Spring Break
Obama must decide on path in Afghanistan
Abby Haglage
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: OpEd Page
The right place, at the right time. It's something to which anyone human can relate. For me it was this summer in New York City when the legendary Jimmy Fallon happened to walk by a Park Avenue café my friends had chosen at random. It's a nice feeling to be in the right place and a terrible feeling to be in the wrong one. The fact that location is so complexly intertwined with fate is invigorating when you're lucky and frightening when you're not. The wrong place, at the wrong time. Or if you're Afghanistan, the wrong place all the time. Â
It is known as the graveyard of empires. Landlocked between central Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau, it holds the weight of a world obsessed with power and a continent confounded by religion. With teeming mountains and desolate deserts its landscape is as breathtaking as it is insurmountable. Beginning in 327 B.C. with Alexander the Great, it has played host to uninvited neighbors hungry to control a nation that has barely tasted freedom. The struggle in Afghanistan, the central front in America's "War on Terrorism" can be traced all the way back to the Soviets' invasion in 1979. Vying with Great Britain for supremacy in central Asia, a struggle that would come to be known as the "Great Game," the Soviets landed in Afghanistan Dec. 27, 1979, with no intention of leaving. Turning a stable and thriving nation upside down, they opened floodgates of hostility and resentment that have not yet been closed. Angry at the loss of a proud and united country, Afghans began rebelling and molding opposition forces that could stand up to the unwelcome communist bullies. With a mission fueled by anger and power gained through Pakistani aid, the "Taliban" was born. Hoping to purify the country, the Islamic fundamentalist movement dominated by Pashtuns became a glimmer of hope in a hopeless nation. Proving a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world, the Taliban went from a small group of fervent students to roughly 12,000 Afghans supporting a reclaim of the nation in 1996.Â
It is known as the graveyard of empires. Landlocked between central Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau, it holds the weight of a world obsessed with power and a continent confounded by religion. With teeming mountains and desolate deserts its landscape is as breathtaking as it is insurmountable. Beginning in 327 B.C. with Alexander the Great, it has played host to uninvited neighbors hungry to control a nation that has barely tasted freedom. The struggle in Afghanistan, the central front in America's "War on Terrorism" can be traced all the way back to the Soviets' invasion in 1979. Vying with Great Britain for supremacy in central Asia, a struggle that would come to be known as the "Great Game," the Soviets landed in Afghanistan Dec. 27, 1979, with no intention of leaving. Turning a stable and thriving nation upside down, they opened floodgates of hostility and resentment that have not yet been closed. Angry at the loss of a proud and united country, Afghans began rebelling and molding opposition forces that could stand up to the unwelcome communist bullies. With a mission fueled by anger and power gained through Pakistani aid, the "Taliban" was born. Hoping to purify the country, the Islamic fundamentalist movement dominated by Pashtuns became a glimmer of hope in a hopeless nation. Proving a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world, the Taliban went from a small group of fervent students to roughly 12,000 Afghans supporting a reclaim of the nation in 1996.Â
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