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AFGHANISTAN
THE TRIBES AND HOUNDS
By Lt Cdr Dennis Smith USN (Retired)
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Outside forces pulling at Afghanistan. Hundreds of years of documented history exist and still it continues. Time passes, suffering continues, national development is denied by wars, and during the lulls no progress can be measured. Meanwhile, nothing remains static, in the world of geopolitics or dogs. We have seen the breed evolve from two major "types", desert and mountain, into what is euphemistically called "the modern Afghan Hound". Meanwhile there remain diverse forces pulling at the breed from the perspectives of ring and field. As there always is, a small group attempts to remain centrist in the argument, breeding the "whole" dog of both form and function, but judges in both ring and field become more focused on their particular specialty. The resulting pull is three dimensional. The larger parallel here can be seen in Afghanistan today, as the Pathan Taliban, with the full material support of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, moved to fill what they perceived as a vacuum during the pause of civil war following the ejection of the Soviet Union. The Taliban played little or no role in this long struggle. Opposing them is Ahmad Shah Massoud, a Afghan-Tajik who was the Defense Minister in the Rabbini Government, which was formed as a result of an externally encouraged compromise during this same pause in the civil war. Massoud is also the tribal leader most responsible for driving the Soviets from his land. He was not, however, the primary beneficiary of US and other western nations support during that effort. That was the clan of Gulbhuddin Hekmatyar, another Pathan then supported by Pakistan but since abandoned for failure to align his philosophy with his benefactor. Abdul Rashid Dostam is an Afghan-Uzbek and was a General in the Army of the Soviet-backed Najibullah regime, beaten by Massoud and the others. Today, in the struggle against the Taliban, he is allied with Massoud, and supported by Russia and Iran, while Pakistan and Saudi Arabia continue to back the Taliban. As in the 19th century, the west today watches, but without the audacity of the Victorian British, dabbling and trying to make sense of the maze of alliances. In the 19th century it was trade routes, today it is the routes of oil pipelines which cause the interest of those outside of the country. Miller's "murkily defined, ever shifting patchwork of regional and clan alliances" continues. Likewise with those who would define the Afghan Hound.
Geopolitics, economics, religion. The announced reasons behind intervention and attempts to alter what Afghanistan is continue to run in the circle of "The Great Game." Enemies last decade are allies presently, subject to tomorrow's unknown events, which may cause yet another shift. The foreign remain much the same as they have been throughout the past two hundred years; Afghani tribes and clans, Russia, Persia (Iran), the Indian subcontinent and The West. Still, the tribesmen remain, each a member of a distinct grouping, defiant with weapons in hand, willing to die to keep control of some of the earth's most desolate and unfriendly land. Continuing generations of visitors continue to describe him as fierce, proud and regal, while beneath it he is probably penniless, hungry and tired. But even as Kabul has been laid waste again, the fighting continues, and the support for additional fighting continues to arrive from outside of Afghanistan's borders. Meanwhile, in much more pleasant surroundings far, far away, the dogs taken from this hostile place continue to fascinate us with their appearance, attitudes and physical abilities. We, like those supporting the tribes and neighbors in conflict, focus on that aspect of the dog we find most pleasing, trying to ignore those which we find unpleasant. If we try to take the breed back to the earlier desert and mountain types, we shall bemoan our regression, but we remain unable, or unwilling, to publicly agree on what this dog should be. The proof in this lies in that fact that today we're presented with American, UK, Dutch, Australian and other "types" of Afghan Hounds, just as the foreign participants in the ongoing war in Afghanistan have "their" tribes. As is usually the case in geopolitics, each of us knows we've made the right choice. The stakes were and remain high in The Great Game; posession of Afghanistan. In The Great Game of The Breed, the stakes are no less total; defining the breed will become. History has shown us that the involved factions in both efforts will stop at little to achieve their ends.
Many thought "The Great Game" was over when the British left Afghanistan at the turn of the century. We thought so again after the First World War, and again after the Second World War and again after the collapse of the recent Soviet occupation. But "The Great Game" remains, and the players and roles continue to shift. Meanwhile, our breed's evolution continues in the ring, in the field, in the kennels of breeders and in the homes of pet owners worldwide. "Looks" and fads in the breed come and go as do political events west of the Khyber. Taking into account the vastly disparate levels of importance in the condition of man and dog, there remains something at the core of things Afghani which seems to defy solution. Unsettled as conditions are within both the nation of Afghanistan and the breed, the resilience, determination, and tenacity, along with some other mysterious trait found deep within both the tribesman and his hound, and unexplained to the rest of us, seems, based on history, to guarantee their future. It's most likely a future of continuing conflict just as it is certainly likely to be one which will be characterized by endless examination of the soul of the character of the tribesman and the Afghan Hound, and what each has been placed here to accomplish.
Lt Cdr Dennis J Smith USN (Retired)
Copyright(c) Sep 1997
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