Afghanistan War, round n+1, plus national anthems

The current occupant of the White house announces...that he is for once flip flopping on campaign rhetoric and intends to continue 16 years of US military intervention in Afghanistan. There are many vagaries, like what would winning look like, what about Congressional oversight or declaration of war or at a minimum revised Authorization for the use of Military Force. No mention of hollowing out diplomatic capability by severe cuts to the State Department and competent people fleeing any association with the current administration. Ai-yi-yi!

What on earth is a RantWoman to do?

Read a wonderful tweet about how by next year this time the US will be deploying troops who were not even born on 9/11/2001, the catalyst for US deployment to Afghanistan. Another Tweet pointed out that also means a whole generation of people in the Middle East and SW Asia who have never known a time without US weapons in their countries.

Not even to mention previous decades of US entanglement in funding of various strands of insurgent and extremist.

What on earth is a RantWoman to do?

Another tweet happened to mention the Afghan national anthem. Which one?

The Youtube has options for striking reflections. The examples here are really different. Most of them below have English subtitles. For now, RantWoman is simply posting what appears to be an incomplete succession of anthems. Further research and reflections pending.

Published on Aug 19, 2013

National Anthem of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Da Watan Afghanistan De The Afghan National Anthem was adopted and officially announced by a Loya Jirga in May 2006. According to article 20 of the Constitution of Afghanistan,




The National Anthem of the Democratic Repbulic Of Afghanistan 1978-1992, the government the Soviet Union invaded to support. The words are very different from the older version below. The video also shows women in very modern dress, a characteristic of the cities but definitely not of the countryside. These cultural differences are part of what made the Taliban viable. RantWoman is for now refraining from comment about opium cultivation, warlords, and other ills which foreign intervention contributed to.



The National Anthem of the Daoud Republic of Afghanistan, 1973-1978, presented here in sequence with absolutely no further pretention to competence about anything but timeline.




This seems to be the earliest version available but it is undated. More to the point arguments in the comments about whether the "real version" should be in Farsi / Tadjik or in Pashto suggest that Afghanistan has plenty of problems even without foreign troops weighing in. RantWoman will refrain from any pretention of actual competence about regional affairs.