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Here is another piece of story that is not in the article. When Alexander tried to enter Afghanistan he was met with fierce resistance. Didn't matter what he

by qCOVET 11y ago

Here is another piece of story that is not in the article. When Alexander tried to enter Afghanistan he was met with fierce resistance. Didn't matter what he did, he couldn't quench the uprisings and could not conquer the country. After losing a lot of men, he wrote to Aristotle for advise. Aristotle asked Alexander for a sample of Afghan soil to be shipped to him. Upon receipt of the soil samples, Aristotle laid them under the Court carpet and very soon started noticing that men of the court started fighting and killing each other. They became defiant to authority and that led Aristotle to the conclusion, that there is something unique and bizarre w/ the Afghan soil that makes men fight to the end ... and in a way .. remain as an unconquerable nation. He wrote back to Alexander to with draw from Afghanistan, and which he did. To this day, from Alexander to British to Russia .. Afghanistan has remained pretty defiant to foreign occupation. We will see how long the US will stay there. [note: The above story was passed onto us Afghans for generations and other than referencing my grandpa who is no longer w/ us, I unfortunately can't provide any references. So take it w/ a grain of salt.]

restalis 11y ago
Hmm... You are right that there was strong resistance and that "after two years of war and a strong insurgency campaign, Alexander managed to establish little control over Bactria": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactria#Alexander_the_Great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactria#Alexander_the_Great But that being said, it's also worth mentioning that that Bactria was one of the most prominent piece of Alexander's legacy, and Alexandria on the Oxus (the remains of which lies somewhere in the north of Afghanistan) was one of its primary cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum It seems that somehow things were settled and Afghanistan managed to become the heart of one of Alexander's remaining kingdoms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom You can't really have such impressive results when there is little control under your hands!
- nicolapede 11y ago
  If anyone is interested in reading more about Alexander's military accomplishments, I found this book http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Earliest-Detailed-Campaigns-Macedonian-ebook/dp/B007L4095E/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Earliest-Detailed-Campaigns-... extremely interesting.
louhike 11y ago
I do not know a lot of countries which have not been defiants to foreign occupation. I'll put it harshly but it sounds a lot like propaganda. And as you can see on this map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great#/media/File:Diadochen1.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great#/media/Fil..., he did invade Afghanistan, and even a part of today India.
- yarou 11y ago
  I'd hardly call it propaganda, it's merely a folk tale that reflects the cultural context within which it was developed. Sort of like the founding of Rome.
- halviti 11y ago
  In Iceland during WW2 we were occupied by the British first, and then the Americans. Aside from some strongly worded objections, we just kind of rolled over and took it.
- protomyth 11y ago
  Genghis Khan did pretty well in his invasion of Afghanistan also.
mattmanser 11y ago
My Dad, who is known for spinning tales, once told me a story about a bomb wiping out the Chinese officers on a boat as they posed with it for a photograph. It had been left there by nationalists. This was the 60s, so the communists had only been in power a fairly short while. Also, just for context, this is in the days before super tankers when there were a lot more ships at sea and they were a lot smaller. Because they had no-one to pilot the vessel they'd sent out distress calls and my Dad's ship went to aid. Now, technically, this counts as [some nautical term for salvageable rescue] and the crew of the rescuing ship is allowed a proportion of the cargo, so they'd have made quite a lot of money. So they're trying to get an officer swung over there in a swing to board the vessel, but can't because the seas are too choppy, so they end up telling the ship to follow theirs and they get them back to port (but forfeit the rescue money as they didn't actually provide anyone to pilot the vessel). It gets in to harbour and a pilot goes out to take the vessel in (this is standard practice, local pilots always take a ship into port). He sits down in the chair, feels under the chair, thinks, hmm, that's odd and looks underneath only to discover another bomb! Luckily that one was disposed of safely. I thought this was a load of bollocks so I went home and researched it. Wikipedia confidently told me there had been no such bombings or conflict between nationalist Chinese and the Communists in the 60s. It even had a list of all the incidents, and no ship bomb is on there. I subsequently told my Dad it was a load of bollocks, and he got quite upset and ended up emailing me a photo of his log book to show he was on the boat in question, the only evidence he had. Once I had the name of the boat, the Loch Gowan, suddenly I could google more confidently and lo and behold: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19661114&id=XatVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=COEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6810,3012869&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19661114&id=... https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19661113&id=lg0zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rugDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6815,4457622&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19661113&id=... https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=Fd0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2284,994026&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=... Turns out he'd exaggerated a couple of details, but mostly, it was true. The captain had been killed, the 2nd officer at least injured, the 3rd officer wasn't experienced enough to pilot the ship. Moral of the story, just because the internet can't back it up, doesn't mean it's not true! And it turns out my Dad doesn't always fib. And, wow, Google has load of old newspapers scanned and OCR'd.
csomar 11y ago
Two things: 1. After travelling for a while, I believe that the air and nature of the region DO affect your brain and seems to be in sync with the people in that region. 2. I think this is more of a tale for cultural resilience. If the elderly teaches the young that they'll find until the end; they'll fight until the end. Look at Palestine.

