The Lion of Panjshir lives

Ahmad Shah Massoud survived the attempt on his life but is injured and had to go into hiding until he recovers and because of this is believed to have died by everyone but his closest bodyguards and personal doctor

9/11 occurs

Without the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud the Northern alliance is more organized and is able to better coordinat with NATO forces when they arrive

How do you think it goes from here

The pitcher is of Burhanuddin Rabbani on the left and Ahmad Shah Massoud on the right

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I'm guessing he ends up as the man in charge in Afghanistan. A Pashtun will still likely be made President, but Massoud will be the power behind the throne. I'm guessing that a Massoud-run Afghanistan will be a somewhat better place today than OTL; from the sources I've read he was a legitimately good leader with a large popular following. The Taliban might take on a more ethnic leaning in their war against the American-backed government though.
 
I really don't see the United Front / Northern alliance breaking up this time around Ahmad Shah Massoud would understand they need to keep the alliance strong against Pakistani intervention

Ahmad Shah Massoud would probably serve as a minister of defense or vice president at any rate he would be in the government's leadership

Ahmad Shah Massoud would now be encouraging the United States to leave the guy was a nationalist he wanted Afghanistan for the Afghan and with him still live in 2014

the Taliban would not even have half of the power they have now he would have effectively painted them as a puppet of Pakistan's ISI

I could maybe see Pakistan trying to assassinate Ahmad Shah Massoud a couple of times this could lead to a falling out between the United States and Pakistan sooner India might be come a closer ally because of this

but if the Pakistani ISI kill him I think that would destroy any chance of Pakistan being able to have any say in Afghanistan for a long time
 
Pasting my reply from this thread:

It would be a bad idea for the Americans to install him as leader as they did with Karzai, because Massoud was Tajik and so the Taliban could paint themselves as a Pashtun nationalist resistance. Of course, this is the Bush administration we're talking about, so they could easily put an incompetent like Paul Bremer in Kabul who would do just that.

A Massoud presidency would likely be more palatable to the West and feature less overt corruption and more efforts to promote women's rights. He could also easily rally the non-Pashtun half of Afghan society behind him through his charismatic leadership. However, his closeness to India and overt animosity towards the Pakistanis would cause problems and bring him and his American backers into confrontation with Musharraf.

Instead of Pakistan as a two-faced ally of the USA it would swiftly become a one-faced enemy. Rather than just helping conceal Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, the Pakistani ISI might resume their funding of Mullah Omar's troops.

So there you have it: a strong leadership in Kabul that fully controls the north of the country and could get additional support and funding from India, fighting a better-equipped Taliban in what could soon degenerate into an ethnic war. Probably a higher-intensity conflict all around.
 
Pasting my reply from this thread:

But it's possible that there is a minority of Pashtuns who are more... enlighted, and refuse the 'fous de Dieux', and could prefer a more secular and rational guy even if non Pashtun, no? The guy still have anti-Soviets creed too, as well...

Probably ASB it seems, I suppose....


Poor Afghanistan, damned whatever is done... :(
 
The best bet might be restoring Zahir Shah to the throne. The Americans had already alienated the Afghan royalists by denying their militias funds in the 80s, but that could always be patched up.

I am not sure, but I don't know much about Afghanistan's past, honestly; I means, I heard the king and royalists where pretty much pashtuns, and possibly more seculars.

I can see possibly problem with minorities at least if the kingdom was leaning more to the pashtuns... And there is the Iran Possibility - religious folks as opposition.
 
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