IRAQ The Graveyard of Empires

Editorial Reviews. From the Back Cover. Why has every major empire in history invaded and IRAQ The Graveyard of Empires - Kindle edition by Julie A. Gibson. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets.
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There is a small element of Tom Clancy-like reverence for high-tech war implements. In conclusion, this book includes all the necessary background required for understanding the current dilemma in this remote but critically important corner of Southeast Asia. It is entirely self-contained i.

In other words, its well worth reading.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Seth Jones in The Graveyard of Empires hits on a fundamental truth that the British, Soviets, and Americans have either suffered military defeat or are in great difficulty. This book centers on the political decision-making process as a component of why Afghanistan has so far vexed the greatest military in the world. This is an important distinction because if you read five different books on Afghanistan, your likely to get fed five different factors that contributed to the Taliban insurgency.

The political failings are not just American or Afghan, but a failing by both sides on some level. Between fundamental failures to understand Afghanistan to a lost focus on the Afghanistan conflict to putting trust in the wrong people. All of the above failings get at least some airtime In the Graveyard of Empires. I am doubly impressed by the range of people that Jones talked to. One typically finds books that focus on military tactics, or political figures, or the individual American and Afghan sides of the conflict.

In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

It is certainly a noble thing that Jones avoided such traps. OK, this author seems to know his material and I can't find anything to seriously challenge his work. I believe it's pretty accurate. It certainly seems to be supported by the unfolding events in the Middle East. That said, it is a detailed account of history, specific events, causes, outcomes, good and bad decisions and tribal realities in that region.

It seems to be the clearest picture of why we are in the grip of events we cannot control as much as the politicians try in a volatile part of the world. If this guy is right, it really brings into focus where the politicians have placed their and the country's ego over reality. The basic story is well known: After the Taliban were toppled in , the Bush Administration and the Pentagon were eager to move on and invade Iraq.

Afghanistan became a low priority. Too few troops were deployed to stabilize the country, and too little development aid was committed to rebuild the economy. As a result, the central government never establshed its writ outside the major cities. The Taliban had time and space to regroup, and they eventually moved into the power vacuum. I knocked off one star because the book is based overwhelmingly on U. A few paragraphs even read like USG power point presentations!

Whistling Past the Graveyard (of Empires)

The sad truth is that U. Ambassador Khalizad was an exception -- but he was pulled out of Kabul to serve in Baghdad! These limitations are a fact of life in the foreign policy bureaucracy, but a book should be better than that. Any serious study of the Afghan war must include information culled from local and, particularly, Taliban sources.

Yet Afghans rarely appear in "In the Graveyard of Empires. It keeps this good book from being a great one. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. View or edit your browsing history. Get to Know Us. Following the September 11 attacks, the United States successfully overthrew the Taliban regime. But Jones argues that as early as planning for the Iraq War siphoned off resources and talented personnel, undermining the gains that had been made. 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.

Read more Read less. Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan. No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes. The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War. The Soviet War in Afghanistan.

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In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan by Seth G. Jones

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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. While about half the book recapitulates history aptly summarized elsewhere Rashid's, "Descent into Chaos" and "Taliban", Coll's, "Ghost Wars" are three recent and outstanding examples , the synopsis is necessary background to the analysis that follows. The second half of the book relies heavily on Jones' original "on-site" research and extensive interviews conducted with a variety of sources mostly Western. This section of the book objectively summarizes the facts, places them in context and clearly identifies opinion.

In short, "Graveyard" is an excellent introduction to the topic and supplies the reader with sufficient information to permit the development a genuinely informed opinion on a very complex issue. First, why exactly is Afghanistan called the "Graveyard of Empires"? Jones begins his history with Alexander, extends it through the Persians, the British, the Russians and focuses finally on the U.

His argument, in brief, is that Afghanistan is a tribal society with a "warrior" tradition. It has numerous ethnic groups with enduring and ancient rivalries. There are numerous languages. The borders were artifically drawn by Britain; the so-called, "Durand Line" and specifically created to divide various tribal groups to facilitate colonial control but create internecine friction. It lacks a history of a strong central government.

It has a history of sustaining fractious warlords. It is mountainous and surrounded by neighbors with a "interest" in the area and a penchant for meddling in Afghan affairs. It is to cite another favorite trope , the land of "The Great Game". Due to this long and disputatious history, its hardly suprising that the U. Second and maybe most importantly, what does this background portend for the U. They managed to loosely control the area by paying off various tribes, or granting them autonomy. Attempts at anything resembling centralized control, even by native Afghan governments, have largely failed.

Afghanistan is particularly hard to conquer primarily due to the intersection of three factors. First, because Afghanistan is located on the main land route between Iran, Central Asia, and India, it has been invaded many times and settled by a plethora of tribes, many mutually hostile to each other and outsiders.


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Second, because of the frequency of invasion and the prevalence of tribalism in the area, its lawlessness lead to a situation where almost every village or house was built like a fortress, or qalat. Third, the physical terrain of Afghanistan makes conquest and rule extremely difficult, exacerbating its tribal tendencies. Afghanistan is dominated by some of the highest and more jagged mountains in the world.

These include the Hindu Kush, which dominates the country and run through the center and south of the country, as well as the Pamir mountains in the east. Parts of Afghanistan were previously part of the ancient Indian kingdom of Gandhara , a region in what is now northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Afghanistan was relatively lightly populated at this time, as Alexander the Great is reported to have swept through the area with little resistance.

Following this, the Maurya Empire from India controlled most of Afghanistan, although a Greek successor kingdom arose in Balkh Bactria in northern Afghanistan.

Editorial Reviews

Buddhism and Hinduism spread throughout the region during this period. Many of the invaders assimilated into the tribal structure of the Pashtuns, adapting their language. Various tribes founded empires within the Afghanistan region before breaking up into mini-statelets. By this time, the region already acquired a difficult reputation. When the Arabs arrived in the region at the dawn of the 8th century, it was a patchwork of small but tough principalities.

Attempts to conquer the Zunbils of Kandahar failed spectacularly, the first major setback faced by the Arabs after their great conquests began.


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An expedition of 20, men sent against the Zunbils returned with 5, people.