In October 2001, during the United States invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban founder and leader Mohammed Omar Mujahid threatened the United States with the same fate as the British Empire and the Soviet Union. The anthropologist Thomas Barfield has noted that the narrative of Afghanistan as an unconquerable nation has been used by Afghanistan itself to deter invaders. The difficulty in invading Afghanistan was attributed to the prevalence of its hazardous mountainous terrain, desert conditions, severe winters, fortress-like qalats, enduring clan loyalties, empires often being in conflict with each other while simultaneously attempting to conquer Afghanistan, and outside neighboring countries support such as Pakistan, where foreign invaders were unable or not permitted to cross into such nations to destroy their sanctuaries. Some have attributed ancient and medieval empires to the narrative, including the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Modern examples included the British Empire during the First, Second, and Third Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919) the Soviet Union in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) and the United States in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). Background įurther information: Invasions of Afghanistan, The Great Game, and 2021 Taliban offensiveĭuring the history of Afghanistan, several great powers have attempted to invade Afghanistan without maintaining a stable, permanent rule. The phrase, in reference to Afghanistan, does not seem to predate a 2001 article by Milton Bearden in the magazine Foreign Affairs.

Elsewhere, a very similar phrase, 'the graveyard of nations and empires,' has been used in a figurative sense to describe the Old Testament's Book of Isaiah. Alternatively, the term has been applied to Mesopotamia. Furthermore, all foreign armies that have invaded Afghanistan have conducted a full military withdrawal by the end of the conflict. It originates from the numerous historical examples of foreign powers such as the Achaemenid Empire, Macedonia, Seleucid Empire, Umayyad Caliphate, Mongol Empire, Timurid Empire, Mughal Empire, Sikh Empire, British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States being unable to achieve military victory in Afghanistan. The graveyard of empires is a sobriquet often associated with Afghanistan. Remnants of an Army, depicting the British retreat from Kabul, presents imagery commonly associated with the sobriquet. For the fourth studio album by Evans Blue, see Graveyard of Empires (album).

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