AfghanistanicaAfghanistanicaAn exploration of Afghanistan-related issues. Articles
Afghanistanica joins group blog
2008-03-31 01:08:00 I, Afghanistanica, have joined a group blog titled Exploring the Heart of Asia. The blog is a new creation and consists of myself, long time Afghanistan blogger Safrang and the super Afghanistan femme blogger Home in Kabul. So that is where you will find all my blogging these days. However, the amount of blogging at Exploring the Heart of Asia that I dedicate to conflict issues is going to be small. If you are looking for Afghanistan conflict/war/military-related issues I suggest these blogs: Registan Abu Muqawama [My] State Failure Blog Ghosts of Alexander So please, visit Exploring the Heart of Asia and check out my new home. More About: Group
List of Afghanistan Blogs
2008-03-17 03:45:00 Many people have contacted me and asked for suggestions for other Afghanistan blogs to read. There is a comprehensive list of Afghanistan-related blogs at: http://afghanistan-analyst.org/blogs.as px OK, this is definitely the last post ever. More About: Blogs , List
The End of Afghanistanica
2008-03-11 05:08:00 March 11, 2008. Did you know that blogging is time consuming? It really is. Especially when you need to cite sources to back up your arguments and find pictures to make your bog entries interesting. So, since I’m now too busy to maintain this blog regularly, I’m ceasing to blog as of today. But I would not rule out seeing my stuff under a different name on certain group blogs elsewhere (but not a lot). If you link to me, go ahead and remove Afghanistanica from your blogroll. Nobody likes inactive links. Send any final mail to this address, I’ll check it for another few weeks or so:
Afghanistanica Retraction #986
2008-03-07 11:29:00 March 7, 2008. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. Back in September I wrote about the firing of governor Murad of Kapisa, which the BBC wrote was in retaliation for his criticism of the central government. Apparently there is much more to the story and no journalists picked that up (in English at least). I should quit parroting journalists. There is a lot about the inner workings of the Afghan government that never makes it out into the press. The full story on governor Murad is one of those things. Read the original article with retraction here. So technically speaking, I was wrong.
Afghanistan’s Shame
2008-03-06 06:41:00 March 7, 2008. Every country has at least one person who will go down in history as an utter disgrace. For Afghanistan , that person is Adnan Ghalib. Pic: Nice crucifixes Adnan. Why is he a disgrace? Well, for one thing, he impregnated Britney Spears. [I’ll pause while you clear the vomit from your mouth.] The Afghan-Brit, who is occasionally misidentified as Pakistani-Brit, is the paparazzi photographer who has been “dating” Ms. Spears for the last while. Also, there is a war and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. But never mind! Who cares? Back to Britney and her Afghan bacha-dost. This led Al Arabiya to posit that Britney may convert to Islam to please her Catholic regalia-wearing “Muslim” baby-daddy. This story led to much bemusement by Muslim bloggers. Personally, I think this is a plan to destroy Islam. And I, as a generous Christian, would welcome Britney lea... More About: Shame
Afghan Communism: Made in America
2008-03-05 08:06:00 March 6, 2008. All those Afghan communists were educated in the Soviet Union, right? Nope. Wrong answer. Actually, many of them were indoctrinated in the United States. Louis Dupree noted back in 1979 that, of the 14 civilians in the first Afghan communist government cabinet, exactly zero had been educated in the Soviet Union. Where were they educated? Here’s a breakdown: Egypt: 2 Western Europe: 2 Afghanistan: 4 United States: 10 Martin Ewans wondered aloud whether the policies of these cabinet members would have been different if they “had the privilege of an education at Lumumba University in the USSR” (Source: Martin Ewans, Afghanistan: A Short History of its People and Politics. 2001: 188) Outside of the cabinet, in the highest office in the land we have, for a time, the enthusiastic communist Hafizullah Amin. Amin earned his MA at Columbia University, dropped out of a PhD program there and then later earned a spot on a list of “Columbia’s 10 wo... More About: America , Communism , Made
Afghans Defeat Wahhabism By Worshipping Wahhabis
2008-03-03 00:27:00 March 3, 2008. You may have heard that some small number of Afghans are worshipping at a cemetery in Kandahar where Arab Al Qaeda fighters are buried. Or not perhaps “worshipping” them, but asking them for some divine intervention for healing purposes. Check out this Al-Jazeera English news report: This may seem like some sort of “victory in death” for the Arabs buried in this cemetery. But it is actually a defeat of their ideas. The Wahhabi strand of Islam that these particular Arab Muwahiddun adhered to would abhor the practises that these Afghans have brought to this cemetery. Wahhabism wants to purge Islam of shrines, saints, grave visits and any practise that is likely pre-Islamic or resulting from an fusion of Islam with local pagan practices. Pic: For example, the Sufi Muslim shrine of Duzgunbaba in Turkey. It was formerly a “sacred place of the Hurrian/Hittite storm god Teshub” before the arrival of Islam. You may recall anecdotes of A...
