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introduction
In history, Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States launched five wars to invade Afghanistan in an attempt to seize control of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a contested ground for powerful countries that want to dominate the region, leaving Afghanistan in a state of turmoil and war for decades. The war is raging and the smoke is raging. The country is scarred and people are displaced.
(Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion)
Because of the protracted war, Afghanistan's industrial, agricultural and scientific and technological development has been severely hit, and infrastructure such as transportation and communications has also been seriously damaged. The Afghan people cannot live and work normally, and the country cannot function normally, so Afghanistan is very poor and is considered a relatively backward country.
Afghanistan is a landlocked country in central Asia, and although it is close to the Middle East oil region, its own oil and gas energy is still quite scarce.
So why did such a poor country let Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States take turns to start wars? What are they coveting in Afghanistan?
(Afghanistan at war)
But where war is either over energy, or land, or wealth. And Afghanistan, which has nothing, has been ravaged and controlled by the great powers for a long time, what are they fighting for?
On the surface, it seems strange, but in fact it is because of the geographical location of Afghanistan, which implies great geopolitical value.
It is precisely because of the importance of geographical location that the great powers salivate. In addition, Afghanistan's national strength is not strong enough, as the saying goes, "backwardness will be beaten", so it has been reduced to a piece of "meat" in the mouths of powerful countries for decades. There is a situation of "you sing and I appear". As a result, Afghanistan has been bullied and oppressed.
So where is Afghanistan located? How geographically valuable is this location?
First, the geographical value of Afghanistan
Afghanistan, fully known as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country in Asia, located at the intersection of Central, West and South Asia, close to the center of Asia, Europe and Africa.
(Location of Afghanistan)
Afghanistan is located southwest of China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region and borders six countries in East Asia: China, Pakistan, Iran in West Asia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in Central Asia.
In ancient times, the geographical location of Afghanistan was already very important, it was not only a fortress for north-south transportation, but also a transportation hub connecting Asia to Europe and the Far East.
In the traditional "Silk Road", it started from Chang'an, the ancient capital of China, through Xinjiang to the countries of Central Asia, and then through Afghanistan to Europe.
In the northeast of Afghanistan, there is a prominent corridor called the Wakhan Corridor, which connects Xinjiang in China, and it is the only land connection between China and Afghanistan.
(Wakhan Corridor)
In history, there are many senior monks such as Xuanzang, Fa Xian, and Changchun Zhenrenqiu, who went to India to learn scriptures through the Wakhan Corridor to Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.
It is precisely because Afghanistan's location is at the throat of traffic, Afghanistan, known as the "center of the world", has been a battleground in history.
When Alexander the Great crusaded to the East, he arrived in Central Asia through Afghanistan.
The Arab Empire, Genghis Khan, Timur, Iran, and the Mughal Empire invaded and ruled Afghanistan, and was later annexed by the Safavids to become part of the Persian Empire.
The Afghan people have been wounded and enslaved by war, but they have been fighting to defend their country. So the history of Afghanistan is the history of the fight against aggression.
(Afghanistan--- a battleground for soldiers)
Until the fifteenth century, because of its location at the intersection of land transportation, Afghanistan became the center of cultural and trade exchanges between Europe and Asia. Afghanistan was once prosperous and wealthy, becoming the brightest pearl of the Silk Road.
Later, European navigators discovered the sea route from Europe to India, which greatly weakened the role of Afghanistan as a land transportation hub, and Afghanistan slowly declined in terms of economy and trade.
But in the military-political sphere, Afghanistan remains of great geopolitical value.
(Afghanistan's geographical value is great)
If it controls Afghanistan, it can deter Russia in the north, contain China in the east, suppress Iran in the west, and then control the Middle East, and control South Asia and the Indian Ocean in the south, gaining access to the sea in the south.
Militarily, Afghanistan's strategic position is very important, judging by the map, Afghanistan connects China to the east, South Asia to the south, oil-rich regions of the Middle East to the west, and Central Asian Russia to the north.
Afghanistan is the connecting passage of the Eurasian continent, and controlling Afghanistan can control the land transportation throat of Asia and Europe.
