On the 1st of December 2009 U. S. President Barack Obama gave a speech to the students of a West Point military academy, declaring his intention to send other tens of thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan. Newly-fledged Nobel peace prize laureate has made it clear that he’s going to fight until the final victory.
Potential threats and real victims
It’s a commonly known fact that invasion of the NATO troops into Afghanistan has started in 2001 as a counter-reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That was for the first time in the history of Northern-Atlantic Alliance when the clause №5 of the Northern-Atlantic Treaty — the one providing the joint defense efforts of the country-members in case of the aggression against any of them — was actually applied. On the 12th of September, 2001, exactly one day after the destruction of New-York twin-towers, Council of NATO has made a decision to start the “Endure Freedom” operation. Despite the fact that 15 of 19 terrorists that took part in the 9/11 attacks were natives of Saudi Arabia, it was Afghanistan that became the aim of the counter-attack.
“Endure Freedom” operation started from the aviation bombings and the missiles attacks, which victimized 5 thousand civilians during the first two months of the warfare. Thus, even before the invasion and the beginning of the ground operation, number of killed Afghanis was bigger than the number of 9/11 victims. Prevention of the new possible terrorist acts at the U. S. and allied territories were declared to be the objectives of the NATO invasion to Afghanistan — i. e. in order to avoid the potential victims among the Western population, thousands of civilian Afghani residents were actually murdered.
Ground invasion that followed the “non-contact” war seemed to be pretty successful at first. The forecasted war potential of the Taliban turned out to be exaggerated. Allies have managed to create a “pet” Afghani government formed out of the Afghani immigrants, who were living in Germany at the time. It was headed by Hamid Karzai, whose main advantage was his fluent English. In 2001 Bonn International conference delegated the power to him.
However, soon it turned out that achievement of the goals that were defined by the Allies — destruction of the Taliban regime and the Western-like democratization of Afghanistan (designed to make this country safer for the West) seemed more and more unreal day by day. At the same time actions of the USA and its allies were disturbingly similar to the errors that Great Britain and the Soviet Union have made in this country during the last 170 years.
“Endure Freedom” operation started from the aviation bombings and the missiles attacks, which victimized 5 thousand civilians during the first two months of the warfare. Thus, even before the invasion and the beginning of the ground operation, number of killed Afghanis was bigger than the number of 9/11 victims. Prevention of the new possible terrorist acts at the U. S. and allied territories were declared to be the objectives of the NATO invasion to Afghanistan — i. e. in order to avoid the potential victims among the Western population, thousands of civilian Afghani residents were actually murdered.
Ground invasion that followed the “non-contact” war seemed to be pretty successful at first. The forecasted war potential of the Taliban turned out to be exaggerated. Allies have managed to create a “pet” Afghani government formed out of the Afghani immigrants, who were living in Germany at the time. It was headed by Hamid Karzai, whose main advantage was his fluent English. In 2001 Bonn International conference delegated the power to him.
However, soon it turned out that achievement of the goals that were defined by the Allies — destruction of the Taliban regime and the Western-like democratization of Afghanistan (designed to make this country safer for the West) seemed more and more unreal day by day. At the same time actions of the USA and its allies were disturbingly similar to the errors that Great Britain and the Soviet Union have made in this country during the last 170 years.
The Great Game
That’s how Western historians call the Anglo-Russian struggle for division of the spheres of influence in Central Asia — the one that lasted almost a hundred years since the 1813. This catchy slogan supposedly belongs to Arthur Connoly, captain of Her Majesty secret service in this disquieted region, who had mounted the scaffold (quite literally) in 1842 at the territory of today’s Uzbekistan — he was decapitated there by the order of Bokharan emir Nasrulla. Common audience first met the “Great Game” term from the book “Kim” authored by Rudiyard Kipling who was known to be the “poet of the British imperialism” — the book was published in 1901 and described the adventures of teenaged spy, who had been stealing the secret documents from his Russian colleagues.