The Pentagon’s “Pashtunwali” Payments
2008-02-29 06:58:00 February 29, 2008. The issue of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is a highly contentious issue, and for good reason. In an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC, 29% of Afghans said the international troops were doing a bad job. The number one reason given (at 39%) was civilian casualties. The issue of bad intelligence has been discussed here, while the over-reliance on air power is frequently mentioned at Registan and Abu Muqawama. But that’s not what I’ll be discussing today. What I’ll analyze today is the issue of compensation. But first some quantitative analysis: According to Human Rights Watch, in 2006 there were approximately 1200 civilian casualties in Afghanistan, of which as many as 300 could be blamed on international forces (and if the increased coverage of civilian casualties in the press accurately reflects what’s happening on the ground, I’m assuming 2007 will prove to be significantly higher). Pic: Anger over the killing of Afghan civil... More About: Pentagon , The Pentagon
Psychedelic Madonna Invades Afghanistan
2008-02-28 06:06:00 February 28, 2008. Lion of Panjshir (the band, not Massoud) pack up their instruments and travel to Afghanistan on a mission to create a psychedelic folk rock cover of Madonna ’s “Crazy for You.” And there is a music video to prove it. What’s the deal with Lion of Panjshir? I profiled them before. Read all about it here. More About: Psychedelic
New Afghanistan Bibliography Download
2008-02-25 22:53:00 February 26, 2008. It’s the moment you may or may not have been anxiously waiting for: the release of the new up-to-date Afghanistan Bibliography. Download the pdf here: http://afghanistan-analyst.org/Documents/ AF2008.pdf Here’s a sneak peak at the table of contents, minus the page numbers: 1. Ethnic Groups. 2. Conflict and Mobilization: War, Ethnicity, Jihad, Government, Factions, “Warlords,” Etc. 3. Islam, Political Islam, Jihad, Sects. 4. The International Community, Reconstruction, Security, Economy, Government, Conflict, and Development. 5. Opium cultivation, drug use and trafficking. 6. Environmental, Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources. 7. Human rights violations. 8. Women, Gender and Family. 9. Civil-Military Relations, Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), Counterinsurgency and Military Issues. 10. Refugees, Internal Displacement, Migration and Diaspora Issues. 11. Macro and Micro Economics. 12. Opinion Polls, Interviews, Study Groups and Surveys. Th...
Another Travel Break
2008-02-12 05:54:00 February 12, 2008. No blogging for two weeks. I’m getting on a jet airplane to go study in a foreign country for a few years. This is an approximation of my travel itinerary: More About: Travel , Break
Colonel Antonenko: A COIN No-Star in Afghanistan
2008-02-10 16:45:00 February 10, 2008. About 6 months ago, when few people read Afghanistan ica, I wrote an entry titled Captain Zakharov: A COIN All-Star in Afghanistan. The blog entry gave an example of counter insurgency strategy that few thought the Soviets conducted in Afghanistan. Zakharov did everything that contemporary counterinsurgents are now being taught to do. Colonel Sergei Antonenko, however, serves up the stereotype of the brutal and unsuccessful counterinsurgent. Pic: Colonel Antonenko, growling for the camera. My analysis of Zakharov and Antonenko are both based on Artyom Borovik’s book The Hidden War. If you are skeptical of an account by a Soviet journalist, just read what I wrote about Borovik in the account of Zakharov. First I will introduce the man pictured above. Colonel Antonenko served in Afghanistan for two years, with his last assignment being a zone of responsibility on the southern approach to the Salang Pass (Ahmad Shah Massoud area... More About: Coin
Wikiscanning Afghanistan
2008-02-07 04:03:00 February 7, 2007. It’s no revelation to say that many Afghanistan related articles on Wikipedia are problematic. And, as one would expect, there are numerous editing wars over certain subjects. But now, using Virgil Griffith’s Wikiscanner tool, it is possible to see where those edits are coming from. Most edits can only be traced back to an internet service provider or university. But some can be traced back to corporations, newspapers, government agencies and military computers. I looked over some of the articles on Afghanistan and found edits from: Al Jazeera The New York Times Raytheon (military contractor) US Navy The US House of Representaives General Atomic Fusion The Presidio Lockheed Martin (military contractor) Airbus Wikiscanner has only been available for about half a year and has already humiliated countless corporations. You can guess what Dow Chemical and Exxon edited. First up is the article on Ahmad Shah Massoud. There is /was a serious editing w...
