Afghanistan A Military History From Alexander The Great To The War Against The Taliban

For over 2.500 Years, The forbidding Territory of Afghanistan has Served as a vital crossroads for armies and has Witnessed history-shaping clashes Between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American . When U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Entered followings the Week September 11, 2001, They overthrew the Taliban regime Afghan tea and feel it harbored The Terrorists on the run. Goal America's original Easy Victory Is In sharp contrast to The Difficult it faces today in Confronting the Taliban resurgence.

Originally published in 2002, Stephen Tanner's Afghanistan now has Been Completely updated to include The crucial turn of events sincere Entered The Country America first.

Posted In: Afganistan

Wilfredo Dinos says...

I highly recommend this book to the general reader--it's written in very readable and enjoyable prose, and covers a lot of territory without bogging down in too much detail.For me, the most enjoyable parts were reading the early chapter on Alexander the Great's foray into what is now called Afghanistan, as well as the British disasters in the 19th century.The book's only weak point is at the very end--it was published in 2002 and doesn't--in my view--cover in sufficient detail the events of post-9/11 Afghanistan while bringing in extraneous information about events in "the war on terror" elsewhere around the globe.

Posted on June 11, 2011

Kemberly Abo says...

Seems history in Afghanistan tends to repeat itself from time to time.First Alexander the Great tried to subdue the proud Iranian and Scythian warriors in a bloody and inconclusive campaign and had to settle for a compromise solution before getting out of the place to start his conquest of India, after many centuries of bloody wars and conquest by the most fearsome eastern empires including the Persians, the Mongols, the Mughals, the Turks and the Sihks then came the British Empire who lost an army and later after a bloody war had to settle for less than victory in a compromise solution before abandoning the land, then came the Soviets with overwhelming force fighting hard without regards for human rights and depopulating the country to deny a base of operations to the Mujahadeen warriors, they also had to leave without obtaining a complete victory and now the American and Nato armies are inbroiled in the same kind of hit and run warfare and without obtaining a conclusive victory.Seems the great powers are always able to take the country, the major cities and the valleys but they can never subdue the mountain tribes.The Pashtuns are the hardiest of these tribes and are located not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, these fierce warriors have embrased the Taliban cause and seems they will endure and when the last NATO soldier leaves they will rise again to take the country, they have time on their side, while the Western powers are always pressed for a fast and easy victory and are quick to retire when negative public opinion starts to hurt the present regimes the Pashtuns will endure.



After reading this very interesting history I don't see a clear victory for the west in Afghanistan, there will not be a winning of hearts and minds, for the West to obtain a victory there will be very unlikely as the US and NATO will have to resort to practices that are abhorrent in their societies such as genocide (as the Soviets did) and erradication of Pashtun tribal ways and customs that goes against the inclusion and diversity practices defended by the West.The situaction is almost a catch 22 you need to rebuilt the country in order to provide jobs and order but in order to do that you first have to erradicate violence which entails a victory against the Taliban.Is depressing to see that Western good intentions will come to nothing and someday a new generation of even more intollerant and violent breed of Pashtun Talibans will again hold Afghanistan in its clutches.Some lands were born to suffer.

Posted on June 13, 2011

Pamila Bicknell says...

This is an excellent book if you are just looking into the mindset of the region, and a basic history of Afghanistan. However, as another reviewer states, it does begin to fall flat on the more modern history. Again, Stephen Tanner acts as though the Taliban are gone forever toward the end of the book. He also makes a lot of assumptions, guesses, and does show that he lacks an understanding of our military and their strategies. For example, the suggestion that we were using Afghans as "cannon fodder" because we didn't give them combat boots, body armor, helmets and M-4s or M-16s. For a better understanding of why the Afghans wouldn't have accepted (or used) any of those things, I suggest reading Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. The short answers on both of those are "stealth" and "reliability". (The author actually refers to the AK-47 as RICKETY. Yikes.)



