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Understanding Afghanistan’s history 

Editor: 

It’s fascinating to read in my old encyclopedia that the United States signed a treaty of friendship with Afghanistan in 1926 – but an American official (the minister to Iran) didn’t visit Kabul until 1941. (US Trade with the Afghans included fur from the Persian caracul lynx.) Of course the tyro colonialist Americans lagged behind the British imperialists, who made many earlier incursions into Afghanistan and once even made it a virtual protectorate. 

The Brits finally recognized Afghan independence in 1921, after signing a treaty in Rawalpindi in 1919.  

American military leaders today should ponder on Afghan history – those descendants of Genghis Khan made the Brits pay dearly for their misdeeds by killing virtually the entire army in Kabul in 1842. After the Brits occupied Kandahar in 1878, their entire garrison was similarly wiped out. And of course the Russians, who had signed a treaty much earlier in 1878, in the 20th century created their own Vietnam in that country.  

Afghan history is replete with assassinations of their leaders and constant anarchy. Emir Amanullah, a progressive ruler who visited Europe in 1928, was fiercely opposed by the mullahs infuriated by his reforms decreeing the unveiling of women, free education for both boys and girls, the adoption of western clothing and the order for men’s beards to be shaved off but mustaches retained (shades of the Taliban!).  

What did the Emir in was when his Queen Suriya appeared at a state function unveiled and clad in the latest Paris fashion. Incited by the mullahs, Afghanis revolted and forced the Emir to flee. All his modern projects were abolished, and Kabul’s trolley line was torn up, with the remaining car put in the Kabul museum.  

Who knows, the Afghans’ legendary toughness could be the result of their preference to tackle their country’s rugged terrain by caravan, rather than getting soft by travelling in that decadent Western invention, the railway. 

Beatriz Coda  

Berkeley