By Ajmal
In the heart of Central Asia lies a land with a harsh and difficult geography. Its towering mountains and deep valleys are not its only defining features. The same land has also nurtured a spirit of defiance, freedom and independence in the hearts of its people. Afghanistan, this little-known jewel of the East, has long been an alluring temptation for great powers seeking to conquer it. Yet each time, that temptation has turned into a frightening nightmare, writing Afghanistan’s name on the forehead of military history as the graveyard of empires.
From the British Crusader Empire of the nineteenth century, to the atheist Soviet Union of the twentieth century, and finally the new Crusader alliance of the twenty-first century, the United States and NATO, all have faced one bitter reality on this soil: Afghanistan cannot be defeated by the force of weapons or the arrogance of power.
Britain’s Fear: An Arrogant Invasion and a Hasty Retreat
The nineteenth century was the period of Britain’s bitter experience. At the time, a secret, fierce and tense rivalry was underway between the two empires of Britain and Russia over power and influence in the heart of Asia, Afghanistan. In this colonial chess game, Afghanistan was an important and strategic piece.
Britain, fearing Russia’s expanding influence toward its “jewel in the crown,” India, decided to secure its northern frontier by establishing a puppet government in Afghanistan. For this reason, in 1839, the British Indian army, made up of Indian and British soldiers, entered Afghanistan through Kandahar and placed the court-backed Shah Shuja on the throne.
But this initial and apparent victory became the beginning of one of the most devastating defeats in Britain’s military history. Waves of popular resistance exhausted the British army and left it unable to continue the fight. In 1842, the remnants of that great army were wiped out by Afghan Mujahideen during their humiliating retreat through the snow and bitter cold of the Hindu Kush. Of the thousands of soldiers, only one man survived to tell the story of the great tragedy to history.
Britain’s fear of Afghanistan did not diminish with its later military campaigns. The Second and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars once again shook the prestige and might of the empire.
The Soviet Union: The Red Army’s Fate in the Hindu Kush Trap
A century later, it was the turn of the East’s “Red Menace.” In 1358 SH (1979), the Soviet Red Army invaded Afghanistan to support the communist government in Kabul and prevent it from being overthrown by the Muslim Mujahideen. Relying on the superiority of its air power and armored vehicles, the Soviet Union believed it would bring the country under its control within a few weeks.
But like the British before them, they had failed to learn the bitter lesson of history.
Afghan Mujahideen, relying on their faith and their deep familiarity with the country’s harsh and difficult terrain, launched a fierce guerrilla war against the superpower. Using clever military tactics, they targeted Soviet supply convoys and set deadly ambushes for enemy tanks and armored vehicles in narrow valleys. With the help of Allah Almighty and using whatever weapons they had at their disposal, the Mujahideen also posed a serious challenge to Soviet air superiority.
The war that the Soviet Union called a short-term mission became its Vietnam, an inescapable trap that consumed tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers and billions of rubles. Finally, with the humiliating withdrawal of the Red Army in 1989, the war became one of the major factors behind the Soviet Union’s weakening and its eventual collapse. The Soviet fear of Afghanistan was not confined to the battlefield. Its roots reached all the way into the halls of the Kremlin.
Defeating the Modern Crusaders
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States and its Western allies opened a new chapter of the modern Crusader war in Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism and overthrowing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). With extensive airstrikes and ground forces, they captured Kabul and removed the IEA from power. They believed that by spending billions of dollars and using advanced military equipment, they would not only establish security but also put down roots for a democratic and pro-Western system in this traditional and Islamic land.
But the enemy the American forces faced was not a conventional army. It was a living idea and a resistance. The IEA once again turned to guerrilla warfare, for which it had long been known. Over two decades, the farther the United States and NATO advanced on the battlefield, the wider the war spread. The number of foreign military casualties exceeded 3,500, while the financial cost of the war drained hundreds of billions of dollars from the American treasury.
Above all, it was the ordinary people of Afghanistan who suffered most from the war. Airstrikes, night raids and the escalation of violence made people’s lives even more bitter. Finally, after two decades, the United States was also forced to accept its defeat. On the 24th of Asad, 1400 SH, as it withdrew from Kabul in a disorderly and chaotic manner, another chapter in the terror of empires in this land came to an end. The world’s reaction to that humiliating withdrawal once again confirmed Afghanistan’s name as the graveyard of empires.
Afghanistan: An Unbreakable Land of Freedom
Afghanistan’s history is a clear witness to this fact. This land has suffered poverty and destruction, but the faith of its people and their spirit of freedom have remained their strongest force against foreign occupiers. Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States each came to this land with different colonial, ideological and hegemonic ambitions, but all faced severe defeats and failures in the face of Afghan resistance and struggle.
What frightened these empires in Afghanistan was not simply the prospect of death or military defeat. It came from realizing that the faith and determination of a nation can take such deep root that even the world’s most advanced and formidable war machines cannot make it bow.
Despite all its tragedies and hardships, Afghanistan still stands like a firm and unbreakable mountain against the storms of arrogance, sending a message to the world that under the banner of Tawhid and faith, the power of arrogance, no matter how rebellious and proud, ultimately moves toward weakness, decline and defeat.