by qCOVET 11y ago

restalis 11y ago

Hmm... You are right that there was strong resistance and that "after two years of war and a strong insurgency campaign, Alexander managed to establish little control over Bactria": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactria#Alexander_the_Great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactria#Alexander_the_Great But that being said, it's also worth mentioning that that Bactria was one of the most prominent piece of Alexander's legacy, and Alexandria on the Oxus (the remains of which lies somewhere in the north of Afghanistan) was one of its primary cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum It seems that somehow things were settled and Afghanistan managed to become the heart of one of Alexander's remaining kingdoms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom You can't really have such impressive results when there is little control under your hands!

nicolapede 11y ago
If anyone is interested in reading more about Alexander's military accomplishments, I found this book http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Earliest-Detailed-Campaigns-Macedonian-ebook/dp/B007L4095E/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Earliest-Detailed-Campaigns-... extremely interesting.

louhike 11y ago

I do not know a lot of countries which have not been defiants to foreign occupation. I'll put it harshly but it sounds a lot like propaganda. And as you can see on this map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great#/media/File:Diadochen1.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great#/media/Fil..., he did invade Afghanistan, and even a part of today India.

yarou 11y ago
I'd hardly call it propaganda, it's merely a folk tale that reflects the cultural context within which it was developed. Sort of like the founding of Rome.
halviti 11y ago
In Iceland during WW2 we were occupied by the British first, and then the Americans. Aside from some strongly worded objections, we just kind of rolled over and took it.
protomyth 11y ago
Genghis Khan did pretty well in his invasion of Afghanistan also.

mattmanser 11y ago

My Dad, who is known for spinning tales, once told me a story about a bomb wiping out the Chinese officers on a boat as they posed with it for a photograph. It had been left there by nationalists. This was the 60s, so the communists had only been in power a fairly short while. Also, just for context, this is in the days before super tankers when there were a lot more ships at sea and they were a lot smaller. Because they had no-one to pilot the vessel they'd sent out distress calls and my Dad's ship went to aid. Now, technically, this counts as [some nautical term for salvageable rescue] and the crew of the rescuing ship is allowed a proportion of the cargo, so they'd have made quite a lot of money. So they're trying to get an officer swung over there in a swing to board the vessel, but can't because the seas are too choppy, so they end up telling the ship to follow theirs and they get them back to port (but forfeit the rescue money as they didn't actually provide anyone to pilot the vessel). It gets in to harbour and a pilot goes out to take the vessel in (this is standard practice, local pilots always take a ship into port). He sits down in the chair, feels under the chair, thinks, hmm, that's odd and looks underneath only to discover another bomb! Luckily that one was disposed of safely. I thought this was a load of bollocks so I went home and researched it. Wikipedia confidently told me there had been no such bombings or conflict between nationalist Chinese and the Communists in the 60s. It even had a list of all the incidents, and no ship bomb is on there. I subsequently told my Dad it was a load of bollocks, and he got quite upset and ended up emailing me a photo of his log book to show he was on the boat in question, the only evidence he had. Once I had the name of the boat, the Loch Gowan, suddenly I could google more confidently and lo and behold: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19661114&id=XatVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=COEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6810,3012869&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19661114&id=... https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19661113&id=lg0zAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rugDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6815,4457622&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19661113&id=... https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=Fd0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2284,994026&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=... Turns out he'd exaggerated a couple of details, but mostly, it was true. The captain had been killed, the 2nd officer at least injured, the 3rd officer wasn't experienced enough to pilot the ship. Moral of the story, just because the internet can't back it up, doesn't mean it's not true! And it turns out my Dad doesn't always fib. And, wow, Google has load of old newspapers scanned and OCR'd.

csomar 11y ago

Two things: 1. After travelling for a while, I believe that the air and nature of the region DO affect your brain and seems to be in sync with the people in that region. 2. I think this is more of a tale for cultural resilience. If the elderly teaches the young that they'll find until the end; they'll fight until the end. Look at Palestine.