Here's a comment attached to an article on Afghanistan that I just read over on ICH.
I found it quite informative, so will share it.
Re. Afghanistan - "Graveyard of Empires" but alas also an early grave for so many of its long suffering people, I re-post the following :
1) Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country, made up of Aimaks, Baluchis, Hazaras, Kazahks, Kirghis, Pamiris, Tajhiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks & at ~40% of the total population, the largest single group, the Pashtuns/Pukhtoons.
2) The historical Pashtun homeland is divided in two by the Afghan/Pakistan border. This porous "border" is in effect the old "Durand Line", the de facto western territorial limit of the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The Pashtuns have NEVER recognised this arbitrary line on someone else's map & no external power or authority has ever been able to define it, let alone patrol or police it.
3) Pashtun society is extremely conservative, deeply traditional, unrelentingly patriarchal & tribal. The Women lead difficult lives far removed from any "Liberal Western Norms". A Pashtun is a member of a family group, a sub-clan,a clan & then a tribe. At around 45 million people globally, they are the world's largest tribally affiliated ethnic group.
4) Conservative Islam & the Lex Talionis, Pre-Islamic honour code "Pashtunwalli", are the law, organisational guidelines & ethical principles by which this proud, fiercely independent & hardy mountain people regulate their society alongside & within their Jirga/Shura/Majlis collective decision making & gathering systems.
5) The phrase "Revenge is a dish best served cold", is the English approximation & appropriation of the Pashtun original. Another Pashtun dictum is: "Me against my brothers; me & my brothers against my cousins; me, my brothers & my cousins against the world". Pashtun males are considered adult at 13 years of age & are honour bound to defend "Zan, Zhar, Zamin" - Women, Wealth & Land. Notions of loyalty and duty to kith & kin, honour, respect, shame, "not losing face" & "dying on one's feet rather than living on one's knees" are central to their world view & modus vivendi.
6) The word "Taliban" translates as "Students", as they were originally recruited, equipped & organised with the enthusiastic help, encouragement & funding of the Saudis, ISI, MI6 & CIA from the Madrasas (religious schools) in the numerous Pashtun refugee camps, during & after the war to oust the Soviet armed forces & the devastating civil war that followed it. Their grandfathers & fathers were then of course, known & eulogised as the "Mujahideen". The word "Taliban" is now nothing other than a obfuscatory, propagandist & subversive "meme" for what is in actuality, under various names & guises - The Pashtun National Resistance Movement.
7) The peoples of present day Afghanistan, whether Pashtun or otherwise, are the time served world champions of guerilla warfare & insurgency. No army or empire has ever been able to totally defeat & dominate them. (Alexander the Great's) Greek, Scythian, Hepthalite, Bactrian, Persian, Mongol, Arab, Turkic, British & Russian armies have all been severely mauled & bloodied at some time or other & have had to retreat, assimilate, pay tribute to or come to an accommodation with, these fierce & warlike peoples.
8) The Americans, despite their massive military superiority, are the latest to learn these same painful lessons. This time however, the whole world is (quite intentionally?) further driven towards a "Clash of Civilisations", as advocated by Samuel Huntington, Benny Morris, William Safire, Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Donald, Robert & Fred Kagan, Norman & John Podhoretz, Richard & Daniel Pipes, Irving & Bill Kristol, Richards Perle & Haas, Pauls Bremer & Wolfowitz, etc.
9) This Zionist/PNAC/Neo-Con ambition, aspiration & world view stimulates and is mirrored by (as predicted by the Probability Gamers in Herzliya & Langley!) the grand "End Time" schematic of a few thousand Jihadis worldwide, whose fanaticism & fury ; rage & resistance is fuelled, stoked & provoked by the Scientific Uber-Violence & Imperial Jackboot of the "Coalition of the Complicit", under the aegis & "Blood Spattered Banner of the Usurped States of Amnesiacs".
10) What the Warmongering US "National Security"/Military/Industrial/Corporate/Banking cliques did NOT seem to know of the Buddhist Vietnamese, in that they were a fiercely independent people, who had fought the Khmer, Chinese, Japanese & French Imperiums before they defeated the USA - so do they NOW seem NOT to know of the Muslim Afghans.
However, perhaps an Unending War is just what is Really Wanted by the Dark Forces of the Bankster-U$/MIC Nexus. After all 9/!! was the declared raison d'etre for the Illegal & Immoral War on Afghanistan but as that attack had nothing to do with Afghans or Afghanistan or even "19 Arabs with box cutters", then ....
fiat lux ; fiat pax ; fiat justitia ruat caelum !
I found it quite informative, so will share it.
