This was an essay that I did against the deployment of more troops in Afghanistan which philosophically examines terrorism. I don't know that anyone will care to respond to this, but thought that I should post it as there isn't much of a reason for only my English 101 class to have seen this. I left in the citations this time because I feel like they really add something to the essay.

Terrorism feeds off of pathological fear. In the West, the term generally denotes some form of insurgency, but, what “terrorism” refers to is the political tactic of manipulation through violence. A formal public execution is as much of a terrorist attack as a bus bombing. The purpose of public murder is to galvanize a populace and to isolate those who would identify with the executed. Witnessing a public murder instills a cult pathology. A person feels forced to decide between the killers and the killed. The terms are decided by the killers. Who is on what side and what the sides are is writ in formal declarations, in the case of revolution, and, recorded on videocassette, in the case of contemporary insurgencies. That the rule of the day is created by violence and maintained through it is precisely the reasoning which engenders the cult pathology of terror in the form of insurgency. Terrorism cannot be halted by war any more than a fire can be put out with gasoline. The shock and awe tactics of the Bush administration may have factionalized insurgents in the region and led to the trial of Saddam Hussein, but, did nothing to win over the hearts and minds of the general populace there.

Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in south-central Asia that borders Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. The Hindu Kush mountain range divides the country into three distinct geographic regions, the central highlands, the northern plains, and, the southwest plateau (Ali et al.). Afghanistan is estimated to be populated primarily by ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Ḥazāras, Uzbeks, Chahar Aimaks, Turkmen, and, Balochs. As the country has been engaged in various conflicts since, no national census has been conducted since a partial count in 1979 (Ali et al.). Pashto and Persian, often called “Farsi”, are the official languages of the country (Yarshater). More than forty percent of the country is estimated to speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, and, over half of the country is estimated to speak some dialect of Persian, the most common of which is generally termed “Dari”. Nearly all of Afghanistan is Muslim. Around eighty percent of the population is estimated to follow Sunni Islam and up to nineteen percent of the population is estimated to follow Shiʿah Islam (Ali et al.).

Following a 2006 geological survey which was analyzed by a Pentagon task force, Afghanistan was said to have untapped mineral resources that could be worth a trillion dollars in 2010 (Risen). As the exploitation of minerals, such as lithium, is likely to produce conflict in regions that are unstable, mining is not a reasonable solution to the political crisis in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has cultivated more opium than any other nation since 2001, and, had cultivated more opium than any other nation between the years of 1992 and 2000. Opium production decreased almost entirely during the first year of the American invasion of Afghanistan, but, has increased since. Afghanistan has been responsible for upwards of around eighty-five percent of the global production of opium in the past ten years (“The World Drug Report 2010” 43; “Afghanistan Opium Survey 2018” 6; “World Drug Report 2018” 29). Opium production plays a significant role in the economy of Afghanistan. The gross value of the Afghan opiate economy was equal to sixteen percent of the gross domestic product in 2016 (“Sustainable Development in an Opium Production Environment” 11). As opium can be utilized during a period of hyper-exploitation, the extraction of resources from Afghanistan will do little to diminish the plights associated with the trafficking of illegal narcotics. Marginal deterrence to drug traffickers is not a solution to the circumstances which produce them.

Nādir Shāh, the Shah of Iran, which is occasionally referred to as “Persia”, was assassinated by his own troops in 1747 (Yarshater). Ahmad Shāh Durrānī, the founder of the Durrānī Empire, nearly witnessed the assassination, and, was said to have found the shah in his tent with his head cut off after rushing there to save him. The Durrānī Empire spanned across what later became known as Afghanistan and into Pakistan and parts of Iran at its greatest extent (Siddiqi 310). In 1809, Shāh Shojāʿ, of the Durrānī Dynasty, attempted to ally the Durrānī Empire with the British Empire against a suspected Franco-Russian invasion of India. He was overthrown by his older brother, Shāh Maḥmūd, the following year and went into exile in British India. He made numerous attempts at regaining the throne, and, successfully did so during the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839. He was assassinated a few years later (“Shāh Shojāʿ: King of Afghanistan”). Dōst Moḥammad Khan, a rival of Shāh Shojāʿ, ascended the throne of Afghanistan in 1826 after an eight year-long civil war. He established the Bārakzay Dynasty, who ruled over Afghanistan from 1826 to 1839, when the British reestablished Shāh Shojāʿ, and, later, up until 1929, when Muhammed Nadir Shah abdicated in favor of his son, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who became King of Afghanistan following a series of abdications and assassinations that same year (“Timeline of Afghanistan, 1901-1947”; “List of Heads of State of Afghanistan: Kingdom of Afghanistan, 1926-1973”).