(Important strategic location in Afghanistan)
II. Anglo-Soviet War in Afghanistan
In 1747, a new king of Afghanistan came to power and led the people to drive out the invaders of the Persian Empire and establish the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
However, in the nineteenth century, the national strength of the Afghan dynasty gradually declined, powerful countries came to divide up, and the territory was constantly occupied, and Afghanistan gradually became a pawn of the expansion of the great powers and a battlefield for great power competition.
(History of the war in Afghanistan)
Since then, the war in Afghanistan has lasted from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first century, which is unprecedented in time.
The Afghan War was three British wars in Afghanistan from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries, lasting thirty-eight years. In the twentieth century, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan fought a ten-year war, and in the twenty-first century, the United States invaded Afghanistan for twenty years.
During the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain has developed rapidly in terms of politics, military, economy and culture, and its national strength has become strong, and its influence in the world has become strong.
(Queen Victoria)
So Britain increased its foreign expansion, forcibly plundered everywhere, and established its own colonies around the world. As a result, Britain became more powerful and ascended to the position of world leader.
Britain and Tsarist Russia at that time both wanted to compete for Afghanistan, a "treasure land", and Tsarist Russia adopted a "infiltration" strategy to support the pro-Russian regime in Afghanistan and pull Afghanistan into its arms.
(British invasion of Afghanistan)
Britain directly through the war of aggression to prevent the expansion of Tsarist Russia's sphere of influence to the south and protect the stability of its power from Africa to India, so it launched three Anglo-Afghan wars against Afghanistan.
The powerful British army burned and looted everywhere in Afghanistan, the Afghan government army was defeated one after another, the king fled, and signed the humiliating Treaty of Gandamak, becoming a vassal of Britain.
Fortunately, the Afghan people formed an anti-British guerrilla force, and they fought fiercely with the British army by occupying the favorable conditions of the time and place, and the British army collapsed in three wars and was almost completely annihilated.
(Afghan soldiers in battle)
The British army was defeated, and on November 22, 1921, Britain and Afghanistan signed a peace treaty, recognizing the independence of Afghanistan.
At the end of World War II, Britain, known as the "empire that never sets", gradually declined, the United States and the Soviet Union gradually became stronger, and a new round of global hegemony began to appear.
In order to achieve global strategic goals, the Soviet Union attempted to use Afghanistan, bordering Afghanistan in the south, as a base to open up a passage south into the Indian Ocean, obtain access to the sea in the south, control the Middle East oil zone to the west, and also control Africa and Europe.
In order to gain access to this strategically important location, the Soviet Union launched a war against Afghanistan in December 1979.
(Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
At the beginning of the war, the Soviets took control of Afghanistan's key cities, transportation arteries, and destroyed Afghan communications facilities as quickly as possible. But the Afghan guerrillas, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, adopted guerrilla tactics of breaking them into pieces and firing one shot at a time.
In addition, the United States provided weapons, technology and financial support to the Afghan resistance militants, while at the same time cultivating terrorist al-Qaeda, using Afghanistan as a pawn to consume the Soviet Union. In this way, the Soviet and Afghan armies were at a stalemate for ten years.
After all, on other people's territory, Afghanistan is supported by the United States, and the Soviet army in Afghanistan is in a dilemma, exhausted, suffered heavy losses, and is completely mired in war.
(Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan)
The Soviet Union, which had spent ten years in the war, was greatly injured, and in order to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, the Soviet Union was forced to compromise with Afghanistan, signed the Geneva Agreement, and withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in February 89.
Third, the wolf ambition of the United States
After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the United States lacked the strong opponent of the Soviet Union, and at this time, the economic development of the United States was also booming, forming a unique situation, and the United States was even more brazen to dominate the world.
(Collapse of the Soviet Union)
Afghanistan, a strategic place, the United States will never let go, and the United States has begun to brew a big chess game.
First, to save the U.S. economy and compete for oil resources in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran will have to be hit.