Re. Afghanistan - "Graveyard of Empires" but alas also an early grave for so many of its long suffering people, I re-post the following :
1) Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country, made up of Aimaks, Baluchis, Hazaras, Kazahks, Kirghis, Pamiris, Tajhiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks & at ~40% of the total population, the largest single group, the Pashtuns/Pukhtoons.
2) The historical Pashtun homeland is divided in two by the Afghan/Pakistan border. This porous "border" is in effect the old "Durand Line", the de facto western territorial limit of the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The Pashtuns have NEVER recognised this arbitrary line on someone else's map & no external power or authority has ever been able to define it, let alone patrol or police it.
3) Pashtun society is extremely conservative, deeply traditional, unrelentingly patriarchal & tribal. The Women lead difficult lives far removed from any "Liberal Western Norms". A Pashtun is a member of a family group, a sub-clan,a clan & then a tribe. At around 45 million people globally, they are the world's largest tribally affiliated ethnic group.
4) Conservative Islam & the Lex Talionis, Pre-Islamic honour code "Pashtunwalli", are the law, organisational guidelines & ethical principles by which this proud, fiercely independent & hardy mountain people regulate their society alongside & within their Jirga/Shura/Majlis collective decision making & gathering systems.
5) The phrase "Revenge is a dish best served cold", is the English approximation & appropriation of the Pashtun original. Another Pashtun dictum is: "Me against my brothers; me & my brothers against my cousins; me, my brothers & my cousins against the world". Pashtun males are considered adult at 13 years of age & are honour bound to defend "Zan, Zhar, Zamin" - Women, Wealth & Land. Notions of loyalty and duty to kith & kin, honour, respect, shame, "not losing face" & "dying on one's feet rather than living on one's knees" are central to their world view & modus vivendi.
6) The word "Taliban" translates as "Students", as they were originally recruited, equipped & organised with the enthusiastic help, encouragement & funding of the Saudis, ISI, MI6 & CIA from the Madrasas (religious schools) in the numerous Pashtun refugee camps, during & after the war to oust the Soviet armed forces & the devastating civil war that followed it. Their grandfathers & fathers were then of course, known & eulogised as the "Mujahideen". The word "Taliban" is now nothing other than a obfuscatory, propagandist & subversive "meme" for what is in actuality, under various names & guises - The Pashtun National Resistance Movement.
7) The peoples of present day Afghanistan, whether Pashtun or otherwise, are the time served world champions of guerilla warfare & insurgency. No army or empire has ever been able to totally defeat & dominate them. (Alexander the Great's) Greek, Scythian, Hepthalite, Bactrian, Persian, Mongol, Arab, Turkic, British & Russian armies have all been severely mauled & bloodied at some time or other & have had to retreat, assimilate, pay tribute to or come to an accommodation with, these fierce & warlike peoples.
8) The Americans, despite their massive military superiority, are the latest to learn these same painful lessons. This time however, the whole world is (quite intentionally?) further driven towards a "Clash of Civilisations", as advocated by Samuel Huntington, Benny Morris, William Safire, Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Donald, Robert & Fred Kagan, Norman & John Podhoretz, Richard & Daniel Pipes, Irving & Bill Kristol, Richards Perle & Haas, Pauls Bremer & Wolfowitz, etc.
9) This Zionist/PNAC/Neo-Con ambition, aspiration & world view stimulates and is mirrored by (as predicted by the Probability Gamers in Herzliya & Langley!) the grand "End Time" schematic of a few thousand Jihadis worldwide, whose fanaticism & fury ; rage & resistance is fuelled, stoked & provoked by the Scientific Uber-Violence & Imperial Jackboot of the "Coalition of the Complicit", under the aegis & "Blood Spattered Banner of the Usurped States of Amnesiacs".
10) What the Warmongering US "National Security"/Military/Industrial/Corporate/Banking cliques did NOT seem to know of the Buddhist Vietnamese, in that they were a fiercely independent people, who had fought the Khmer, Chinese, Japanese & French Imperiums before they defeated the USA - so do they NOW seem NOT to know of the Muslim Afghans.
However, perhaps an Unending War is just what is Really Wanted by the Dark Forces of the Bankster-U$/MIC Nexus. After all 9/!! was the declared raison d'etre for the Illegal & Immoral War on Afghanistan but as that attack had nothing to do with Afghans or Afghanistan or even "19 Arabs with box cutters", then ....
fiat lux ; fiat pax ; fiat justitia ruat caelum !
1 comment:
"Never get involved in a land war in Asia"...people think that means Russia, but I think it's more about Afghanistan and Vietnam.
Post a Comment