Mountain Tourism in Afghanistan (plus 123 Meme)
2008-02-06 09:17:00 February 6, 2008. I thought that I was about to be forced to post my first ever blog entry that has nothing to do with Afghanistan . But it’s not gonna happen. Péter Marton, who according to his own blog title is some sort of failure, tagged me with an interesting academic-intellectual blogger dork chain letter type thing called 123 Meme . It requires you to follow the simple rules and pass it on to another blogger. There was no specific mention of punishment for non-compliance. So I am left to assume that it is something horrific, like being forced to teach a freshman seminar class at Arizona State University……for all eternity! Well, maybe not that bad. But I’m taking no chances. Here are the rules: I. You have to look up page 123 in the nearest book around you. II. Look for the fifth sentence. III. Then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123. IV. And then tag five people, just like you were tagged! (I’m making this optional) OK, here it g... More About: Tourism , Mountain
Subscribe to Afghanistanica
2008-02-01 22:03:00 February 1, 2007. So apparently I’m internet illiterate. I just figured out how RSS feeds work. If you don’t want to visit daily to see if I have put up a new post you can subscribe to be notified here: http://afghanistanica.com/feed/ On this page you will find the option to subscribe using Live Bookmarks, Bloglines, My Yahoo, or Google (if you have firefox as a browser. Internet Explorer only gives you one option). Otherwise, subscribe elsewhere, such as on a service like Pageflakes. The Google Reader option seems pretty cool. You just list all the blogs you read and it shows the new posts all on one page so that you don’t have to visit each site individually to see if they have been updated. More About: Subscribe
Random Photo Commentary #12 and #13
2008-02-01 06:39:00 February 1, 2008 Commentary : “The assault rifle! The eyebrows! The soft skin! The uniform! That 1st Lieutenant must be mine! I just hope she likes my Grizzly Adams style beard.” 1st lieutenant Mathis later earns another admirer…. “Dang! That’s the prettiest guy I’ve ever seen!” Read all about it. Sort of. More About: Photo , Random
Totally out of context quote #25
2008-01-31 04:49:00 January 31, 2008. “The Canadians wanted to give food to the people here. I thought that would be trouble. So after discussing it with the elders, I refused it. I don’t want the people here to become couch potatoes.” Context : The 26-year old Kalimullah Naqibi, the new leader of the Alokozai Pashtuns in the Arghandab Valley, tells the Canadians that he doesn’t want their socialist cheese. It’s like he visited some Canadian Indian reservations and saw the effects of hand outs and dependency. Smart guy. Pic: Kalimullah’s late father, Mullah Naqib, chats with some Canadian dude, or “Prime Minister” if your prefer. Maybe the Canadians can start some type of aid project in the Valley that is sustainable. It reminds me of that saying: “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish and he will use 15 mile long gill nets to destroy all animal life in the oceans.” Or something like that. Read the whole ar... More About: Quote
Go West, Young Durand Line, Go West
2008-01-30 05:11:00 January 30, 2008. The Durand Line , for those of you not in the know, is the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Funnily enough, it seems to be moving westward. Kip, a new blogger over at Abu Muqawama, discusses the amazing mobile border: Over the course of a decade, Pakistan has moved that border westward (also discussed by Ahmed Rashid as part of Pakistan’s pursuit of strategic depth). What defines the border now is no artificial Durand line but rather high ground and “key terrain,” all held, of course, by Pakistani forces. The response of Coalition countries has been to ignore this and tell the Afghan government to stop complaining about Pakistan and focus on its own problems. Tactically, however, this has made it even more difficult for the Afghan National Army, the Afghan Border Police, and Coalition Forces to prevent massive insurgent infiltration into Afghanistan. Pic: The Durand Line is now somewhere on this map, moving around in a Manifest Destiny manner. ... More About: West , Young
