World Politics
The Twenty-Year-Old Afghanistan Mistake Explained in Maps
There are some places where centralized governments don’t work. Afghanistan is one of them.
The United States knew in 2005 that Afghanistan was a potpourri of ethnic groups. Each had and still has its own distinctive political regime.
And yet, even though the CIA was fully aware of the ethnic composition of Afghanistan, in 2004 the United States decided to try to build a highly centralized government in Kabul.[1]
It’s worth mentioning here that today the Taliban mockingly call President Ashraf Ghani “the Mayor of Kabul,” because even though most of Kabul belongs to the central government, most of the rest of the country does not.
The base map used in this story was released by the CIA in 2005, during the Bush years. It should be clear by examining it that American leaders had to be fully aware of Afghan political realities long before then since it is obvious nobody whipped up this map on a napkin during a quick Situation Room meeting.
Afghanistan is a “tribal” country, we hear. In truth, it is an amalgamation of dozens of ethnic groups, each containing powerful families or clans who steer local policy.