For the West, the Anglo-Afghan Wars kicked off what later became known as “The Great Game”. Rudyard Kipling coined the term in his 1901 novel, Kim. The term was applied to the British strategy of waging proxy wars and clandestine operations against Russia, but, was also used to describe the adventurist avidity for espionage amongst British spies (“Great Game”). The First Anglo-Afghan War was waged alongside the First Opium War, and, the Second Anglo-Afghan War occurred during the end of the reign of Alexander II in Russia. The perchance for shadow politics within the Intelligence community is as disconcerting as it is indicative of carelessness. A world kept in the dark can know no peace of mind. In Kim, Kipling wrote, “When everyone is dead, the Great Game is finished. Not before.”

Mohammad Zahir Shah was crowned at the age of 19 on the 8th of November in 1933. He ruled over Afghanistan up until 1973. He was the last King of Afghanistan and his reign was marked by a lengthy period of peace and stability (“Mohammad Zahir Shah: The Last King of Afghanistan”). For the first twenty years of his reign, he was said not to have exercised influence over the governance of Afghanistan, and, decisions were claimed to have been made by his uncles. Muhammad Hashim served as prime minister of Afghanistan up until 1946 when he was replaced by Shah Mahmud. In 1934, Afghanistan joined the League of Nations. By 1935, Afghanistan had invited German businessmen to set up factories and hydroelectric plants in the country. The Afghan government would also receive aid from Japan and Italy during that period of time. The king declared neutrality in 1940, and, agreed to expel nondiplomatic personnel from the Axis nations in 1941, following the British and Soviet invasion of Iran. When Shah Mahmud became prime minister in 1946, the country developed closer ties to the United States and Pakistan (“Mohammad Zahir Shah, 1933-73: Zahir Shah and His Uncles, 1933-53”). In 1964, Mohammed Zahir Shah established a constitutional monarchy which prohibited royal relatives from holding office (“Mohammad Zahir Shah: King of Afghanistan”). The constitution detailed the sovereign rights of the king, guaranteed the rights of free expression, peaceful assembly, and, association, and, established Wolsei Jirgah, the House of the People, and Meshrano Jirgah, the House of the Elders (“Constitutional History of Afghanistan”; Shah). In 1973 Mohammad Daud Khan, the king’s cousin and brother-in-law, led a bloodless coup d’état which forced Mohammad Zahir Shah to abdicate. He proclaimed for Afghanistan to be a republic and became president that same year. Daud Khan sought to lessen the country’s dependence upon the Soviet Union and was killed at the presidential palace, along with most of the royal family, during the Saur Revolution in 1978 (“Afghanistan: 20 Years of Bloodshed”; Neale). The Saur Revolution, sometimes called the “April Revolution” or the “April Coup”, established Nur Mohammad Taraki as president and served as a precursor to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Taraki was assassinated under the orders of Hafizullah Amin who was in turn assassinated when pro-Moscow leader Babrak Karmal came to power in December of 1979 (“The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan”).

