杜兰德线:侵略阿富汗的泥潭——从十九世纪英国人建立“科学边界”说起

Durand Line: Quagmire for Invasion in Afghanistan---Analysis through the“Scientific Frontier” Established by the British in 1800s

1815年拿破仑战败后,为防止俄国人破坏英王王冠上那颗最亮的宝石,英国人拟在印度西北边境建立"科学边界",即将印度传统西北边界从下印度河抬高至上印度河,利用兴都库什山的地理优势保护印度。起初,英国人展开征服,试图直接推进,结果遭到被称为"大马蜂"的普什图等部落人的顽强抵抗。第二次大规模侵阿失败后,英国人改变政策,决定利用阿富汗缺乏统一的特点,结盟喀布尔拉赫曼政府,智取"马蜂窝"。在帮助拉赫曼划定其他阿富汗边界后,英国人想方设法迫使拉赫曼接受杜兰德线,由此,被称为"马蜂窝"的地方被英国人悄悄地划在印度地图上。此后,英国人又采取措施固定该线为阿印国际边界,但是阿富汗山民一直不接受。这种理论与现实的错位,使得这条"科学边界"千疮百孔。如今,它不但滋生阿巴之间不断的矛盾,而且成为发动阿富汗战争的苏美的泥潭。

Britain and Russia fell into the Great Game soon after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. To prevent Russians from destroying the brightest gem of the British Crown, British imperialists proposed to build the Scientific Frontier along the Indian north-west frontier, which was to move the traditional Indian border running along the Lower Indus to the Upper Indus where the Hindu Kush ranges could be the backwall to secure India. At the beginning, British tried to forward Indian frontier through invading Afghan hills directly, but they fell into a big setback by the strong resistance of the Pashtu and other tribes. Then British called them 'hornets'. After the second Anglo-Afghan war, drawing lessons from their past experience, the British decided to pick up the hornets’ nest wisely by taking advantage of the disunity of Afghanistan and allying with Ameer Rahman in Cabul. As soon as the Russian-Afghan frontier was settled, in which British played an important role, British took all measures to force the Ameer to accept the Durand Line where the hornets’ nest has already been secretly put on the map of India. After that, British tried to fix the Durand Line as the Afghan-Indian international border, but those Pushtuns and tribesmen refused to accept the change. Hence, the dislocation of the Durand Line between its theory and reality has led the Scientific Frontier to a big mess till the present. The porous border line has troubled the Afghan-Pakistani relations deeply and worked as a quagmire for Russia and America who invaded Afghanistan.