THE AFGHANISTAN WAR IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Afghanistan has suffered war for thirty years: one decade fighting the Soviet Union and a regime kept in power by it, one of domestic war about what regime to have, and one against USA and a regime kept in power by it. That battle front currently has the largest amount of military forces stationed in any war zone in the world and the speech by president Obama (2009a) at West Point on 1 December 2009 told of more on their way, primarily more than 30,000 from USA, but also from such “willing” countries that can be pressured into increasing their participation. What is going on? This article takes its point of departure in the classical exhortation that one should always ask, “What is this instance of?”