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in a nine year-long war which has been estimated to have resulted in over a million civilian casualties (Gossman). Leading up to and during the conflict, the Central Intelligence Agency, aided by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and the Saudi state, backed the mujahideen (Pear; Galster; “Afghanistan: The War in Perspective” 4). The mujahideen were a loosely affiliated set of Islamic militants who, along with Maoist guerillas, were waging a guerilla war against the Soviets and their allies during the conflict. They were estimated to have lost ninety-thousand fighters during the conflict (Taylor). Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and, Osama bin Laden’s Maktab al-Khidamat was a faction of mujahideen guerillas (“Terrorist Financing” 3; “Ayman al-Zawahiri: Fast Facts”). The strategy of arming, training, and, funding rebel insurgents in proxy wars against Russia by the United States proceeding from the Reagan Doctrine has proven to be just as disastrous as it was during the Soviet War in Afghanistan as it has been in the recent conflict in Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was born out of the loosely affiliated set of insurgents associated with the Free Syrian Army whom the United States also backed (O’Connor). The Taliban had taken over most of the country by 1996 when they established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after conquering Kabul and remained in control over most of the country up until 2001 (“Mohammad Omar”). The Taliban’s refusal to extradite the Saudi Arabian leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, following the attacks on the 11th of September provided the grounds for the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The Taliban are an ultraconservative political and religious movement that began in the southern Afghan province of Kandahār in 1994. Taliban war efforts are largely funded through the opium trade (“Taliban”). Al-Qaeda is multinational Islamist organization that was founded by Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s. It began as a logistical network designed to support Muslims fighting against the Soviet Union during the Soviet War in Afghanistan (“Al-Qaeda”). When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden shifted his focus towards the West, and, claimed responsibility for a few of terrorist attacks in the 1990s.

The War in Afghanistan began on the 7th of October in 2001 and continues to this day. The seventeen year-long war is now the longest war in United States history. A war that continues indefinitely is an occupation and not a war. The continued occupation of Afghanistan will incite revolt as all occupations incite revolt. An occupation cannot be peacefully maintained any more than a nightmare of bureaucracy can be met without complaint. Mohammed Omar, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mullah Obaidullah, Mullah Dadullah, and, Osama bin Laden have all died since the conflict began. Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in February of 2010 and released in October of 2018. Muhammad Rasul started a splinter faction of the Taliban in 2015 in response to the ascension of Akhtar Mansour, and, while voicing support for the Islamic State and al-Qaeda abroad, has stated that they are not welcome to operate in Afghanistan (“Afghan Taliban Splinter Group's New Chief Backs Islamic State ‘Brothers’ But Only Abroad”). Rasul has demanded that the occupation end as a precursor to peace talks (Raghavan). Hibatullah Akhundzada became the leader of the Taliban in 2016 after Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike. Najibullah, or Omar Khitab, left the Taliban leadership in 2012 and formed Fidai Mahaz, also known as The Sacrifice Front. Former Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, signed a peace deal with the Afghan government in 2016 (Nordland). Ayman al-Zawahiri was suspected to have fled to Pakistan and is still at large (Smerconish). As the old Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership is concerned, with Najibullah and Zawahiri being the sole leaders who are still at large, the deployment of more troops in a ground invasion runs the risk of spawning a personality cult centered around Najibullah and strengthening the resolve of followers of Zawahiri. The deployment of more troops will also be seen as indicative of a continuation of a never-ending strategy of war and will demoralize Afghans who are committed to the peace process. It also hazards exacerbating political tensions and invigorating new Islamic terrorist groups, such as the the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province or the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. A heavy-handed approach to the political situation in Afghanistan is likely to result in more, and not less, terrorist attacks globally.

Terror is born in response to real or perceived totalitarian control. Terrorist attacks are always carried out in desperation. In ways, terrorism is a form of social suicide. An act bans a person from society. People who discover the world outside of society are often considered to be sacred. Terrorism offers a person a Faustian bargain. Acts of violence violate society. A person gains sacred knowledge through infamy. A terrorist cannot enter their kingdom of Heaven on Earth without repaying society for their misdeeds. Terrorist attacks are often too grave for a person to make up for them in their lifetime. All that a person learns is what it is like to have been banned from society. In ways, all terrorist attacks are the acts of lone assailants. The circumstances of a person’s life either are or seem too desperate for them to be bothered by the social ban. A person must believe in a promise of eternal glory. In ways, all terrorists are self-loathing narcissists. But, who doesn’t think that they’re Prince Hamlet?

The psychological makeup of a terrorist is that of any desperate person plagued by pathological fear. Only when all people can live without the fear of pain or death will there be an end to terror. The delusional paranoid pathology that produces terrorism is unfortunately, as it is such a mammoth undertaking, that of war itself. A terrorist inverts the deportment of those whom they either are or believe themselves to be at war with. The reaction to pathology is the not the cause of it. The Taliban did not appear ex nihilo; they were driven to incongruous fanaticism by the many invasions, interventions, and, clandestine actions waged in their country by the former Soviet Union, their rivals in the West, and, their allies in the Middle East.

