Speaking of the Afghan general situation, anybody see this?

[Gabi Hayes]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/news/why-brad-pitts-war-machine-film-nixed-gen-mcchrystal-character-981972

Brad Pitt movie on Gen. McChrystal fiasco

Thought it was quite good, despite the odd tone

......it remained very much the story of McChrystal, whose unflattering remarks about Vice President Joe Biden in a Hastings Rolling Stone article led to his demise. After the Rolling Stone article published in 2010, then-President Barack Obama called McChrystal back to Washington and accepted his resignation as commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in the role.

"The Making of a Quagmire" writ large

The Russians were only stuck there for what, 10 years?

We'll be there forever, so the taliban doesn't get Pakistan nukes

[CincyDem]

1. i looked up the word Afghanistan in the Farsi:English dictionary...

Afghanistan (n.): where empires go to die.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. Amen....was gonna mention Brit experience

But I'm so bizee

[Wounded Bear]

3. It goes back to 322BC...

That's where Alexander gave up the quest to conquer the world.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. The Man Who Would Be King!

Love that movie very much

And there's a great book about a woman who pedaled a one speed all through the Afghan

[csziggy]

4. Alexander the Great stopped his invasion to the east there

Ghengis Khan went AROUND Afghanistan.

My husband claims sword were invented there so the locals could excalate their battles against each other.

And then there is this sage advice:

[Docreed2003]

6. And both Alexander and Ghengis Kahn's armies left their DNA imprint there

By virtue of its position along the "Silk Road", Afghanistan is an incredibly diverse country. I saw afghan's with red hair and blue eyes, I saw some who looked distinctly Asian....it was a true melting pot of culture! (Nice Princess Bride reference, btw!)

[csziggy]

7. Also, Afghanistan is where the Great Game began between Britain and Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game

A distant cousin of mine, Josiah Harlan, got caught up in that game. He was an American Quaker who sailed to the East Indies, studying his brother's medical books along the way. He hired on with the British East India Company as a doctor and ended up in India. Then he went into Afghanistan on his own, managed to get named as a prince of one of the smaller kingdoms, and helped stir up resentment against the British for their callous use of the locals.

It is fairly certain that he was the inspiration behind Rudyard Kipling's main character in "The Man Who Would Be King." A biography of Josiah Harlan was written in 2004 - "The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan" By Ben Macintyre. Macintyre was researching the history of the British in the area and found mention of Harlan in the British colonial records. While researching Harlan more, he found Harlan's partially burned autobiography (pages had been used by his wife to start fires in her stove) and wrote Harlan's story. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/books/a-yankee-in-the-great-game.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Harlan

[Docreed2003]

8. Wow that's fascinating!!

I read Kipling frequently when I was in Afghanistan. Here's a a quote that stuck with me:

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

[csziggy]

9. I used to read a lot of Kipling - though mostly his children's stories

My father read the Just So Stories to us as bedtime stories, from a book he had owned as a child.

The Macintyre book is available and is a fun read: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-man-who-would-be-king-the-first-american-in-afghanistan_ben-macintyre/384686/#isbn=0374529574

[AngryAmish]

10. Afghanistan has long faced instability due to it's being Afghanistan.

A backward and Savage place not worth a single American life.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. American lives are so much more valuable