About two-thirds of the men have the same Y-DNA as Genghis Khan, and many of them manifest East Asian facial features.

They occupy the rugged and difficult-to-access central highlands of Afghanistan. The rest speak 30 different languages, the largest of which are Balochi and Pashayi.Īn especially interesting minority in Afghanistan, about 9 percent of the population, are the Hazara, who are almost exclusively Shia Muslims. Approximately eleven percent of Afghans speak Turkic languages, primarily Uzbek and Turkmen. The Pashtun dominated area of the country is roughly approximate to Taliban radical Islamic control. Pashtun is the first language of about 37 percent, but the Pashtun tribes make up about 50 percent of Afghanistan’s population and occupy considerably more than 50 percent of Afghanistan’s territory. It is the primary language of the second largest tribal group, the Tajiks, representing 27 percent of the Afghan population. Approximately 49 percent speak Afghan Persian (Dari) as their first language, which is also widely spoken as a second language. It is a country rich in unexploited minerals, but its major products representing 35 percent of the economy are illicit drugs made from growing poppy and exported as opium, morphine, heroin, and hashish.Īfghanistan is a land of ethnic diversity and strong tribal loyalties. Water flows through the country from the melting winter snows in the mountains, but the climate is generally very dry. It is a region of mountains and windswept plains, frigid in winter and blazing hot in the summer. Its temporary conquerors included Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. The area that is now Afghanistan was a crossroad of trade, war, and empires in ancient times.

In addition, about 2.7 million Afghan refugees are in neighboring Pakistan. Once part of the Persian Empire, Afghanistan is a land-locked country of 33 million people, approximately 80 percent Sunni Muslim and 19 percent Shia Muslim. The security of the United States and many nations depend on the success of their mission, but it will not be easy Since the Septemterrorist attack on the United States, American, British, and Allied troops of 36 other nations have been involved in defeating the radical Islamist allies of Al-Qaeda (and the Muslim Brotherhood) and bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan. Just roll on your rifle an’ blow out your brains “When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s PlainsĪnd the women come out to cut up what remains

As Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) immortalized in his poem entitled “The Young British Soldier,” Afghanistan was a dreaded assignment for British troops: Many empires, nations, and alliances in the past have found Afghanistan to be a hellish trial.

Afghanistan graveyard of empires