Random Photo Commentary #11
2008-01-29 07:00:00 January 29, 2007. Commentary : In a part of Afghanistan that few would venture into, a medic cares for a severely malnourished baby who was about 2 weeks away from dying, according to the doctors who cared for her. If you are wondering about the affiliation of the khareji lady who is giving the baby an IV treatment, just look at her pants in the bottom right corner of the photo. Those would be US Army issue ACUs (Army Combat Uniform). There exists an ongoing debate about the nature of the relationship between the military and NGO/humanitarian/aid groups: The NGOs wish to maintain their distance from the military so that the lines between civil and military do not get blurred. The military wishes to do aid work. Some NGOs are unhappy about that. They say that will undermine their work and put them at risk, and that the military lacks the expertise to properly carry out humanitarian projects. The issue is quite complex and I will write about it at length in the future from the perspe... More About: Photo , Random
10 Day Blogging Break
2008-01-15 07:14:00 January 15, 2008. I’ll be traveling for the next 10 days. Adjust your lives accordingly. More About: Blogging , Break
Ink Blot Counterinsurgency and Civil-Military Relations: State Building or
2008-01-14 06:51:00 January 14, 2008. Péter Marton and Péter Wagner have written a policy paper (pdf) about the ongoing counterinsurgency and state-building efforts in Afghanistan. As case studies they have used the Dutch efforts in Uruzgan and the Hungarian Provincial Reconstruction Team in Baghlan. After downloading and reading the paper I reached the conclusion that probably all men from Hungary are named Péter. Pic: “Hi! We are Péter. Have you read our policy paper?” It is possible to find analysis on Afghanistan all over the place. However, most of that analysis is at the macro-level and very rarely goes into details such as this policy paper does. What Péters have provided are two valuable case studies that help to better understand what is happening on the ground. Having access to an analysis of localized problems can then help to better understand the issue at the macro-level. Download the policy paper in pdf. Visit one of the Péter’s blog (an... More About: Building , Military , Relations , State , Civil
Ahmad Shah Massoud on Facebook
2008-01-13 07:46:00 January 12, 2008. So I was on Facebook spying on my friends and whatnot when I came across the “Ahmad Shah Massoud” group. And in the very near vicinity was the “Ahmad Shah Massoud is a war criminal” group. One stated the case for his awesomeness while the other, obviously, stated the case for his dastardliness. I chose to remain neutral and not join either group, despite the fact that both groups are filled with some pretty hot girls. What I’m trying to say is that there are some very strong feelings in both directions when it comes to Massoud. As a non-Afghan it’s best to feign ignorance. I was talking to a couple of Afghans and we discussed Fahim, Ahmad Zia Massoud, Rabbani and Qanuni in as much detail as was possible. But when they asked me what I thought about Massoud I said I didn’t know much about him and turned the question back on them. They laughed at me and said that it was not very believable that I could discuss Fahim’s f...
Dissertations and Theses on Afghanistan
2008-01-13 00:57:00 January 12, 2008. The Afghanistan Analyst website has just compiled a list of doctoral dissertations and master’s theses written on Afghanistan. There are over 600 currently listed. And some are even available to be downloaded. Afghanistan Analyst Dissertation Page Theses and Dissertations available for download If you know of any theses or dissertations that are not listed then send the info to the The Afghanistan Analyst. The website will even host theses and dissertations for download.
