Why It’s So Difficult to Win a War in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's location, its rough terrain and multiple ethnic groups and tribes make it a challenging place to wage war.

Becky Little

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U.S. Marines from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. take cover as a 500 lb bomb explodes on a compound after the Marines took two days of enemy fire from the position in Main Poshteh, Afghanistan, 2009. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Afghanistan has been the center of competing foreign powers for more than a century. Between 1839 and 1919, the British fought three wars in Afghanistan, each lasting no more than a few months or years (although the last war was more like a skirmish). During the first two wars, the British Empire wanted to secure the country against Russia’s influence, says Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, a professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian history at James Madison University. During the third, it wanted to secure Afghanistan against the Ottoman Empire.

A photograph of Major Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari [1841-1879] sitting amongst a group of Afghan chieftains and army officers, taken in January 1879. Defeats at Ali Masjid and Peiwar Kotal had forced Afghanistan's new ruler, Amir Yaqub Khan [ d 1914], to accept a humiliating peace with the British which included accepting Cavagnari as envoy in Kabul. Widespread resentment in the country at the British presence led to an attack on the British residency in Kabul on 3 September 1879. Despite fighting bravely, Cavagnari and his small escort were killed. This, in turn, led the British to resume the war to avenge their deaths. (Credit: SSPL/Getty Images)
SSPL/Getty Images
A photograph of Major Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari [1841-1879] sitting amongst a group of Afghan chieftains and army officers, taken in January 1879. Defeats at Ali Masjid and Peiwar Kotal had forced Afghanistan’s new ruler, Amir Yaqub Khan [ d 1914], to accept a humiliating peace with the British which included accepting Cavagnari as envoy in Kabul. Widespread resentment in the country at the British presence led to an attack on the British residency in Kabul on 3 September 1879. Despite fighting bravely, Cavagnari and his small escort were killed. This, in turn, led the British to resume the war to avenge their deaths.

Similarly, the Soviet Union’s occupation of the region between 1979 and 1988 was bound up in its competition with the United States during the Cold War. The CIA covertly armed Afghanistan’s mujahideen (or “strugglers”) during that war, meaning that the Soviets were fighting a country greatly helped by another empire.

The United States entered Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of its War on Terror following the attacks of 9/11. The goal was to defeat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban quickly and decisively. But the conflict then dragged on for nearly 20 years. 

Afghanistan’s strategic location—it connects Central Asia and the Middle East to South and East Asia—makes it a “kind of a policy way station towards a political agenda,” explains Hanifi. So when large empires go to war in Afghanistan, they come up against other countries’ attempts to exert their own influence in the region. The same is true today. Just as the U.S. secretly armed the mujahideen, NATO has accused Iran of arming the Taliban in Afghanistan.

As part of their war against the Soviet forces invading Afghanistan, the Mujahidin, anti-Communist troops trained and supplied by the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries, have launched an offensive in the Jalalabad area. Pictured here is a truck full of armed Mujahidin soldiers arriving at the Samarkhel Mujahidin camp near the Jalalabad airport to back up the forces already present . (Credit: Patrick Durand/Sygma via Getty Images)
Patrick Durand/Sygma via Getty Images
As part of their war against the Soviet forces invading Afghanistan, the Mujahidin, anti-Communist troops trained and supplied by the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries, have launched an offensive in the Jalalabad area. Pictured here is a truck full of armed Mujahidin soldiers arriving at the Samarkhel Mujahidin camp near the Jalalabad airport to back up the forces already present.

There are many other factors that make Afghanistan a tough place to wage war in. Logistically, the terrain makes it difficult to move people and equipment. In addition, “the geographic factors of terrain inform cultural values,” says Hanifi, meaning that outside forces don’t always understand the unique relationship between the country’s 14 recognized ethnic groups and its various tribes.

During its military engagement in Afghanistan, U.S. forces emphasized working with Pashtuns in creating a government in Afghanistan. But although they’re the ethnic majority, Pashtuns are spread across multiethnic and multilingual tribes.

In the summer of 2021, the United States began withdrawing its remaining troops from the region. After a nearly 20-year-long U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, Taliban forces quickly retook control of the nation's key cities.

Afghan men walk amongst the remains of Russian military vehicles on the outskirts of Kabul on February 14, 2009 on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of fighting against Mujahiddin millitamen. (Credit: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)
Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan men walk amongst the remains of Russian military vehicles on the outskirts of Kabul on February 14, 2009 on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of fighting against Mujahiddin millitamen.