Seth Jones - In the Graveyard of Empires - America's War in Afghanistan
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- Название:In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan
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In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация
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is a political history of Afghanistan in the “Age of Terror” from 2001 to 2009, exploring the fundamental tragedy of America’s longest war since Vietnam.
After a brief survey of the great empires in Afghanistan—the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the British in the era of Kipling, and the late Soviet Union—Seth G. Jones examines the central question of our own war: how did an insurgency develop? Following the September 11 attacks, the United States successfully overthrew the Taliban regime. It established security throughout the country—killing, capturing, or scattering most of al Qa’ida’s senior operatives—and Afghanistan finally began to emerge from more than two decades of struggle and conflict. But Jones argues that as early as 2001 planning for the Iraq War siphoned off resources and talented personnel, undermining the gains that had been made. After eight years, he says, the United States has managed to push al Qa’ida’s headquarters about one hundred miles across the border into Pakistan, the distance from New York to Philadelphia.
While observing the tense and often adversarial relationship between NATO allies in the Coalition, Jones—who has distinguished himself at RAND and was recently named by
as one of the “Best and Brightest” young policy experts—introduces us to key figures on both sides of the war. Harnessing important new research and integrating thousands of declassified government documents, Jones then analyzes the insurgency from a historical and structural point of view, showing how a rising drug trade, poor security forces, and pervasive corruption undermined the Karzai government, while Americans abandoned a successful strategy, failed to provide the necessary support, and allowed a growing sanctuary for insurgents in Pakistan to catalyze the Taliban resurgence.
Examining what has worked thus far—and what has not—this serious and important book underscores the challenges we face in stabilizing the country and explains where we went wrong and what we must do if the United States is to avoid the disastrous fate that has befallen many of the great world powers to enter the region. 12 maps and charts
From Publishers Weekly
Since 2001, RAND Corporation political scientist Jones (
) has been observing the reinvigorated insurgency in Afghanistan and weighing the potency of its threat to the country's future and American interests in the region. Jones finds the roots of the re-emergence in the expected areas: the deterioration of security after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2002, the U.S.'s focus on Iraq as its foreign policy priority and Pakistan's role as a haven for insurgents. He revisits Afghan history, specifically the invasions by the British in the mid- and late-19th century and the Russians in the late-20th to rue how little the U.S. has learned from these two previous wars. He sheds light on why Pakistan—a consistent supporter of the Taliban—continues to be a key player in the region's future. Jones makes important arguments for the inclusion of local leaders, particularly in rural regions, but his diligent panorama of the situation fails to consider whether the war in Afghanistan is already lost.
Review
“A useful and generally lively account of what can go wrong when outsiders venture onto the Afghan landscape.” (
* )
“This is a serious work that should be factored in as a new policy in Afghanistan evolves.” (
* )
“Offers a valuable window onto how officials have understood the military campaign.” (
* )
“[An] excellent book.” (
* )
“How we got to where we are in Afghanistan.” (
* )
“[Zeroes] in on what went awry after America’s successful routing of the Taliban in late 2001.” (
* )
“A blueprint for winning in a region that has historically brought mighty armies to their knees.” (
* )
“Seth Jones . . . has an anthropologist’s feel for a foreign society, a historian’s intuition for long-term trends, and a novelist’s eye for the telling details that illuminate a much larger story. If you read just one book about the Taliban, terrorism, and the United States, this is the place to start.” (
* )
“A timely and important work, without peer in terms of both its scholarship and the author’s intimate knowledge of the country, the insurgency threatening it, and the challenges in defeating it.” (
* )
“A deeply researched and well-analyzed account of the failures of American policies in Afghanistan,
will be mandatory reading for policymakers from Washington to Kabul.” (
* )
“Seth Jones has combined forceful narrative with careful analysis, illustrating the causes of this deteriorating situation, and recommending sensible, feasible steps to reverse the escalating violence.” (
* )
“Seth G. Jones’s book provides a vivid sense of just how paltry and misguided the American effort has been.…
will help to show what might still be done to build something enduring in Afghanistan and finally allow the U.S. to go home.” (
* )
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25. United Nations, A Review of the Taliban and Fellow Travelers as a Movement: Concept Paper Updating PAG Joint Assessment of June 2006 (Kabul: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, August 2007), p. 3.
26. Amrullah Saleh, Strategy of Insurgents and Terrorists in Afghanistan (Kabul: National Directorate of Security, 2006), p. 2.
27. Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection, translated by John King (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), p. 13.
28. Al Jazeera interview with Mullah Dadullah, February 2006. Also see, for example, “Taliban Spokesman Condemns Afghan Parliament as ‘Illegitimate,’” Sherberghan Aina Television, December 19, 2005.
29. “Spokesman Rejects Afghan Government’s Amnesty Offer for Taliban Leader,” Afghan Islamic Press, May 9, 2005.
30. See, for example, “Al Jazeera Airs Hikmatyar Video,” Al Jazeera TV, May 4, 2006.
31. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, May 2007, recorded DVD response to Agence France Presse questions. Also see, for example, Sardar Ahmad, “Afghan Insurgency Here for a Long Time: Rebel Leader,” Agence France Presse, May 6, 2007.
32. Parts of the video clip were released in such Pakistan newspapers as Dawn. See, for example, “US Can’t Stay for Long in Afghanistan: Hekmatyar,” Dawn (Pakistan), February 22, 2007.
