a Jihadi blog. As it turns out, it was Inshallah Shaheed, a blogger who I had linked to until recently. My explanation for linking to online jihadis: Concerning the jihadi blogs I have linked to such as Soldier of Islam and American Taliban (I forget their urls), they are no longer on the blogroll because their blog hosting services suspended their accounts for violating their terms of service. I removed them because the link would just go to an “account suspended” page. And just recently The Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge (AKA Inshallah Shaheed) was taken offline. For brevity’s sake I listed it on my blogroll by part of its url: Inshallah Shaheed. This blog was the most active jihadi blog in English that posted about Afghanistan. Click on the link to see what I’m talking about. I actually want jihadi blogs to be available online for two basic reasons: 1) you ca... More About: Blog , New York Times , Buddy
Blackwater’s Afghan Air Adventure
2007-10-15 02:49:00 October 15, 2007. Back in 2004 a Blackwater transport plane crashed while on a “joyride” in Afghanistan and all aboard died, save for the one survivor who froze to death. The transcript of the cockpit voice recorder was released and Carl Robichaud was good enough to post it from another source on Afghanistan Watch. You can read the full transcript there. I’ve decided to put up the “essence” of the transcript, by which I mean selected out of context quotes: PILOT: I hope I’m goin’ in the right valley. […] CO-PILOT: Yeah this is fun! PILOT: We’re not suppose to be havin’ fun though. CO-PILOT: Exactly. PILOT: No fun allowed god-(expletive). […] CO-PILOT: Cause we’re getting’ paid too much to be havin’ fun. PILOT: You’re god-(unintelligible) right. […] CO-PILOT: Yeah you’re an x-wing fighter Star Wars man! PILOT: You’re (expletive) right. PILOT: This is fun! […] PILOT: ... More About: Adventure , Advent
Afghanistan’s Security Deterioration in Visual and Quantitative Form
More articles from this author:2007-10-14 02:13:00 October 14, 2007. The UN Department of Safety and Security has released its “Half -Year Review of the Security Situation in Afghanistan .” (hat tip: Afghanistan Conflict Monitor). You can download the report in pdf here. Much is written elsewhere about the rise in violence in Afghanistan. The UN report does that, but it also provides some numbers and graphic representations as well (note that this report is focused mostly on security for aid workers). Everybody loves graphic representations of information. This allows the media to make maps like this: Of course this is a very simplified representation of a very complicated issue. The actual report goes into some of the subtleties while still allowing itself to be accessible (understandable) for everybody. So have the number of attacks by the “Anti-Government Elements” been increasing? Yes. Especially in 2006 and so far in 2007. However, this graph is only about the quantity, not the “quality” of a... More About: Visual , Form 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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