Alexander last Westerner to conquer Afghanistan

By Alistair Bell

 
WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - U.S. military planners will have to delve deep into the history books to find the last Western commander to conquer Afghanistan.

It has been 2,300 years since Alexander the Great swept through the Afghan deserts and mountains, employing guile, diplomacy and almost foolhardy courage to overcome hostile tribes on his long march to India.

He was one of the first military greats of history to prove their worth in Afghanistan, often seen as the key to control of Eurasia. Mongol leader Genghis Khan, Tatar general Tamerlane and Babur the Mogul later won key victories in Afghanistan.

In contrast to the U.S. military's reluctance to commit troops to a long ground campaign in Afghanistan, the headstrong Alexander had no qualms about exposing his forces to extreme danger when he invaded in 330 BC.

At the age of 26, he took 32,000 troops under his direct command into Afghanistan, then a group of provinces in the crumbling Persian Empire.

Three years later he had built a string of cities around the country, probed deep into Central Asia and was poised to swoop into the plains of what is now Pakistan and India.

"Alexander faced the same problems as all invaders of Afghanistan: the harsh climate and geography and local people who enjoy a fight," said military historian Raymond Callahan.

Historians say Alexander's military genius and sheer force of character drove his mostly Macedonian troops through the hardships.

"He was a very shrewd tactician who used a mixture of aggression and unorthodox tactics, successfully keeping opponents off balance," said Callahan, from the University of Delaware.

HINDU KUSH CROSSING

One of Alexander's toughest tests in Afghanistan was a crossing in early spring of the 11,000 feet-high (3,600-meter) Khaiwak Pass in the Hindu Kush mountains.

The Macedonian general was in pursuit of a Persian foe Bessus, leisurely encamped on the other side of the mountains in the belief that Alexander could not bring his infantry and cavalry through the snowy trail.

The passage was rough. "Stragglers were soon lost in the murky light and left to frostbite and a certain death," historian Robert Lane Fox wrote in his biography "Alexander The Great."

But most of the Macedonians made it through down the other side, scaring Bessus into flight northwards to the Oxus River.

Still recovering from the mountain ordeal, the Macedonians then marched through the desert beyond the city of Balkh.

"Throughout, Alexander showed why he could ask so much of his army. When water was brought to him in a helmet scooped from a small desert spring he refused to accept the privilege and tipped it away, sharing his soldiers' hardships," Lane Fox wrote.

While the main point of the Macedonian invasion was to clear his path to India, Alexander left a permanent mark in Afghanistan with a series of settlements bearing his name.

The southern city of Kandahar, the stronghold of today's Taliban militia, has close connections to Alexander although historians disagree over whether he was the city's founder.

The United States says it has no intention of occupying Afghanistan, and is only searching for Osama bin Laden.

"The difference between us and Alexander is that we do not want to launch a ground campaign in Afghanistan," said U.S. military analyst Bill Taylor. "We have no territorial designs."

ENEMY'S DAUGHTER

One lesson Washington appears to be taking from Alexander's campaign is the usefulness of alliances with local tribal leaders, although the Macedonian's style of diplomacy might not work in the 21st century.

The Macedonians' most useful ally in the Afghanistan campaign was Oxyartes, a former enemy who later persuaded tribal leaders not to oppose Alexander.

Friendship was sealed between the two men when Alexander married his ex-foe's daughter Roxana.

"One of the most successful strategies Alexander employed was to marry the daughter of a tribal chief," an option that is unavailable to President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said analyst Callahan.

Alexander had taken Oxyartes' fortress high on a rocky outcrop by sending 300 men with ropes and tent pegs to scale the heights at night.

The land conquered by Alexander was split among his commanders after he died in Babylon in 323 BC, and Macedonian influence remained for centuries in Afghanistan.

For instance, the giant Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban earlier this year were built in a style that is a fusion of Macedonian and Asian sculpture.

22:01 10-10-01

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