While Afghan culture, politics, and history require words, having a picture helps to make sense of what we're hearing, especially about military operations. So, here are pictures (maps). (Many of these are in Adobe PDF format, so, in Adobe Reader, you can zoom into areas to see more detail. If a ".jpg" photo file opens in your Internet browser, look under "View" and you can "Zoom" in on these, too.)

How can so small a country be so great a problem? Here it is, laid on a map of the USA (reproduced below). It's "slightly smaller than Texas":

Here's a good basic map from the CIA. (Click on the following for the enlarged map.)

Note that Afghanistan's northern neighbors—Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan—were part of the Soviet Union when the Red Army occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.

Part of the difficulty is the terrain, with mountains across much of the north central and NE. (The highest elevation range shown is 4,500 meters -- 14,763 feet -- and up. In comparison, the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains range are up to 4,401 meters -- 14,440 feet.) (Click on the following for the enlarged map.)

The enmity between ethnic/language groups doesn't help. (Click on the following for the enlarged map.)

Much of the mountain area is blocked by snow during the winter, with all of the implications of such weather.

Here is a clearer view of the "province" names (34 of them) that you'll hear constantly. There also are "districts" within each province (nearly 400 of them country-wide), which you can see by zooming in. (Click on the following for the enlarged map.)

(You can find maps of each province here.)

Here's the CIA World Factbook and their Asia map (you can zoom in).

Posted 12/14/09