Becuase of this, for me, it does throw into doubt the rest of the book. If he could get so many basics wrong (again, the AK-47 - rickety? Really?) did he get any of the ancient history stuff right? Well, he doesn't cite any sources, so if you're looking for historical accuracy, you should pass on this. But I recommend this book if you want a somewhat slanted, entertaining, breadth-first basic approach to the military history of Afghanistan. It is rather easy to read.



If you want to really know what's going on in Afghanistan though, right now, there are better books out there. I highly recommend Luttrell's book above for a on-the-ground look at the Operation Enduring Freedom.



Overall I give this entertaining look at Afghanistan 3 rickety AK-47s out of 5.

Posted on June 14, 2011

Michelle Rolin says...

This book was very well researched and written. Even if you have very little knowledge of Afghanistan, you can understand and easily read this book. It is full of interesting history, along with it's excellent explanation of the military information that is the center if it's purpose.

Not being a military history buff, I was pleased to see that some of this country's history, it's native peoples, and some their customs were also covered.

It is good reading.

You must be interested in Afghanistan and it's history to read this book, and if you are this book is a winner for you.

The only drawback is that you can get lost in all of the names, battles and locations happening at once, especially during the Alexander period. If you have the patience to reread some passages over again, you'll be fine.

Lots of good information.

Posted on June 14, 2011

Chau Plumbar says...

This is an excellent work and is a must read for any serious student of Military Studies. Although some would point to his errors of spelling certain place names, this point was covered in the "Preface" to his work as the Author acknowledged the differences in opinion on correct spelling.

This book is highly readable history, comprehensive in its coverage and fair-minded in the way it is conveyed.



As a side bar, be sure to have a very good geographical map or maps of the area of Central Asia before you begin.



A must read



Dr. Terry Tucker

Combined Security Transition Command-Afganistan

Posted on June 14, 2011

Quintin Mchalffey says...

Stephen Tanner's book "Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban," is a brilliant and exciting piece of work that will serve Western readers well.

Tanner's work covers the regional peoples and ancient tribes who have made indelible contributions to modern Afghan society to the first years of U.S. intervention in the "War on Terror."

The early chapters of the book are an interesting brief on Afghan history condensed. Featuring an exhaustive list of regions, tribes, villains and personalities that would otherwise require too much additional background to cover in-depth, Tanner fittingly navigates early history to focus on primary events in Afghan history and the overall Afghan experience, if there ever was such a thing.

Tanner's modern-day material draws on British, or at least mostly Occidental sources, and covers the British and Russian experience in Afghanistan noticeably more in-depth. The connections Tanner makes between Afghanistan and Switzerland are brilliant and set the stage for his conclusion.

Given the subsequent events since the book's publication, it would not be difficult to fill in any holes with supplemental material from various sources, if not Tanner's newer material, regarding the American-Afghan experience since. Obviously the accuracy of Tanner's analysis will remain to be seen within the context and perhaps only at the conclusion of the "War on Terror."

Afghanistan itself, exists as a profound storehouse and contributor to world culture. The future of the world's destiny is no less shaped by this region once bisecting East and West; now bisecting past and present, than it has been throughout time.

Overall, "Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban" is an exceptional look at a subject too many Americans can claim ignorance, if only by virtue of geography.

Perhaps best of all, it is written with hope, rather than writing off the long suffering Afghan people, be it through Imperialism, radical Islam or perhaps most unfortunately, benign neglect.

REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, READER OPINIONS ARE WELL SERVED BY THE PHENOMENON OF THE INTERNET!

Posted on June 16, 2011

Bianca Cochran says...