33. The video clip was released in 2003. See, for example, Aileen McCabe, “Attack Seen as ‘Payback’ for Drug Raid,” National Post (Canada), January 28, 2004, p. A2. Hekmatyar’s comments were regularly anti-American. In an address to U.S. President George W. Bush, he noted: “You must have realized that attacking Afghanistan and Iraq was a historic mistake. You do not have any other option but to take out your forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and give the Iraqis and Afghans the right to live their own way.” Zarar Khan, “Afghan Warlord Splits with Taliban, Hints at Talks with Karzai Government,” Associated Press, March 8, 2007.
34. Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, pp. 77–78.
35. Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 141–43.
36. Author interview with Ambassador Said Jawad, August 24, 2007.
37. United Nations, A Review of the Taliban and Fellow Travelers as a Movement: Concept Paper Updating PAG Joint Assessment of June 2006 (Kabul: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, August 2007), p. 4.
38. Author interview with Robert Grenier, November 6, 2007
39. See, for example, Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, p. 1.
40. The term salafi jihadist initially began to occur in the literature of the Islamic Armed Group in Algeria. See, for example, Alain Grignard, “La lit-térature politique du GIA, des origines à Djamal Zitoun—Esquisse d’une analyse,” in F. Dassetto, ed., Facettes de l’Islam belge (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Academia-Bruylant, 2001).
41. Video clip of Abu Laith al-Libi, released in September 2007.
42. Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, p. 14
43. See, for example, Thomas H. Johnson, “The Taliban Insurgency and an Analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters),” Small Wars and Insurgencies, vol. 18, no. 3, September 2007, pp. 317–44.
44. “Taliban Military Chief Threatens to Kill U.S. Captives.”
45. Saleh, Strategy of Insurgents and Terrorists in Afghanistan, p. 8.
46. “Religious Scholars Call on Taliban to Abandon Violence,” Pajhwok News Agency, July 28, 2005.
47. “Taliban Claim Killing of Pro-Government Religious Scholars in Helmand,” Afghan Islamic Press, July 13, 2005.
48. The Asia Foundation, Voter Education Planning Survey: Afghanistan 2004 National Elections (Kabul: The Asia Foundation, 2004); pp. 107–8.
49. Author interview with Ambassador Ronald Neumann, September 7, 2007.
Chapter Fourteen
1. The North Atlantic Treaty, Washington, DC, April 4, 1949.
2. Eric V. Larson, “U.S. Air Force Roles Reach Beyond Securing the Skies,” RAND Review, vol. 26, no. 2, Summer 2002.
3. Author interview with NATO military official, Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 16, 2007.
4. Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 154.
5. Author interview with Daoud Yaqub, January 2, 2008.
6. UNDP, Rebuilding the Justice Sector of Afghanistan (Kabul: United Nations Development Program, January 2003), p. IA.
7. The Bonn Agreement (2001), article II, paragraph 2.
8. Author interviews with Carlos Batori, counselor and deputy head of mission, Italian Government, Kabul, June 22, 2004, and Colonel Gary Medvigy, Office of Military Cooperation—Afghanistan, June 24, 2004.
9. J. Alexander Thier, Reestablishing the Judicial System in Afghanistan (Stanford, CA: Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, September 2004), p. 13.
10. Feith, War and Decision, pp. 153–55.
11. World Bank, Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators, 1996–2006 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007).
12. Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2007 (Berlin, Germany: Transparency International, 2007).
13. World Bank, Governance Matters 2007.
14. Author interview with Daoud Yaqub, January 2, 2008.
15. Author interview with Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, October 27, 2007.
16. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1510, October 13, 2003, S/RES/1510. Resolution 1510 specifically authorized “expansion of the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force to allow it, as resources permit, to support the Afghan Transitional Authority and its successors in the maintenance of security in areas of Afghanistan outside of Kabul and its environs, so that the Afghan Authorities as well as the personnel of the United Nations and other international civilian personnel engaged, in particular, in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts, can operate in a secure environment, and to provide security assistance for the performance of other tasks in support of the Bonn Agreement.”
17. Hans-Jürgen Leersch, “Deutsche Soldaten werden im Norden Afghanistans patrouillieren,” Die Welt, October 16, 2003; Halima Kazem, “Germany Pushes to Extend Security Beyond Kabul,” Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2003, p. 7.
18. Author interview with Lieutenant General David Barno, September 4, 2007; North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO in Afghanistan: How Did This Operation Evolve? (Brussels: NATO, 2008).
19. Map courtesy of NATO.
20. Author interview with Lieutenant General David Barno, September 4, 2007.
21. Anne Barnard and Neil Swidey, “U.S. Commander’s Background Considered a Strength in War with Iraq,” Boston Globe, March 27, 2003, p. A28.
22. Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 50.
23. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1623, September 13, 2005, S/RES/1623.
24. Eric Schmitt and David S. Cloud, “U.S. May Start Pulling Out of Afghanistan Next Spring,” New York Times, September 14, 2005, p. 3; Bradley Graham, “U.S. Considering Troop Reduction in Afghanistan,” Washington Post, September 14, 2005, p. A26.
25. See, for example, Eric Schmitt, “U.S. to Cut Force in Afghanistan,” New York Times, December 20, 2005, p. A19.
26. See, for example, Christopher Layne, “America as European Hegemon,” National Interest, no. 72, Summer 2003, pp. 17–29.
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