Some Thoughts on the History of Afghanistan

If you read accounts of the Soviet invasion and how they controlled their territory the parallels to current NATO actions are glaring. The ring of relatively flat country surrounding the center of Afghanistan was in Soviet control. Troops held all of the major cities: Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. They built forward operating bases (FOBs) and combat outposts (COPs) much like we have now. A major difference is that the Soviet's used mines extensively while the US and NATO refrains from their use. Additionally, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were not being utilized at that time. The standard ambush was more likely back then though concentrated Soviet firepower and Air Support usually made those skirmishes short. Stinger shoulder-fired missiles funneled to the Mujahedeen by the US eventually made Soviet air superiority (helicopters) obsolete and leveled the playing field enough for the Soviets give up on their effort and pull out of the country for good in 1988.
The British have a history in Afghanistan as well. The British invaded Afghanistan in 1839 from India. The rationale for the invasion was in large part to prevent Russia from expanding south towards India. The initial occupation by the "Grand Army of the Indus" was relatively easy and the British resorted to their methods of government that had worked for them in India. However, after two years the Afghanis revolted and in a retreat from Kabul into north India, an estimated 4,500 British soldiers and 12,000 Indian camp followers and their families perished due to a combination of harsh elements (it was the height of winter) and Afghan ambushes. Only one British survivor made it out of Afghanistan, his name was Dr. William Brydon (see picture). Of course the British did not sit idly by after the disaster. They retook Kabul before the end of 1842 and had a hand in governance until 1919. With the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi on August 19, 1919 Afghanistan became an independent country. That date is considered the birthday of modern Afghanistan.
The modern geographic borders of Afghanistan were formalized in 1964 when China and Afghanistan agreed to officially demarcate their shared border. Decades earlier, in 1893 British officials set the borders of the country is a somewhat arbitrary fashion with the main goal apparently being to prevent Russia from having any direct borders with India. There is widespread consensus that the geographic borders of Afghanistan are a significant contributing factor to the current Taliban insurgency. The Pashtun ethnic group spans the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Therefore any issues affecting Pashtun Afghanis is shared by Pashtuns on the other side of the border. It is no secret that the northern region of Pakistan is a major recruiting ground for the Taliban. In fact the area straddling the southern border of Afghanistan is informally known as Pashtunistan and is the focus of much Department of Defense and State Department attention. In reality tribal loyalties have always superseded a national identity and can be seen as the source of the repeated failures of central government in Afghanistan. How NATO forces address that problem will likely be the key aspect to establishing peace in the country. With more than 2000 years of history to draw from, prospects look poor for a successful democratic Afghanistan with its current borders. As has happened in several countries in the last 20 years (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Ethiopia), a division of Afghanistan along ethnic/grounds may be the only viable solution to end the violence.