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A comparison; Afghanistan and the Thirty Years War
Topic Started: Jan 26 2011, 07:51 PM (313 Views)
JBK
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I have been playing with this idea for quite a while now. Can the Thirty Years War and the war in Afghanistan be compared with each other?

Pro (I see the time between the Sovjet invasion of Afghanistan and now as one continous war):
Both wars were fought/are being fought by tribal groups. In the case of Afghanistan they are truley tribal, in the case of the Thirty years war they were ducal, or within a family, the Geulphs for example. This causes the war to be very locally intense. It is not being fought by two or three large groupings, but by hundreds of different little factions, who sieze the oppertuety of the big war to settle old scores with one and other.
Tied in with these 'tribal wars' are religious and ideologgical wars. In the case of Afghanistan: extreme Islamists against moderate ones, Democraty/war on terror. During the thirty years war this struggle was catholic-protestant and Imperial-independant. So in both wars there also are two layers of political war, one on a national level, and one on a spritual level.
Ethinic differences also came into play in both wars. In Afghanistan for example there are the Pashtun people pitted against others. In Germany there were the Tirolers and Bavarians against the 'Northern' Germans.
Finally, foreign intervention. The Thirty Years War was seriously influenced by foreign intervention, Denmark, Spain, The Dutch Republic, France, England the Ottoman Empire and Sweden all played major roles in the conflict. Afghanistan has a similar situation. First the USSR, USA and Pakistan intervined, then the USA and Pakistan again, this time supported by a dozen other NATO countries. One can also be sure that China and India also have some kind of influence on Afghanistan, as does Iran.

Thoughts?
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Matthew
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Well I don't think the war in Afghanistan is to any large degree a sub-religious one, if anything it a supra-religious one between radical Islam and the west. I suppose to a degree moderate Islam is part of the conflict, but I don't think the conflict between radical and moderate Islam caused the war in any way.

I am not quite sure if it is possible to view the Soviet war and the current one as one and the same, though the earlier invasion definitely would have somewhat set the stage for what came after. Either way, the Thirty Years war wasn't kicked off by a foreign invasion (the Soviet one) or an attack on some outside power (9/11).

There is obviously going to be some similarities, but then one could probably find them for most any war. In a sense the causes are somewhat simliar to the string of Crusades, namely, radical Islam begins expanding ferociously, attacks the west, and the west replies by sending expeditionary forces to combat radical Islam.
Afghanistan is just a difficult place to fight in. It always has been, it always will be.
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