Obama's War?

If Iraq was Bush's war, Afghanistan appears destined to become Obama's. As the president contemplates further escalation of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, test your knowledge of the events leading up to the start of the war in 2001.

The answer key is located at the end of the activity page. All the information you need to answer the questions correctly can be found in the World Conflicts Today (details of this online tool) > Afghanistan report.

1. Which two great 19th-century powers fought for control of Afghanistan in what is often called the "Great Game"?

a. United States and France
b. Britain and Russia
c. India and Pakistan
d. Iran and Iraq
e. China and Pashtunistan

2. What is former British foreign secretary for India Sir Mortimer Durand famous for?

a. Poisoning Afghanistan's "Iron Emir"
b. Coining the term the "Great Game"
c. Encouraging Afghan farmers to sell opium to Chinese and Indian merchants
d. Creating a border between Afghanistan and British India (present-day Pakistan)
e. Challenging Russia's Tsar Nicholas to a duel (using guns)

3. Which of the following ethnic groups does not have a significant presence in Afghanistan?

a. Tamils
b. Pashtuns
c. Tajiks
d. Hazaras
e. Uzbeks

4. Why, in 1978, did the Soviets hesitate in offering Afghanistan's new communist government its total and unqualified support?

a. They suspected CIA involvement in the coup that brought the government to power and so doubted the government's communist credentials
b. They felt that the expression of such support would antagonize the United States
c. They feared the emergence of Afghanistan as a military rival
d. They had declared a policy of strict neutrality in all of Central Asia
e. They feared the coup would fail, thereby provoking anarchy on the Soviet Union's southern border and discrediting communism worldwide

5. Which two groups were responsible for massacres in the Afghan city of Herat in 1979?

a. Afghan protesters and Afghan troops
b. Afghan protesters and Soviet troops
c. Pakistani troops and Soviet troops
d. U.S. troops and Pakistani protesters
e. U.S. troops and Soviet troops

6. Mujahideen is an Arabic term meaning something like

a. There is but one God
b. Students of Islamic knowledge
c. Master of the hajj
d. Heretics
e. Holy warriors

7. Which of the following countries did not provide support to Afghans fighting the Soviet occupation?

a. Saudi Arabia
b. Pakistan
c. United States
d. Iraq
e. Egypt

8. After the Soviet withdrawal, who said that "the civilized world" had to fight fundamentalism in Afghanistan and warned that failure to do so would "turn Afghanistan into a center of . . . drugs [and] terrorism."

a. Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
b. U.S. president Ronald Regan
c. U.S. national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski
d. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher
e. Afghan president Muhammad Najibullah

9. Which of the following did the Taliban not ban while in power in Afghanistan?

a. Immodest clothing for women
b. Long beards for men
c. Mixed-gender education
d. Soccer
e. Kite-flying

10. Who in 1998 called the killing of Americans and their allies "an individual duty for every Muslim"?

a. Mullah Omar
b. Osama bin Laden
c. Shamil Basayev
d. Ahmed Shah Masoud
e. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

ANSWERS: 1:B, 2:D, 3:A, 4:E, 5:A, 6:E, 7:D, 8:E, 9:B, 10:B