Tweet
Is this a widespread inference?
Afghanistan has been called the “graveyard of empires.” That is some impressive IO [information operations] phrase. It makes us fear failure in Afghanistan because it foreshadows the collapse of the whole western world — not just Afghanistan.
I kind of think the phrase obscures more than it reveals myself. But am I the only person who never thought it meant “the collapse of the whole western world”? Russia and Britain were both bloodied in Afghanistan. Somehow the west survived. But do other people figure this phrase to be more boogedy-boogedy scary than I do?
5 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About ATTACKERMAN
RSS/XML Feed
No, I agree with you. It never has meant all that except possibly in some foetid “war of civilizations” circles. As the guy writes: “this specter is a figment of our imagination”. Well, his anyways.
Regards, Steve
Well, it overstates the case, but Afghanistan has been–or has been claimed to be–at the center of events that redefined the international distribution of power. Now, I don’t think there’s anything interesting about those claims for the current war. All they do is point out that Afghanistan is a logistical nightmare.
I love the CAC blog, but he dramatically understates the impact of the Afghan War on Soviet politics. By the time Gorbachev realized that he’d “backed a loser,” veterans of the conflict had become a mobilized, angry political constituency within the USSR, and were one of many factors that contributed to the destabilization of the regime.
I think the phrase makes some fear failure in Afghanistan because it portends the collapse of, not of the Western World, but the American Empire. As a predictive tool it’s bullshit, of course, but if you wanted to, you could argue that once a nation gets to the point that it considers as necessary involvement in an illiterate, landlocked, stone age country like Afghanistan, that nation has pretty clearly over-extended itself to the point of decline.
American exceptionalism at its finest: surely we can buck the odds!
We’re not making the same gamble. Even if it ends in failure, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.