Tanner has written a exceedingly mistake-ridden book, his analysis is almost always bogged down in ever repeated stereotypes about Afghans and their history, and, to top it off, it (his analysis) almost always has little of substance. For the most part, he pays no in depth attention to new work in some of the fields he is traversing. And a list of his factual mistakes and inaccurate or outdated assumptions would be too long to write. But a few prominent mistakes and lacunae should be noted. On pg 8 he notes that in our time the term Afghan applies to all the ethnic groups of Afghanistan, such as Pashtuns and the various Turkic ethnic groups. He says that Tajiks are a Turkic group, a very basic error. Tajiks are technically grouped with the Pashtuns as a Indo-Iranian (in the sense used in linguistics and such) ethnic-linguistic group, and this is what makes them unique in the Turkic dominated Transoxiana, for they are remnants of Central Asia's former Indo-Iranian past, and the remnants of Persian culture. On pg 75 he states "In 632 the Prophet Mohammed (sic) ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, leaving behind a fanatical army of horseman to spread his message.", but there are two problems with this, namely, one, that Muslim belief states that Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem in the early part of the middle of his career, while he was still at Mecca, not after he died. Secondly, Muhammad did not leave a fanatical army at his death. The Islamic Arab army had to be created by the first four Caliphs, and they did not intend to spread Islam. The early Islamic conquests had little to do with Islam and a lot to do with conquest. They simply were not interested in converts, their attitude was quite tolerant towards other monotheistic faiths (churches serving as mosques on Friday's), there is no archeological evidence of great destruction of cities, and archeological evidence for the widespread growing of wine and the eating of pork long after the conquests were complete are enough to refute the notion that Islam spread quickly, and that it was spread by the sword. And anyway, Islam was an extremely porous entity in those early days, with no real consensus on ritual or theology. Also, "fireenga" literally means "without color", not foreigner. Mohammad Zia Ul Haq was a Punjabi, not a Pashtun. The Taliban is still alive and well. And Pashtunistan (or as they say in Pakistan, Puktunkhaw) is a issue that has lost its momentum, and few Pashtuns on the Pakistani side (or for that matter, the Afghan side) of the border would support a independent state for Pashtuns. Mistakes like these, and ignorance of contemporary scholarship isnormal for this book. This work is best suited for someone with no knowledge of Afghanistan, and someone who is willing to search for better sources later.

Posted on June 16, 2011

Tiffany Sindlinger says...

This book is an excellent introduction to the "big" history of modern-day Afghanistan, providing an overview of empire building and collapsing (either Afghans pushing outward or others pushing inwards), succeeding waves of tribes and armies moving through the region, etc.For anyone interested in having an understanding of Afghanistan with some historical depth to it, this book is one I would, consequently, recommend.



Where the author falls flat, in my opinion, is when he begins to pontificate on how the United States should have pursued its intervention in that nation.In this instance he betrays a minimal level of understanding ("where were the light parts of the 1st Infantry Division?" being a question he asks, apparently unaware that the current answer is that such don't exist, for instance).



The book does redeem itself a bit in looking at the future of Afghanistan, with the author proposing a rather novel notion of modelling the Afghan government on that of Switzerland.The author makes a decent case for the idea, even if it might sound a bit odd.

Posted on June 19, 2011

Sebastian Landis says...

For starters this book prematurely declares that the Taliban has fallen.Even now in 2007 the US is dealing with the Taliban.Second this book describes various battles and wars, but doesn't give any context.There are very few maps and he gives no context to where places are and how far apart they are.I was very disappointed with this book.

Posted on June 20, 2011

Tonette Gamlin says...

I wanted to study up on the region while I was assigned there, and I read many books from Amazon.com.Many had bits and pieces of the history, but this book had a grand view from early times of Alexander the Great, the Muslim invasions, the Mongol conquest to later times during the Soviet invasion and the later rise of the Taliban.This book is essential and provides a basic understanding of many of the key players, which I was largely unable to find elsewhere.If I were given one choice of a book to read to understand Afghanistan for a Westerner before visiting there, this book would be it, especially for the price.Other books may provide some more detailed analysis of a smaller scale (Great Game, British Wars, Soviet War, etc.) but a whole history is most informative.

Posted on June 20, 2011