Helmand River

I've been to the headwaters of the Amudarya River in the mountains of Badakhshan and in the far northeast of Afghanistan and where, you know, the streams, they start as a trickle of melt water from snow and ice.

And then they merge into this like roaring river right at the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan that eventually, as it comes down out of the mountains, you know, settles out into slower and steady flow between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan or the Helmand River.

It's over a thousand kilometers long.

And it travels from these mountains in central Afghanistan through these hot and dry deserts of southern Afghanistan.

the Kandahar chiefs had meditated a night attack on his royal troops, but MacNaughton's intrigues and bribes had wrought defection in their camp.

And while Kohunduk Khan and his brothers were in flight to Girishk on the Helmund, the infamous Haji Khan Kakur led the venal herd of turncoat sycophants to the feet of the claimant who came backed by the British gold, which MacNaughton was scattering abroad with lavish hand.

shah soojah recovered from his trepidation hurried forward in advance of his troops and entered kandahar on april twenty fourth his reception was cold the influential chiefs stood aloof abiding the signs of the times the populace of kandahar stood silent and lowering nor did the sullenness abate when the presence of a large army with its followers promptly raised the price of grain to the great distress of the poor The ceremony of the solemn recognition of the Shah, held close to the scene of his defeat in 1834, Havelock describes as an imposing pageant, with homagings and royal salutes, parades of troops, and presentation of nizurs.

But the arena set apart for the inhabitants was empty, spite of Eastern love for a Tamasha, and the display of enthusiasm was confined to the immediate retainers of His Majesty.

So you give us oil, we give you water.

Because there was an agreement under Zahir Shah that one-third of the Helmand River, which goes to Iran,

will be going to Afghanistan.

Now, because of the global warming and drought, the water level has gone down.

Um, and of course in the end it didn't, it didn't work.

And what success we had, what success the Marine Corps I can speak to with great knowledge had in the Helmand River Valley in the years, uh, in which I served was because we embraced that system and we, long story short, we, we didn't figure out how to establish the legitimacy of the Kabul government.

I, I, I've not yet encountered an officer who cracked that code.

I have encountered a lot of officers who figured out who to pay, and that's what pacified the river valley.

No, there probably is water in Afghanistan.

Are there lakes in Afghanistan? You've got the Helmand River, which is gigantic.

The Helmand River, of course, yeah.

The

Helmand Valley and all that.

I spent two years in Garmseer district helm in province Afghanistan.

It's a district that's in the south of the country along the Helmand River.

It's a small strip of farming surrounded by a lot of desert.

It's about 100 kilometer by 10 kilometer stretch of farming.

And thou

hast trod the sands of Seistan, and seen the river of Helmund, and the lake of Zirah, and the aged Zal himself has often stroked thy neck and given thee food.

on a golden platter soaked with wine, and said, O Raksh, bear Rustram well, but I have never known my grandsire's furrowed face, nor seen his lofty house in Saistan, nor slaked my thirst at the clear Helmand stream, but lodged among my father's foes, and seen Afrasiab cities only, Samarkand, Bokhara, and Lone Kiva in the waste, and the Black Turkman tents, and only drunk the desert rivers, Morgab, and Tijand, Kohik, and where the Kalmaks feed their sheep, the northern seer, and this great oxus stream, the yellow oxus by whose brink I die.

Then with a heavy groan, Rustrum bewailed, O that its waves were flowing over me, O that I saw its grains of yellow silt roll, tumbling in the current over my head.

Defeated is probably too strong.

I'm not sure I could defend that expression, but certainly suppressed the insurgency to a sufficient point where there wasn't a whole lot of violence by, say, 2012, 2013 in the Helmand River Valley.

And so one more question about these wars and then we'll move on to some other subjects.

But in terms of sustainable political outcomes in Afghanistan, what seemed to me to be the case was.