In fact, the struggle of two empires was much more speculative rather than real — head-on clashes have never taken place. That is why Count Nesselrode, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russian Empire, dubbed this struggle “the tournament of shadows”. Everything started during the “liaison” between Emperor Pavel and Napoleon Bonaparte — the latter has managed to convince his Russian colleague in the necessity of their joint actions against the British Empire in India. Pavel was so inspired by this idea that he has sent 20 thousand Cossacks to Central Asia in January of 1801; they however were withdrawn back to Russia immediately after emperor’s death. Though, this was enough to create casus belli for the Russo-Persian war that lasted since 1804 until 1813. For the Persians, the casus itself was the joining of Eastern Georgia to the Russian Empire — initially, this decision was made by Pavel, and later was documented in his successor’s, Alexander I, “Manifesto of establishing a new government in Georgia”. The war ended with the signing of Gulistan Treaty that fixed a shattering defeat of Persia, which had to admit the transfer of Dagestan, Georgia, Abkhazia and the Northern Azerbaijan to the Russian Empire. Apart from that, Russia gained the right to have its navy at the Caspian Sea.
Englishmen, of course, couldn’t like that course of events — that’s why they’ve secretly started to arm and train the Persian army. The Decembrist uprising of 1825 became the casus belli for another war — British and Persian men interpreted this as a display of pretenders to the throne competition, and, therefore, the weakness of the Russian Empire. Attempting to retrieve the territories that Russia gained according to the Gulistan Treaty, Iran declared a war against Russia in the 16th of July, 1826. This time the Persian’s misfortune was even greater. Splendid actions of the Russian Army made them surrender by the February of 1828. The Second Russo-Persian war was ended with signing the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which not only reapproved all the conditions of the Gulistan peace, but also brought Armenia into the Russian possession (Armenians from Iran were to migrate there) and imposed 20 million ruble indemnity on Shah of Iran.
Increased Russian activity in the Central Asia and in Caucasus led the British to the thought that they can hesitate no longer. In December of 1838 about 30 thousand British soldiers invaded Afghanistan and brought their protйgй, Shah Shuja, to power in Kabul. However, in three years an anti-British uprising flared up, Shah was overthrown and the British were ousted from the country. During the first battle of this war — which later was dubbed the First Anglo-Afghan war — British squad of 16 thousand people was completely destroyed. The only survivor was Doctor William Burden, who had a narrow escape to Jalalabad that was still under control of the British troops.
Joining of Khiva, Bokhara and Kokand — which inhabitants were constantly foraying Southern Russian provinces — to the Russian Empire became another reason to continue its competition with Great Britain. Russian forces, under the command of Turkestan’s governor-general Konstantin Kaufman, have conducted a large operation resulted in the inclusion of these territories into the Amu Darya province of the Turkestan territory. Reaction of Lord Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, to these events was his letter to Queen Victoria, where he tried to convince her that “the Muscovites were to be ousted from the Central Asia and drowned in the Caspian Sea”. Being under the pressure of the Prime Minister, Queen accepted the title of the Indian Empress — mind that Afghanistan was included to India. Disraeli brought the British troops into Kandahar and the Second Anglo-Afghan war began. Nevertheless, all the Afghan wars of last 170 years are as like as two peas in the pod: quick engagement of foreign troops, “blitzkrieg”, celebrations of the victory, then comes the guerilla war and the defeat of the “infidels”. That’s how the things went this time, too. Soon British army was blocked in Kabul by a one-hundred-thousand-strong army of the Afghan rebels and Disraeli was defeated not only at the battlefield, but at the parliamentary elections, too. His successor, William Gladstone, was forced to move the troops out of Afghanistan and conclude a peace treaty. That happened in 1880.
Another aggravation of the military and political situation in Afghanistan took place in 1885. It is known in the history books as the Afghan crisis. And again there were no direct Russo-English confrontation. Russian army kicked the Afghanis out of the Merv oasis, having occupied a part of the Afghan territory. Englishmen protested against that but still avoided an armed conflict with the Russian army. This crisis ended during the battle at Kushka, when troops under command of General Komarov defeated the Afghanis soundly. That is how history of the Russian expansion at the Afghan direction is ended.
