We shouldn’t be surprised by Afghanistan. It’s been right there in black and white for more than 120 years. Winston Churchill’s first book, “The Story of the Malakand Field Force,” was published in 1898. It’s about his experience as a young British army officer serving in the areas that are currently Pakistan and Afghanistan.
After seeing considerable action, where many tribal warlords switched sides on almost a daily or a weekly basis, he found it quite frustrating. I am paraphrasing this. He said that these tribes have been fighting each other for centuries. Now that we are here, they fight us. When we leave, they will go back to fighting each other until someone else comes along who they can fight.
Those “someone elses” were the Russians in the 1990s and now the U.S. for the past 20 years. We should not be surprised.
Brian Nickerson
South Portland
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