To Understand Afghanistan You Must Know Pakistan
2008-01-10 19:14:00 January 10, 2008. And I will admit that I am not the best person to go to for analysis on Pakistan . My knowledge of Pakistan does not extend beyond The Economist, The New York Times and the three books on Pakistan that are on my shelf. So I defer to others who can speak with some authority on the byzantine mess that is the state of Pakistan. And to understand what is happening in Afghanistan you must know Pakistan. I could link to a comprehensive bibliography or suggest you pursue an MA in South Asian studies. But you probably only have a few minutes to spare at the moment. And I have found the place to spend those few minutes. The anthropologist Robert Canfield has listed the 17 fundamental contradictions of Pakistan with a quick analysis of each contradiction. It’s a very handy list. Here’s a sample: Fundamental contradiction #17: Pakistan needs Afghanistan to be friendly – and dependent. Pakistan’s need for connections into Central Asia turn Afghanistan into a cr... More About: Understand
Random Photo Commentary #9 and #10
2008-01-10 06:01:00 January 10, 2007. Street scene from Jalalabad, Afghanistan: Commentary : Why are Afghans always so angry? Street scene from Jalalabad, Afghanistan: Commentary: Why are Afghans always so happy? Guess which photo accompanied numerous newpaper and internet articles? Well, obviously not the second photo, which was taken from the photo gallery on Professor Brian Glyn William’s website. If you take your time you will find a total of four smiles in the second photo. The first photo, and others like it from Jalalabad, can be seen in numerous blogs and websites as “proof” of how insane “those people” actually are. Afghanistanica gets good returns in google image search so maybe now when people google Jalalabad they can find at least one photo of happy people instead of rioters and demonstrators. More About: Photo , Random
Afghan Popularity Contest
2008-01-09 05:52:00 January 9, 2008. In December the BBC released a poll that it had commissioned on the views of Afghans. I’m sure the results annoyed more than a few people who wish to speak for Afghans. That’s OK. By now their brains have clicked on the file and dragged it over to the trash. Enough of that. I’ll get straight to the point. Who is the most popular in Afghanistan? Or rather, who do Afghans have the most favorable opinion of? The contestants are, in alphabetical order: Germany Great Britain Iran Osama bin Laden Pakistan Taliban United States The poll named these entities and asked: Is your opinion of …… very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable? And the winner, based on the total percentage of respondents answering “very or somewhat favourable” is…. Deutschland über alles! Well, those Afghans are a forgiving bunch of folks. They clearly have not judged Germany based on these few German soldiers’ des... More About: Contest , Popularity , Pula
Killer American Tiger Cats Terrorize Village Idiots
2008-01-08 06:01:00 January 8, 2008. Can anybody match the creative stupidity of the American imagination? America gives us Big Foot, alien abductions, chupacabra, 9-11 conspiracies, black UN helicopters, moon landing conspiracies, etc…. And other countries? Actually, they do quite well in creative stupidity as well. There are idiots everywhere. How about Afghanistan? You bet! Let’s get started, via The Los Angeles Times: Whatever it is that is terrifying the villagers on this verdant northern plain studded with fruit trees and land mines, people here agree on whose fault it is: the U.S. military’s. Until a few months ago, no one had heard the name “pisho palang,” or tiger cat, but since then, it has kept villagers indoors at night, terrified of attack. Village rs say four or five people have been killed in cat attacks, cases that could not be traced. “We heard that foreigners are releasing them at night from planes to eat people. We heard that usually the tiger cat... More About: Idiots , Cats , Killer
Random Photo Commentary #8
2008-01-06 06:04:00 January 6, 2007. Commentary : Jeremiah Ridgeway’s photo of an Afghan National Army soldier in Kamdesh, Nuristan during the first snowfall of the year. I’m never surprised when I hear about the training and discipline problems with soldiers in the 57,000 strong Afghan National Army (ANA). Those stories always seem to outnumber the stories where they are praised. So I was quite surprised when I read the Asia Foundation’s 2007 Afghan Public Opinion Survey. First, the poll results that are not surprising: Q: The ANA is unprofessional and poorly trained. Agree or disagree? Agree somewhat or strongly → 62% Disagree somewhat or strongly → 36% Q: The ANA needs the support of foreign troops and can not operate by itself. Agree or disagree? Agree somewhat or strongly → 77% Disagree somewhat or strongly → 21% But now the surprises: Q: The ANA helps improve the security. Agree or disagree? Agree somewhat or strongly → 89% Disagree somewhat or strongly ... More About: Photo , Random
Timberlords and the Deforestation of Afghanistan
2008-01-05 05:13:00 January 5, 2008. It’s an understatement to say that Afghanistan has more than a few problems. If the security, governance and drug problems disappeared overnight there would obviously remain many difficult issues. One of the problems that has received very little attention is environmental issues. Pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, health issues, lack of clean water, overgrazing and deforestation are usually put forward as the most pressing of these issues. In order not to overwhelm myself trying to fit all this issues into one entry I will focus only on deforestation, especially in the east. Pic: Deforestation in Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan provinces between 1977 and 2002. The dark green signifies land with over 40% tree cover. The 2002 UNEP analysis found that: Nangarhar province has been the hardest hit, with a 71 per cent decrease in forest cover. Meanwhile, forest cover in Nuristan has decreased by 53 per cent, and Kunar by 29 per cent. Residents predict simi...
Totally out of context quote #24
More articles from this author:2008-01-04 06:38:00 January 4, 2008. “Regrettably, both the conflict and the people seem to have become a ‘forgotten war’ and a ‘forgotten people.’” Context : A view expressed over 17 years ago by Felix Ermacora, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. “Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan,” Report to the U.N. General Assembly, October 30, 1990. The more things change, the more they stay the same. More About: Quote 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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