Posted on 07/28/2016 6:06:39 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Afghans Go to Syria to Fight for Its Government, and Anguish Results
By KAREEM FAHIM JULY 28, 2016
HERAT, Afghanistan — One woman here in the western Afghan city of Herat said she had begged her son not to go fight in the Syrian war, but he charged off anyway, leaving a wife and three children behind. A man overhearing her story came over to say that his son had left two months ago, and since then the family has been desperate for news about him.
Another woman, Khadija, whose son Hassan had joined Afghan brigades fighting alongside the Syrian government, said he had been pulled into the vicious conflict for the same reasons most of the young men in the neighborhood had decided to go: “He could not find work,” she said.
A teenager standing on the edge of the group, listening to the parents, said those were hardly isolated stories among the Afghan Shiites of Herat. The neighborhood, he said, “is full of them.”
Afghanistan has been hollowed out as its citizens have fled poverty and war, many seeking work in Pakistan, Iran or Persian Gulf nations, or risking the perilous trail to Europe. But this specific emigration pattern — of thousands of young men flowing into neighboring Iran and then on to fight alongside the Syrian government and its allies — has provoked extraordinary anguish for families here and for Afghanistan’s government, particularly over the past year.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Kabul explosion: Islamic State 'admits attack on Hazara protest'
P!
Shias going to fight sunnis
Yes, exactly, Herat is Shia-land.
Let them eliminate each other.
Reportedly, the Iranians have lost several high ranking officers in Syria, due to fratricide from these Afghan Hazara mercenaries.
There is a big cultural divide. Class is more distinct in Iran, and after thirty five years of dictatorship, the masters have grown more bold and the subjects more meek - in Afghanistan, not so much. Afghans are not fearful people.
Abusive treatment of subordinates by an Iranian General is accepted, even expected. Abusive treatment of an Afghan is significantly more dangerous. There have been several Iranian Colonels and Generals (some from among very prominent families) shot dead by their Hazara troops.
The Iranians have extensively replaced their Regular Army and Revolutionary Guards troops in Syria with Afghan Hazara militia. Although they have had a challenge with leadership and discipline, it has greatly reduced the political problem they had back home from the high rate of casualties - the most since the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980’s.
It sounds like Hazaras are the equivalent of Hussars, rough fearless mercenaries.
They are the descendants of the Mongol hordes, who invaded through Afghanistan. There has been some intermarriage, but they they are largely ethnically distinct to this day.
The word “Hazara” literally means “thousand”, which was a standard Mongol military unit.
Around Bamiyan (where the ancient cliff-side Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban), Afghan fighters killed one of Mongol Princes. In retribution, the Khan ordered that the entire population be exterminated. To this day, the area around Bamiyan is almost all Hazara. They have East Asian eye folds, and still play the unique Mongol style of wrestling.
There is a long history of discrimination against Hazara in Afghanistan - partly ethnic, and partly religious, as the Hazara are mostly of the minority Shia sect. Both forms of discrimination were passionate, rather than half-hearted.
The Taliban is largely a movement of the Pashtun ethnicity in Afghanistan, who made up around 40% of the population, but has dominated politically (the royal family were Pashtun). When the Taliban were taking over Afghanistan, they promoted ethnic cleansing of other groups, famously calling for “Uzbeks to Uzbekistan, Tajiks to Tajikistan, and Hazara to Ghoristan (the land of the dead - the graveyard).
After the American invasion, the improvement in education and career prospects for Hazara increased dramatically. Even integration has improved somewhat, such as inclusion on TV programs - but bigotry is still not hard to find.
Thank you or the informative synopsis.
But, but, but, we went and have destroyed Afghanistan (as a country) multiple times over the last 3 decades, and more specifically since 2001, to destroy the Taliban. AND, apparently, it took us some 10 yrs thereafter to find and kill, what was his name... oh... Osama Bin Laden!
So confusing what actually we achieved in Afghanistan!
So now some Hazara (who are not Pashtun ethnic group) gone and joined Assad? Is that it? Were we there to destroy Taliban who were mostly Pashtuns? Or what’s/was the deal? So confusing!!
“the Iranians have lost several high ranking officers in Syria”
I suggest you should be more specific.
It isn’t “the Iranians”, but the Regime in Iran.
When you say “the Iranians” it implies that all Iranians support the Regime in Iran. They don’t and Iran politically is not the USA in its process of election or selection. Alas, even if most Americans voted for Obama (twice).
>>>”There is a big cultural divide. Class is more distinct in Iran, <<<
There is no “social class” per se in Iran today compared to the Shah’s era for example. The divide in today’s Iranian society is based on the following:
1) the ones who toe the line with Iranian regime, because they truly believe in it, ideologically (that’s the minority, actually).
2) the ones who toe the line with the Regime in Iran, because their livelihood is very much dependent on the regime (this grp is most of the Iranians in Iran).
3) the ones who do not, and are not dependent on the Regime in Iran; economically, politically or otherwise. For this group it is and will be about the alternative to the Regime in Iran.
Let’s face it, after 35 some yrs, the USA has not and does not wish to have an alternative to an Islamic Regime in Iran.
The USA simply, one way or another, continues to support the Islamic Regime in Iran, as the Americans (sorry, Carter did) back in 1979.
Surprisingly and sadly, the convoluted logic even from the ardent Americans, who profess to be anti Islamic Regime seems to be: “the majority of Iranians are muslims. Hence, at best, let’s have the Islamic Reformists in charge instead of a conservative ones” —— Pathetic.
So, IOW, no solution in sight. Unless you want to toe the line with what McCain said: “bomb, bomb Iran”.
Then again, in time, we may just have to bomb the entire ME, and North Africa.... and more...
This is as twisted as Soetero doing nothing when the people of Iran fought back and died then a few years later gives the mullahs billions. Twisted. How does one flee their own war then choose to fight in the Syrian war that is as bloody as the one they fled? *Rhetorical*
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