The deployment of more troops in Afghanistan is a gamble that the United States should not be willing to make. A lack of commitment to the peace process in Afghanistan and a lack of exit strategy may revitalize an already factionalized Taliban and effectuate an increase of terrorist attacks. I am also just simply against war in general as I believe that it begets war. The assumption that there are always others out there who are ready to kill you leads to a negative preemptive paradigm that is always already in danger of proving itself to be true. War is solipsistic. A willingness to kill projected enemies may produce them in the real world. Afghanistan is in dire need of practical solutions to the political, social, and, economic situation there and not the old imperial haunts of self-fulfilling prophecy. The same could be said for the United States, though the situation here is much less severe.

The Costs of War Project at Brown University listed the total number of casualties for the War in Afghanistan at 147,124 (Crawford 1). Nearly a third of the deaths that have occurred during the War on Terror have occurred in Afghanistan. The Costs of War Project lists the total number of casualties in the Wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and, Iraq as between 480,000 and 507,000. The World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School lists the total number of casualties for the Soviet War in Afghanistan at between 800,000 and 1,500,000 (“Afghanistan: Soviet Invasion and Civil War”). At least a million people have died in Afghanistan since 1979. A country ravaged by war will never concede to war. A commitment to a peace process and an exit strategy is what is best for the United States and Afghanistan.

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The BBC Obituary of Mohammad Zahir Shah, “Obituary: Ex-king Zahir Shah”, states that “Foreign advisers helped the king modernize his nation and, in 1964, his new constitution transformed the country into one with free elections, civil rights, female emancipation and universal suffrage.”, however, The, 1964, Constitution of Afghanistan establishes a constitutional monarchy and makes no mention of women’s rights. There may have been an attempt to use the constitution to institute Liberal democratic reforms, and, the King may have become more Liberal later in life, but, in no ways does the 1964 constitution create a modern Liberal democratic state. The constitution does guarantee the rights of free expression, peaceful assembly, and, association, and, established a House of Elders and a House of the People. It also details the sovereign rights of the King who, while being subject to the limits proscribed in the constitution, is stated not be held accountable for his actions or the actions of the country in Article 15. The King, while no longer holding absolute power, was still established as a monarch. My assumptions are that any number of parties may have intentionally attempted to make the King out to be more of a Liberal democratic reformer than he actually was in order to prop up a constitutional monarchy under the guise of Liberalism. I do believe that the King did become more Liberal later in life as he was opposed to the reinstatement of the monarchy when he returned to Afghanistan. I sincerely doubt that The, 1964, Constitution of Afghanistan at all established a Liberal democratic state.
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My estimates come from graphs in three United Nations pamphlets. Wikipedia lists Afghanistan as being responsible for ninety percent of the global production of opium which I think is an overestimate. I also suspect for the UN figures to be a bit high as the pamphlets deal with counter-narcotics. I remember hearing that Afghanistan was responsible for around seventy percent of the global heroin trade in Land of the Enlightened. I suspect for opium production in Afghanistan to be slightly higher than seventy percent of the global production of opium. I used the figures that I gathered from the UN because they were the only factual information that I had to go on.
Yarshater, Ehsan. “Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi .” Iranian Studies, Vol. XXII, No.1, 1989,
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article5.htm.
The Encyclopedia Britannica states that the official languages of Afghanistan are Pashto and Persian. My assumption is that the Republic of Afghanistan established an official language as “Persian”. To my understanding, Persian and Farsi can be used interchangeably and it is generally considered to be rude to use the term “Persian”. Most of Afghanistan speaks a dialect of Farsi which is generally termed “Dari”. Persia and Iran can also be used interchangeably, but, the two places have slightly different histories. To my understanding, people in the region see “Persia” as a term that was invented by the West to refer to a place in the Orient. It is generally considered to be rude to refer to Iran as Persia or Farsi as Persian. I would suggest that it is only useful to use the term “Persia” while doing historiography.