In fact, the struggle of two empires was much more speculative rather than real — head-on clashes have never taken place. That is why Count Nesselrode, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russian Empire, dubbed this struggle “the tournament of shadows”. Everything started during the “liaison” between Emperor Pavel and Napoleon Bonaparte — the latter has managed to convince his Russian colleague in the necessity of their joint actions against the British Empire in India. Pavel was so inspired by this idea that he has sent 20 thousand Cossacks to Central Asia in January of 1801; they however were withdrawn back to Russia immediately after emperor’s death. Though, this was enough to create casus belli for the Russo-Persian war that lasted since 1804 until 1813. For the Persians, the casus itself was the joining of Eastern Georgia to the Russian Empire — initially, this decision was made by Pavel, and later was documented in his successor’s, Alexander I, “Manifesto of establishing a new government in Georgia”. The war ended with the signing of Gulistan Treaty that fixed a shattering defeat of Persia, which had to admit the transfer of Dagestan, Georgia, Abkhazia and the Northern Azerbaijan to the Russian Empire. Apart from that, Russia gained the right to have its navy at the Caspian Sea.
Englishmen, of course, couldn’t like that course of events — that’s why they’ve secretly started to arm and train the Persian army. The Decembrist uprising of 1825 became the casus belli for another war — British and Persian men interpreted this as a display of pretenders to the throne competition, and, therefore, the weakness of the Russian Empire. Attempting to retrieve the territories that Russia gained according to the Gulistan Treaty, Iran declared a war against Russia in the 16th of July, 1826. This time the Persian’s misfortune was even greater. Splendid actions of the Russian Army made them surrender by the February of 1828. The Second Russo-Persian war was ended with signing the Treaty of Turkmenchay, which not only reapproved all the conditions of the Gulistan peace, but also brought Armenia into the Russian possession (Armenians from Iran were to migrate there) and imposed 20 million ruble indemnity on Shah of Iran.
Increased Russian activity in the Central Asia and in Caucasus led the British to the thought that they can hesitate no longer. In December of 1838 about 30 thousand British soldiers invaded Afghanistan and brought their protйgй, Shah Shuja, to power in Kabul. However, in three years an anti-British uprising flared up, Shah was overthrown and the British were ousted from the country. During the first battle of this war — which later was dubbed the First Anglo-Afghan war — British squad of 16 thousand people was completely destroyed. The only survivor was Doctor William Burden, who had a narrow escape to Jalalabad that was still under control of the British troops.
Joining of Khiva, Bokhara and Kokand — which inhabitants were constantly foraying Southern Russian provinces — to the Russian Empire became another reason to continue its competition with Great Britain. Russian forces, under the command of Turkestan’s governor-general Konstantin Kaufman, have conducted a large operation resulted in the inclusion of these territories into the Amu Darya province of the Turkestan territory. Reaction of Lord Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, to these events was his letter to Queen Victoria, where he tried to convince her that “the Muscovites were to be ousted from the Central Asia and drowned in the Caspian Sea”. Being under the pressure of the Prime Minister, Queen accepted the title of the Indian Empress — mind that Afghanistan was included to India. Disraeli brought the British troops into Kandahar and the Second Anglo-Afghan war began. Nevertheless, all the Afghan wars of last 170 years are as like as two peas in the pod: quick engagement of foreign troops, “blitzkrieg”, celebrations of the victory, then comes the guerilla war and the defeat of the “infidels”. That’s how the things went this time, too. Soon British army was blocked in Kabul by a one-hundred-thousand-strong army of the Afghan rebels and Disraeli was defeated not only at the battlefield, but at the parliamentary elections, too. His successor, William Gladstone, was forced to move the troops out of Afghanistan and conclude a peace treaty. That happened in 1880.
Another aggravation of the military and political situation in Afghanistan took place in 1885. It is known in the history books as the Afghan crisis. And again there were no direct Russo-English confrontation. Russian army kicked the Afghanis out of the Merv oasis, having occupied a part of the Afghan territory. Englishmen protested against that but still avoided an armed conflict with the Russian army. This crisis ended during the battle at Kushka, when troops under command of General Komarov defeated the Afghanis soundly. That is how history of the Russian expansion at the Afghan direction is ended.
(to be continued)
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