History UsefulNotes / Afghanistan

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'': Sousuke's DarkAndTroubledPast begins in the battlefields of Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. The anime, due to [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents/SeptemberEleventh debuting less than a year after 9/11]], changed the country's name to the fictional "Helmajistan."

->''"Well that settles it, Chatfield! We must never go into that God-forsaken country again!"''
-->-- '''Bremner, Bird, and Fortune''', playing UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships, in 1842.[[note]] They did. Twice more.[[/note]]

->''"How will you, Afghanistan atone for the tears of our mothers?"''
-->-- '''Farewell to the Mountains, Soviet folk song'''

->''When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,''\\
''and the women come out to cut up what remains,''\\
''jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,''\\
''and go to your Gawd like a soldier.''
-->-- The Young British Soldier, '''Creator/RudyardKipling'''

[[quoteright:200:https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJBi6w7bL7zNJwRRHIgNtwtU6gp6y9CwfR1Q&usqp=CAU]]

[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/afghanistan_4185.gif]]

[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/afghanistan_4185.gif]]

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/national_emblem_of_afghanistan.png]]

[[quoteright:200:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Flag_of_the_Taliban.svg]]

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_afghanistan_5.png]]

Ethnically, Afghanistan is dominated by the Pashtuns/[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Pakhtuns]],[[note]]"Pashtun" is the pronunciation of the southern dialects of Pashto, centered on Kandahar, whereas "Pakhtun" is the pronunciation of the northern dialects, centered on Kabul and Peshawar. This is the reason why the Pashtun province of Pakistan is called "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa", since most Pakistani Pashtuns speak the northern dialects.[[/note]] who live in the south (roughly in the ancient provinces of Arachosia and Drangiana) and form 40% of the population. The Pashtuns' homeland, called "Pashtunistan", is divided between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are three times as many Pashtuns in the latter as there are in the former, making up the second largest ethnic group at 15% of the country's population, but Pashtun influence in Pakistani politics is rather minimal, as other ethnic groups like the Punjabis, Sindhis, and Muhajirs are historically more powerful.[[note]]There have been a few Pakistani presidents of Pashtun descent, but only one (Ghulam Ishaq Khan) is a native Pashto speaker. There is a single Pakistani Prime Minister (the current one, Imran Khan) of Pashtun descent, but he grew up in Lahore and speaks Punjabi as his first language.[[/note]] This is in contrast in Afghanistan, which has been pretty much dominated by the Pashtuns since the 18th century. The name "Afghan" is actually an archaic Persian designation of the Pashtuns, derived from the Bactrian word ''Abagano'', which means "faraway people". The endonym "Pashtun" has the same etymological derivation as "Persia", albeit descended through Eastern Iranian rather than Western Iranian, and it means "borderland" (as both Persians and Pashtuns lived in the borderlands of the Median Empire, the first ever superpower of Greater Iran).\\\

Within hours, announcements were made for a formal transition of power as the Afghan government surrendered unconditionally. Remnants of government fighters, joined by Ahmad Massoud, son of the departed leader of the Northern Alliance, held out in the Panjshir Province for several weeks, until the Taliban came in early September and captured the provincial capital, forcing them to flee. All this meant that the efforts of the US military and their international partners to form a democratic government that served the country and its people over the past twenty years [[ShootTheShaggyDog were completely undone]].\\\

By the end of TheNineties, the cultivation and processing of opium into heroin for export had become the second most important sector of the Afghan economy after subsistence agriculture. World demand for heroin had reached an all time high by the end of TheNineties as the 'War on Drugs' raised profits for producers and traders all the way from Afghanistan, then competing with [[UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry Myanmar]], to north America. Opium taxes and heroin production served as an important source of revenue for the Taliban, which established control over most of the country by 1996 and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.\\\

-->— '''Bremner, Bird, and Fortune''', playing UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships, in 1842.[[note]] They did. Twice more.[[/note]]

-->- '''Farewell to the Mountains, Soviet folk song'''

-> ''When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,''
-> ''and the women come out to cut up what remains,''
-> ''jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,''
-> ''and go to your Gawd like a soldier.''
-->— The Young British Soldier, '''Creator/RudyardKipling'''

* '''Country calling code:''' 93

Within hours, announcements were made for a formal transition of power as the Afghan government surrendered unconditionally. Remnants of government fighters, joined by Ahmad Massoud, son of the departed leader of the Northern Alliance, held out in the Panjshir Province for several weeks, until the Taliban came in early September and captured the provincial capital, forcing them to flee. All these meant that the efforts of the US military and their international partners to form a democratic government that served the country and its people over the past twenty years [[ShootTheShaggyDog were completely undone]].\\\

* ''Series/SEALTeam'': Episode 9 takes place on the China-Afghanistan border region, where the [=SEALs=] must help a Russian defector and his wife cross the border and meet up with U.S. forces ready to evacuate them. Later, the second half of the show takes place entirely in Afghanistan as the team is on a long-term deployment to find out who orchestrated the deaths of fellow SEAL unit Echo Team. As of Season 3 Episode 17, Bravo Team again deploys to Afghanistan to provide security during [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the U.S. military's drawdown from the region due to a pending peace agreement with the Taliban.]]

Within hours, announcements were made for a formal transition of power as the Afghan government surrendered unconditionally. Remnants of government fighters, joined by Ahmad Massoud, son of the departed leader of the Northern Alliance, held out in the Panjshir Province for several weeks, until the Taliban came in early September and captured the provincial capital, forcing to them to flee. All these meant that the efforts of the US military and their international partners to form a democratic government that served the country and its people over the past twenty years [[ShootTheShaggyDog were completely undone]].\\\

[[AC:The Afghan flag]]
->The black, red, and green stripes symbolize the colonial period, the revolutions, and independent Afghanistan, respectively. At the center is the coat-of-arms.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), officially known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or since the Taliban-led government is not recognized intentionally, the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), officially known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or since the Taliban-led government is not recgonized intertionally, the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), officially known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), also known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), also known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت; Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānestān), also known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان; Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت; Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.

Afghanistan ('''Dari''' and '''Pashto:''' افغانستان‏‎ Afġānistān), also known as the '''Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' امارت اسلامی افغانستان; Emārat-e Eslāmi-ye Afghānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي امارت; Də Afġānistān Islāmī Imārat) or the '''Islamic Republic of Afghanistan''' ('''Dari:''' جمهوری اسلامی افغانستان Jomhūrī-ye Eslāmī-ye Afġānestān; '''Pashto:''' د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت Da Afġānistān Islāmī Jomhoriyat), is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is bordered by UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Tajikistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Uzbekistan}}.