The road much travelled

With recounting of this incident begins a fascinating exhibition currently showing at National Army Museum in London.

It is Kabul, 2001 and a warrant officer of the British army meets an Afghan government minister. When the minister discovers the officer's nationality, he exclaims “British? You burned down the covered market!” The officer apologises and asks his colleagues what had happened. Had there been some blunder by the forces? He is surprised to learn that the minister was referring to an event in 1842.

With the recounting of this incident begins a fascinating exhibition currently showing at the National Army Museum in London. The Road to Kabul: British Armies in Afghanistan 1839-1919 explores the circumstances and key events of three earlier wars the British have fought in Afghanistan.

The incident neatly encapsulates a fundamental aspect of Britain's current imbroglio in the unfortunately placed country. While Britain's earlier invasions of Afghanistan have no place in the consciousness of the British public, they are a living reality for the Afghans.

Reading the texts beside the pictures and artefacts, it is hard to escape the feeling that Afghanistan has been stuck in a time warp for more than 150 years. The reasons for invasion by the British in 1838 and again in 1878 were much the same as the reasons for invading this time around: toppling 'unfriendly' regimes and installing often unpopular rulers willing to hand over much of Afghanistan's sovereignty in exchange for power.

The arrogance that preceded the first Afghan war of 1838 and the humiliation that followed is well illustrated by the fate of William McNaughten, Britain's chief representative in Kabul. “We have a beautiful game on our hands” he is quoted in the exhibition as saying of the 1838 invasion, “if we have the means and inclination to play it properly.” Further on we see McNaughten's fate in a sketch, showing him being attacked by Afghans. It appears he was killed and cut to pieces by Afghan tribesmen who controlled the passes, when he cut their traditional payments.

It is a cliché to say that those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But if true, which war will this one be a repetition of? The invasion in 1838 to replace Emir Dost Mohammad with Shuja Shah? Having achieved this objective, the British realised they would have to stay on to prop up the unpopular leader. Insurgencies followed and by 1842 the British garrison was forced to abandon Kabul. During its humiliating retreat, only one Briton survived.

Will it be a repeat of war number two, when the British invaded Afghanistan in 1878 because its Emir Sher Ali refused to have a British political resident in Kabul? By 1880 British forces had quashed uprisings and established their puppet, Abdur Rahman Khan, in power. The Treaty of Gandamak gave the British control of Afghanistan's foreign policy and lasted for almost 40 years.

Or will there be echoes of the third Afghan war in 1919 in which Amanullah Khan broke the Treaty of Gandamak and declared jihad on the British? Khan was successful in achieving full independence for Afghanistan.

One can see elements of all three wars in the current conflict to which there is no end in sight. Will the people of Afghanistan be released from their time warp? Perhaps this apparently unending cycle will only be halted when western nations abandon their quest for a regime in Kabul that is friendly towards them instead of being popular with its own people.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2011.