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A clear-eyed view of the conflict in Afghanistan and its century-deep roots.
The war in Afghanistan has consumed vast amounts of blood and treasure, causing the Western powers to seek an exit without achieving victory. Seemingly never-ending, the conflict has become synonymous with a number of issues — global jihad, rampant tribalism, and the narcotics trade — but even though they are cited as the causes of the conflict, they are in fact symptoms.
Rather than beginning after 9/11 or with the Soviet “invasion” in 1979, the current conflict in Afghanistan began with the social reforms imposed by Amanullah Amir in 1919. Western powers have failed to recognize that legitimate grievances are driving the local population to turn to insurgency in Afghanistan. The issues they are willing to fight for have deep roots, forming a hundred-year-long social conflict over questions of secularism, modernity, and centralized power.
The first step toward achieving a “solution” to the Afghanistan “problem” is to have a clear-eyed view of what is really driving it.
The war in Afghanistan has consumed vast amounts of blood and treasure, causing the Western powers to seek an exit without achieving victory. Seemingly never-ending, the conflict has become synonymous with a number of issues — global jihad, rampant tribalism, and the narcotics trade — but even though they are cited as the causes of the conflict, they are in fact symptoms.
Rather than beginning after 9/11 or with the Soviet “invasion” in 1979, the current conflict in Afghanistan began with the social reforms imposed by Amanullah Amir in 1919. Western powers have failed to recognize that legitimate grievances are driving the local population to turn to insurgency in Afghanistan. The issues they are willing to fight for have deep roots, forming a hundred-year-long social conflict over questions of secularism, modernity, and centralized power.
The first step toward achieving a “solution” to the Afghanistan “problem” is to have a clear-eyed view of what is really driving it.
Price: $26.99
Pages: 416
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date:
25 May 2021
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781459746640
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
Blood Washing Blood is a good overview of the costly cycle of errors over the last 100 years ... celebrating grassroots, women-led responses to war-weariness that signal the potential for reconciliatory change.
Phil Halton has worked around the globe as a soldier and security consultant, including in Afghanistan. He is the author of the novel This Shall Be a House of Peace. He lives in Toronto.
- Chapter One – 1919
- Chapter Two – Early Reforms
- Chapter Three – Rebellion on All Sides
- Chapter Four – The Water Carrier’s Boy
- Chapter Five – The Shadow of God
- Chapter Six – The Boy King
- Chapter Seven – Pashtunistan
- Chapter Eight – The Strong Hand of the Prime Minister
- Chapter Nine – The Last Amir
- Chapter Ten – An Amir by Any Other Name
- Chapter Eleven – Bloody April
- Chapter Twelve – A Godless and Alien Regime
- Chapter Thirteen – With Neither the Soviets nor God
- Chapter Fourteen – The Students
- Chapter Fifteen – The Commander of the Faithful
- Chapter Sixteen – Guilt by Association
- Chapter Seventeen – Infinite Justice
- Chapter Eighteen – Opportunity Lost
- Chapter Nineteen – The Neo-Taliban
- Chapter Twenty – Left to Stand Alone
- Chapter Twenty-One – Fraying at the Edges
- Chapter Twenty-Two - Faint Hope for the Future
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- Source Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index