Afghanistan - How To Learn The Adversary's Terrain - And Reconsider Tactics. Political, Cultural , Religious Aspects.

Afghanistan.
The terrain, the roots, why invaders lose.

The Self-Help Way to An Informed Citizenry

Russian tank, Afghanistan campaign, at Montreal's Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps Museum

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America. Do we know as little as we seem. We are trying a self-education road to exploring this, an 8-years' war without focus. Additional forces? May help.

Approach for the public in the meanwhile: Informational.

Start with a region on your own, then move to another. Look for linguistic roots, cultural patterns. But where to start? By browsing, and see what turns up. We are only the latest in a series of powers that have tried taming and changing culture there. We found:

A. Regions (ongoing)

1. Nuristan.

Richard F. Strand. American Institute of Afghanistan Studies, July 2008. See - :www.bu.edu/aias/index.html/. The region. ethnic considerations and strategic role. See Richard F. Strand's site at ://users.sedona.net/~strand/ Find there an outline (scroll down) and click on any of a number of topics, and they all were new to us. The expertise covers so much.

We found this illustrated video lecture on one section, Nuristan, by Richard Strand, at YouTube's ://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1143391428692281347/ If you go there, find more references to further video lectures.

We had been researching a fine article of clothing, the Afghan pakul, see our Hats of the World exploration in connection with the Da Vinci hat inspiration, and found that lecture. See our beginning interest at France Road Ways, Da Vinci Hat, Hats of the World (scroll down).

We found this in part from the lecture, quoting from ourselves about the hat (do an Images search) - The pakol, or pakul, originated in Nuristan, an area of the Hindu Kush populated as early as 4200 BC by the Aryan peoples, term long predating Hitler, and then leading in a split to the Indo-Iranian, moving even into Hungary; and to Iran; then see the pre-Sanskrit languages group. Then eras of sequential displacements.

We knew the ancient character of the region, the diversity, the effects of mountainous areas on cohesion (hard), but wanted to pass on this source even before we can digest it ourselves. You will find one powerpoint display on who dropped the ball since 2003 - see there, and in subsequent boards and comment,

• US governmental dysfunction,
• need historical depth of knowledge,
• who are the real players,
• missing cues - we need to learn the language because interpretation is so difficult and exploited - the hacks (us) don't understand who is straight and who is a crook, the role of the "TERP" or the interpreter, is huge. Minimal translations, no nuance, everybody walks away not knowing even half of what went on.
• cultural misunderstanding (in Nuristan, a civilized person would not have a bathroom in the house and will only go outside, for example, is one of the anecdotes given about custom)

Countries with an aspect of control of groups within it - when does that become a "war" for cultural values, no answers here, but a continuation of the Strand video discussion, and on to other sites: Women.

• role of women - they do all the agricultural work, firewood, the word used for getting her out of the house and to her new husband's is the same word as herding cattle. This is not to elicit uncomfortable laughter, from westerners, but to show the depth of the differences in how the world is perceived.
• how to bridge gaps, see more sides of an issue, apart from a current political or oppressive interpretation.
• Start here with the burqa - at "The Evolution of the Burqa" by Iram, 2006, at ://iramz.wordpress.com/2006/10/05/the-evolution-of-the-burqa/, by Mohammad Qadeer. This is a history, not a reaction site, or anecdotal.
  
• Burqa or total body and head-face covering and its variations, The Burqa is a sign of respectability, but not used among the "rich and modern" or among working wives alongside husbands; and was introduced about 100 years ago.See definitions of the
• Chadour, or Chador (loosely wrapped head covering, face open), the
• Niqab (stand-alone head covering),
• Hijab (head covering without face veil),
• Looking now for an information plus anecdotal reaction site. We do see that there is a western fashion component emerging, see Journal of Middle East Women's Studies at ://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/ /journal_of_middle_east_womens_studies/v005/5.1.mclarney.html/. In some western countries, wearing a burqa is a symbol of oppression, see law proposed against it, Netherlands, at http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/017359.php/.

That started us going further: the lecture is the best starting point for any outsider's understanding, we think. I am listening to it again even now, in another window.