Secondly, Afghanistan, as the center of the world, can contain the development of Russia in Central Asia. For Russia, which inherited most of the mantle of the Soviet Union after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continues to compress the space.
The US-led NATO continues to expand eastward to Russia, and after controlling Afghanistan, it can threaten Russia from the south. In short, it is necessary to continue to disintegrate Russia until it cannot compete with the United States.
(911 terrorist attacks)
Through reform and opening up, the national economy has taken off, and industry, agriculture, and science and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds.
If troops are stationed in Afghanistan on the northeast border with China's Xinjiang, they can cultivate separatists, create internal turmoil in China, and thus bring China down.
(Taliban organization)
So the war in Afghanistan was launched with three stones, and the United States launched a war of aggression against Afghanistan in October 2001.
After the "911 terrorist attacks", the United States launched a war of aggression against Afghanistan on the grounds that the Taliban harbored al-Qaeda and harbored bin Laden.
Fourth, the United States defeated Afghanistan
After invading Afghanistan, the United States overthrew the Taliban regime, dealt a heavy blow to al-Qaeda, and bin Laden was killed by the US military. And the long-term stationing of troops in Afghanistan achieves the purpose of controlling Afghanistan.
(U.S. military invades Afghanistan)
The US military liquidated the remnants of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and this fight was 20 years, and the United States spent $2 trillion and suffered more than 20,000 casualties in these 20 years, and it was difficult to conquer Afghanistan in the end. Finally, in 2021, the US military withdrew its troops, and 20 days later the Taliban took power, and the Afghan war launched by the US military failed.
When the US military withdrew from Afghanistan, it left a large number of weapons and equipment that was too late to take away, and the appearance of the US military losing its armor and abandoning it can be described as a hasty escape.
What is the reason for the defeat of Afghanistan by the United States? First of all, Afghanistan's terrain is complex, mostly mountainous and deep mountainous, providing an excellent protection site for the Taliban.
(Defensive offensive of Afghan guerrillas)
The Taliban are also good at guerrilla tactics and familiar with the terrain, they are elusive, and the US military cannot completely eliminate the Taliban even if it has advanced weapons.
Afghanistan's living environment is harsh, most of the places are desert areas, the mountains are also sparsely vegetated, the temperature difference between morning and evening is quite large, the US military can not adapt to the climate of Afghanistan, seriously affecting the combat effectiveness of the US military.
The United States flaunts that the war in Afghanistan was launched to fight terrorists and fight for freedom and democracy for the Afghan people. No matter how much the United States whitewashes the reasons for invading Afghanistan, in the minds of the Afghan people, the United States is the "aggressor".
(U.S. troops withdraw)
The United States lost hearts and minds in Afghanistan. As the saying goes: He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world, and he hates the aggressor Afghan people very much.
Afghanistan has been experiencing war since ancient times, and the Afghan people have national integrity and fighting spirit in their bones, just like "a small strong who cannot be killed".
The US strategic plate is too large, the front is too long, and the United States is no longer able to do so, because the United States cannot face the three powerful countries of China, Russia and Iraq at the same time.
It has exceeded the strategic limits of the United States itself. And continue to spend time, effort, and money in Afghanistan, and finally consume yourself in Afghanistan. In the end, the United States had no choice but to make a decision to withdraw its troops.
Afghanistan is worthy of being the "graveyard of empires". Britain launched the war in Afghanistan, and Britain fell. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and soon the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States invaded Afghanistan, so is the United States far from losing its hegemonic position?
(U.S. troops withdraw)
War is terrible, leaving people with endless pain and psychological shadows. The damage caused by war will take a generation, if not generations, to repair.
Only when you are strong, others will not dare to bully you.
It is hoped that the world pattern will no longer be dominated by hegemony, that there will be no war, that there will be world peace, that every country in the world will be at peace, and that the people will live and work in peace and contentment.
Resources
LI Huanyu. From Return to Loss: The First Anniversary of the Taliban in Afghanistan[J]. Party Members' Digest, 2022(19)
WANG Shida. Major changes in Afghanistan's geopolitical pattern[J]. World Knowledge.