isthvan said:
While Afghans are one of the most tribally conscious people on the planet during Soviet invasion all tribes were fighting together against soviets… Since Afghanistan has so much tribal and ethnic groups, plus foreign volunteers I would believe that Soviets could use such tactics (since CCCP also had soldiers form different ethnic groups plus local supporters)…Besides that isn’t my imagination but soviet report…
Please tell me how you would recognize group of armed people dressed in local clothes that are passing near your village as Soviets and not joust another mujahadin group?
:roll:
ok lets run through this
1. The soviets discovered that many of those 'ethnic groups' had sympathies
with the Mujahideen and in fact some of them learnt some lessons from the
experience which they took back to Central Asia and the Caucasus.
2. In Afghanistan the majority population 70% are Pashtuns. Pashtuns are
the worlds largest patriararchal clan
The Pashtuns are the world's largest segmentary lineage (patriarchal) tribal group in existence.[10]
Which means that Pashtuns despite being divided into sub-tribes know
precisely who is related to who and how. Indeed they memorise lineages
and the reasons why any particular sub-tribe arose.
Thus anybody pretending to be a Pashtun would rapidly be discovered.
3. Afghan villages are not just villages they are virtually forts and lookout
is maintained by sentries to detect intruders.
and with good reason
But there was a far greater tragedy to confront the men when they reached Hajibirgit. In their absence – without guns to defend the homes, and with the village elder dead and many of the menfolk prisoners of the Americans – thieves had descended on Hajibirgit. A group of men from Helmand province, whose leader is Abdul Rahman Khan – once a brutal and rapacious "mujahid" fighter against the Russians, and now a Karzai government police commander – raided the village once the Americans had taken away so many of the men. Ninety-five of the 105 families had fled into the hills, leaving their mud homes to be pillaged.
4. It's strange that one invader after another has assumed that Afghans are
some yokel tribespeople who they can impress with beads...Afghans have
been exploring the neighbouring countries for generations and maintain
a oral historical tradition going back thousands of years...which means
they never ever forgive or forget a wrong
They are a bit like the Haruchai described in Steven Donaldson's books.
