Today's Atlas: Afghanistan

What did Today's Atlas by Rand McNally teach me about Afghanistan back in 1972?

#1: It taught me where it was, and some basic facts.

#2: It gave me a map with some idea about the natural resources and economic activities.

#3: It showed me images that left me with the impression that Afghanistan was a backward nation, but placed a high priority on modernity and was a place where women and children mattered.

 CAPTION: These handsome youngsters are children of Afghan nomads.

 CAPTION: A teacher holds these Afghan children spellbound.  Oil has made it possible for many Middle Eastern lands to improve schools.

CAPTION: This modern Afghan girl, no longer veiled and in traditional Moslem garb, is learning to become a surveyor so that she can join the work force that is pushing ahead the road improvement program in Afghanistan.

#4: It gave me the idea that Afghanistan wasn't that different for European nations, especially those with mountains and snow.

CAPTION: Kabul, capital and chief marketplace of Afghanistan, lies on a high, mountain-edged plateau.

Afghanistan!

These are some of the inspiring, delicate, intimate photographs by Seamus Murphy of Afghanistan included in his new book "A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan." I've already bought all the copies still available on Amazon.com tonight to send as gifts. Enjoy, and I will pontificate briefly at the end.












To me we are one people. One race. One species. Our core set of needs are the same. Our essential aspirations are likewise recognizable in spite of the barriers that separate us. I feel this idea in these pictures. I hope you do, too.

Afghanistan Up-date

Afghanistanwartrends
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

We learned this week that the death tole among U.S. troops in Afghanistan has just past the mark set by the deadliest year to date: 2007. And no sooner had I completed this graph than the DoD announced the deaths of two more soldiers, navy petty officers from Michgan, in Afghanistan.

The half mountain depicts the month by month casualty count which ranges from February's single fatality to June's 28. And with the latest announcement the year to date total is 120.

The bars compare the annual totals beginning with 2001 in red and ending with 2008 on the far right. Both parts of this graph demonstrate clearly an excalation of the conflict.

Both would seem to beg the question: "Is it time for another surge?"

Art I'm Seeing #29

aquariumdisc
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

"Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From The National Museum, Kabul" has just opened at the National Gallery of Art here in Washington, D.C.

It's a show of modest proportions with some utterly amazing artifacts. Prior to my going, all the buzz over the show was focused on an incredibly ornate and beautiful solid gold crown retrieved from a gravesite at Tillya Tepe. And it is very impressive.

But hands down my favorite was this artifact. It's called the "aquarium," and, in fact, it is an ingenious centerpiece for a banquet table. Looking at the image you see it from above straight on. It's the size of a large dinner plate. In the center is an image of the Medusa alluding to the Hellenistic influences present in much of the art in the exhibit. Circling the Medusa is a couple of dozen bas-relief images of fish. The fins and some of the tails on the fish are actually thin detached appendages that cut through the disc and are held in place by short chains and tear-drop-shaped weights on the underside.

The disc sits in a 2 inch deep bronze frame and was presumably made water tight in that frame with a resin. This frame was either held up by some sort of pedestal or set on top of a bowl. And here's the genius part: When water was poured into the basin created by the frame it would cover the disc. Then it would seep out through the slits created by the fins and tails and as it ran down the chains and weights, it would cause the fins and tails and wobble and wiggle back and forth!

This mechanical wonder delighted guests at banquets held in the barren steppes of northern Afghanistan at the very time when Roman soldiers were crucifying Jesus of Nazareth. Amazing!

As to the show as a whole it focuses on artifacts retrieved from four major sights: Tepe Fullol, AÏ Khanum, Begram, and Tillya Tepe. Each excavation offers it's own insights into the culture and art of Ancient Afghanistan. At Aï Khanum you experience architectural elements, stone statuary and two of the most amazing sundials that I have ever seen. At Bergram the stores of two rooms of merchandise reveal elements in bronze, gold, clay, glass and ivory rich with Hellenistic, Roman, and Indian influences. And the exhibition ends with the treasures of Tillya Tepe which come from 6 tombs of noble lineage; 5 of women and 1 of a man.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and the show is traveling to others venues: San Francisco, Houston, and New York. If you can go, you should and you'll not be disappointed.

May War On Terrorism Up-Date

0805gwotstatsgraph
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

The Pentagon reported that this past May was the safest for U.S. troops since February of 2004. And, indeed, it was a very low casualty month, but as usual my numbers differ from theirs. The press cited 21 deaths as reported by the Pentagon for purposes of news reports; however, as I read and collect Department of Defense casualty reports as presented in news releases on a nearly daily basis over the month of May, I come up with 36 casualties.

So "Does the right hand know what the left is doing?"

Upon a more careful and disaggregated examination in which I tallied the casualties by 6 categories, I came up with the following results:

Iraq combat deaths = 14
Iraq non-combat deaths = 4
Afghanistan combat deaths = 13
Afghanistan non-combat deaths = 2
Other combat deaths = 1
Other non-combat deaths = 2

Excluding the 15 deaths in Afghanistan, you do get 21 casualties.

It strikes me as kind of odd that of those 21, one was from natural causes in the tiny African nation of Djibouti, and another was a soldier killed by a hit-and-run driver in Chicago; and yet, 15 soldiers killed in Afghanistan appear to have been conveniently omitted from the monthly pentagon report....

And THIS really IS the story. After more than six years since our victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan it has become again an arena of U.S. occupation as deadly as that of Iraq: A trend that is moving rapidly in the wrong direction.