Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban

by Stephen Tanner

Book Overview

For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads for armies and has witnessed history-shaping clashes between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American. When U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in the weeks following September 11, 2001, they overthrew the Afghan Taliban regime and sent the terrorists it harbored on the run. But America's initial...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306818264
• ISBN13: 9780306818264
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Graveyard of Armies

Seems history in Afghanistan tends to repeat itself from time to time. First Alexander the Great tried to subdue the proud Iranian and Scythian warriors in a bloody and inconclusive campaign and had to settle for a compromise solution before getting out of the place to start his conquest of India, after many centuries of bloody wars and conquest by the most fearsome eastern empires including the Persians, the Mongols, the Mughals, the Turks and the Sihks then came the British Empire who lost an army and later after a bloody war had to settle for less than victory in a compromise solution before abandoning the land, then came the Soviets with overwhelming force fighting hard without regards for human rights and depopulating the country to deny a base of operations to the Mujahadeen warriors, they also had to leave without obtaining a complete victory and now the American and Nato armies are inbroiled in the same kind of hit and run warfare and without obtaining a conclusive victory. Seems the great powers are always able to take the country, the major cities and the valleys but they can never subdue the mountain tribes. The Pashtuns are the hardiest of these tribes and are located not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, these fierce warriors have embrased the Taliban cause and seems they will endure and when the last NATO soldier leaves they will rise again to take the country, they have time on their side, while the Western powers are always pressed for a fast and easy victory and are quick to retire when negative public opinion starts to hurt the present regimes the Pashtuns will endure. After reading this very interesting history I don't see a clear victory for the west in Afghanistan, there will not be a winning of hearts and minds, for the West to obtain a victory there will be very unlikely as the US and NATO will have to resort to practices that are abhorrent in their societies such as genocide (as the Soviets did) and erradication of Pashtun tribal ways and customs that goes against the inclusion and diversity practices defended by the West. The situaction is almost a catch 22 you need to rebuilt the country in order to provide jobs and order but in order to do that you first have to erradicate violence which entails a victory against the Taliban. Is depressing to see that Western good intentions will come to nothing and someday a new generation of even more intollerant and violent breed of Pashtun Talibans will again hold Afghanistan in its clutches. Some lands were born to suffer.

Afghanistan

I found this book very easy to read and digest. It covers a lot of history, but does not dwell too long on any one area. I will say that it probably helped a lot that I could produce a mental image of the region and have been to the country before, but even if that wasn't the case it still is a good book to help increase your knowledge of the region.

Detailed and Highly Readable Analysis

This is an excellent work and is a must read for any serious student of Military Studies. Although some would point to his errors of spelling certain place names, this point was covered in the "Preface" to his work as the Author acknowledged the differences in opinion on correct spelling. This book is highly readable history, comprehensive in its coverage and fair-minded in the way it is conveyed. As a side bar, be sure to have a very good geographical map or maps of the area of Central Asia before you begin. A must read Dr. Terry Tucker Combined Security Transition Command-Afganistan

Essential to understanding the heritage and culture

Here's another title essential to understanding the heritage and cultures of the Middle East: a military history of Afghanistan from Alexander the Great to the Taliban. Afghanistan traces the entire history of military conflicts in a country currently the focus of a major American military involvement as part of our "War on Terrorism". From its numerous invasions to the resistance of the Afghani people, this makes for an important, revealing guide.

Informative and entertaining military history

How did Alexander the Great feel when he viewed Afghan warriors following his every move through the open fields and tight crevasses of Afghanistan? Probably much the same as British Major General William Elphinstone felt centuries later as he led an ill-fated expedition out of Afghanistan, during which all of his 15,000-strong caravan of soldiers died at the hands of Afghans...except for the one man left alive to tell the story. Across time, Afghanistan has dealt similar harsh lessons to all intruders.With Afghanistan shoved into the limelight after 9/11, many have been left wondering what kind of people inhabit such a harsh land. When the U.S. military ran out of targets after only a few days of bombing, I know I was asking myself exactly what kind of war we were fighting. Where did the bunkers that Bin Laden hid in come from, and did they have a deeper historical origin? Why did such a wanted man choose that country at all?If you were wondering similar things, Tanner does an excellent job explaining these and numerous other issues surrounding the military history of Afghanistan. My initial interest was sparked by his previous book about Switzerland (Refuge from the Reich), which supplied fascinating WWII information about a country I've studied at length. The Swiss and the Afghans are actually more similar than many might at first think, as Tanner is sure to point out. With two mountainous regions and two heavily armed populations of varying ethnic groups, their shared struggles and lessons to the world are equally valuable. It is here that Tanner excels--in bridging civilizations and epochs to create understandable history.Viewed militarily, Afghanistan becomes a shadowy region more often acted-upon than instigating. The warrior Afghans pledge tribe loyalty before all else, helping to explain why it has remained so splintered politically throughout so many centuries. What Tanner does is explain how the invading armies of history first destroy any existing Afghan infrastructure (for often short-sighted military goals), and then immediately suffer at the hands of those they have attempted to subjugate. What emerges is a culture bent on freedom to live unconstrained, even at the hands of an organized government or ideology.With sections on everyone from Alexander to Ghengis Khan to Queen Victoria to President Bush, Tanner covers the historical spectrum. The generations of military strategists that attacked Afghanistan would find a wealth of common sense lessons from Tanner's book.Tanner finishes his military history with a look at the American campaign until June of 2002. His conclusions about the accomplishments of the U.S. so far, to both help and hurt our own cause, are worth examination. In particular, his suggestions for a possible political solution, only too briefly explored, hint at an historical precedent to be found in the lessons of the Swiss. Tanner's insights are backed by thousands of years of dangerously cyclical history in dire n