Afghanistan must be the most special group of countries in the history of mankind.
The country is weak and small, and it seems to be weak, but it has defeated many of the superpowers in human history, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States, all of which have collapsed in Afghanistan.
So why does Afghanistan have no money and no oil, so why do powerful countries always want to occupy it? and why does it become an "imperial graveyard?"
US troops in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is coveted by these superpowers for two reasons: the oppression of land powers by sea powers, and the fact that traditional land powers seek access to the Indian Ocean.
The invasion of Afghanistan by the sea powers
This sea power country naturally speaks of the British Empire and the United States. At that time, the British Empire's sphere of influence in Central Asia and South Asia was mainly India and Pakistan, and Afghanistan belonged to the British Empire's sphere of influence.
If there was no threat from outside the British Raj, the British Empire would probably not seek to expand in Afghanistan.
British India
But at that time, the Tsarist Russian Empire was also rising, and Tsarist Russia also expanded into Central Asia, and the five countries of Central Asia, which are now all Tsarist Russian territory, bordering Afghanistan.
In other words, Afghanistan at that time was bordering the spheres of influence of Tsarist Russia and the British Empire at the same time.
As the saying goes, "if you don't occupy power, other forces will occupy it", at that time, Tsarist Russia did not want this place to fall into the hands of the other side in the face of Afghanistan, and wanted to take Afghanistan as its "core area" to obtain a buffer zone.
Then the British Empire struck first, invading Afghanistan three times, from 1838 to 1919.
Anglo-Afghan War
Britain suffered heavy losses in all three Anglo-Afghan wars, only in the second war did Britain gain some and sign some unequal treaties with Afghanistan, but did not fully incorporate Afghanistan into its colonial territory.
By the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, the Afghan people had achieved a complete victory, abrogated these unequal treaties and became fully independent.
The reasons for the US invasion of Afghanistan were similar to those of the UK, but the US was aiming for a much larger one.
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was largely motivated by the "world island" theory.
In the World Island Theory, Eurasia is the core of the world, as it is here that the largest number of people and wealth on the planet are concentrated. And in this world island, Afghanistan is the center.
Afghanistan
That is to say, whoever takes Afghanistan will control the world island. Whoever controls the World Island is the overlord of the world.
From the perspective of the United States, as long as Afghanistan can be taken, it can contain China and Iran in the east and Russia in the north.
And from Europe to the Middle East, the United States will form a "land blockade line" like an island chain, which can completely lock in other countries' attempts to develop into the Indian Ocean.
Therefore, this Afghanistan can affect the three regional powers of China, Russia and Iran at the same time.
Geographical location of Afghanistan
During the war in Afghanistan, some insurgents also appeared in China's Xinjiang region. The reason behind this is that the United States is secretly supporting some extremist forces.
The invasion of Afghanistan by the land powers
The main reason for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to gain access to the Indian Ocean.
From Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, the country fought a series of wars to obtain ice-free ports, all the way to the end of the war in Afghanistan.
Although Afghanistan is a landlocked country, its neighbor Pakistan is a coastal country with a large number of good ports.
If the Soviet Union had taken Afghanistan, its sphere of influence would have bordered Pakistan. When the time comes, if Pakistan is taken, the Soviet Union will be able to obtain a large number of ice-free ports in the Indian Ocean.
Soviet troops invading Afghanistan
Many people may think that the Soviet Union is a snake swallowing an elephant, but the Soviets may not think so. At that time, the five countries of Central Asia, which were directly under the territory of the Soviet Union, were all defeated in this way during the Tsarist era.
So the Soviet Union had a path dependence on this method of conquering other countries and then bringing them into the sphere of influence, and this path dependence lasted until the end of the Soviet-Afghan war.
It is worth mentioning that before the official invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, Afghanistan itself was pro-Soviet and a socialist country.
In 1978, the Afghan People's Party overthrew the Daoud regime and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
Flag of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
But civil strife broke out in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, and the new Hafizollah Amin was not in the interests of the Soviet Union, so the Soviets assassinated Amin in 1979 and began the invasion of Afghanistan at the same time.
The end of the Soviet-Afghan war also meant the fall of the socialist forces in Afghanistan, so the Soviet Union completely lost Afghanistan.
Why did the superpower sink into the sand?
As for why all three superpowers have collapsed in Afghanistan, the main reason is the topography and religion of Afghanistan.
Topographically, the vast majority of Afghanistan is desert and mountainous, which dooms the superpower to be unable to engage in plain field warfare with local rebels.
As a result, the local rebels can continue to fight guerrillas, so that the superpowers will never be able to exterminate the local rebels.
Taliban armed group
Religiously, Islam itself is a very organized religion. Islam is also relatively more xenophobic, very resistant to invasion by external forces.
Therefore, when the superpowers invaded Afghanistan, the rebels were able to gain a mass base, a steady stream of soldiers and revenues.
Therefore, when the three superpowers invaded Afghanistan, they were never able to gain the support of the Afghan people, and this war was destined to become a long-term war.
Since it is a long-term war, it is natural that there will be a day when the Afghan people will completely surrender, or the superpower will not be able to consume it.
For the former, none of the three superpowers have done it, so naturally only the latter awaits them.
Soviet troops in Afghanistan
Therefore, the three superpowers were all caught in the Afghan battlefield with one foot, and after fighting the "law and order war" there for several years, they could only leave Afghanistan in disgrace because their own finances could not bear it.
In the final analysis, the three superpowers invaded Afghanistan in order to satisfy their own hegemonic strategy. This mentality doomed them to be unable to carry out poverty alleviation operations in Afghanistan, and the "conquest" of Afghanistan could only turn into a law and order war in the end.
Of course, the United States has tried to alleviate poverty in Afghanistan, but it has failed.
US troops in Afghanistan
The first is that Afghanistan is too large to be carried out in poverty alleviation, which is difficult for any country to bear. The second is the problem of corruption in the United States, which has left the vast majority of US funds unspent.
Resources:
[1] Reference News: "Afghan Children Are Far from Getting Rid of the Wounds of War"
[2] Xinhuanet, "The Afghan War, the United States Can't Extricate Itself from the Quagmire"