What's the best analagy for Afghanistan? Is it the size and population of Montana? Or

In My Humble Opinion
1

What’s the best analagy for Afghanistan? Is it the size and population of Montana? Or Tennessee? or some other mountainous state?

People talk about sweeping through it like it was Rhode Island.

2

Slightly smaller than Texas.

Terrain: mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m
highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m

3

Population: 25,838,797 (July 2000 est.)

4

kniz is right

The CIA Factbook describes Afghanistan as slightly smaller than Texas. It also says that Afghanistan has extreme high and low temperatures, a history of bloody civil war, very low per capita GDP, and a repressive government.

5

I don’t dispute this figure but it’s interesting to compare:

1979 - 15,551,358 (last official census)
1997 - 23,738,085 (estimate)
2000 - 25,838,797 (estimate)

This is a country at war for most of the period covered, and furthermore it must lose population through refugees.

6

Here is a link to the CIA World Factbook, where you can find all sorts of nifty data. Here is Afghanistan. The BBC Country Profile on Afghanistan is also good.

7

Maybe they GET refugees coming in? After all, all of their neighbors are at war. Pakistan, Iraq - Kurdistan, Chechnia

8

I would have thought that Afghanistan had a net outflux of refugees in that area.

It is a far from attractive destination for incoming people because it has very little infrastructure, and thus opportunities to flourish are practically zero.

There is also Taleban to consider as an inhibiting factor.

Also I have read somewhere (I’ve read so much recently that I can’t recall where) that Pakistan has one million Afghans near its border with Afghanistan, and they have been there for some time now.

This number will doubtless increase in the coming weeks.

9

I heard on CNN (yes, I was watching CNN, yes, that makes me lame, I know, don’t rub my nose in it) this morning that Iran closed its borders to Afghanistan recently–too many refugees. There’s apparently been a huge influx lately…big shock there. The number they quoted was that there were currently ca. 2 million Afghanis living in Iran.

10

I heard on CNN (yes, I was watching CNN, yes, that makes me lame, I know, don’t rub my nose in it) this morning that Iran closed its borders to Afghanistan recently–too many refugees. There’s apparently been a huge influx lately…big shock there. The number they quoted was that there were currently ca. 2 million Afghanis living in Iran.

11

…of which only Pakistan has a border with Afghanistan.