"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The remnants of an Army, Jellalabad, January 13, 1842. This painting depicts William Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad in January 1842. The walls of Jalalabad loom over a desolate plain and riders from the garrison gallop from the gate to reach the solitary figure bringing the first word of the fate of the "Army of Afghanistan". Supposedly Brydon was the last survivor of the approximately 16,000 soldiers and camp followers from the 1842 retreat from Kabul in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and is shown toiling the last few miles to safety on an exhausted and dying horse.

 

Kabul has become another Saigon, another shameful betrayal. The military-industrial complex, the network of individuals and institutions involved in the production of weapons and military technologies, enriched themselves beyond their wildest dreams, the members of the Afghan puppet regime stuffed their Swiss bank accounts to overflowing and left, and it is the Afghan people who trusted the Americans who will pay the final price.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", said the philosopher George Santayana. He might as well have referred to the 1842 Retreat from Kabual or the Second Anglo-Afghan War or the Third Anglo-Afghan War or even the Soviet-Afghan War. The Afghans saw off the British again and again, they saw off the Russians, and now they've seen off the Americans. History has again repeated itself.

 

Watch these excellent video clips "The Great Game", narrated by Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart asked, "Why are Western and coalition forces still fighting there?",
a whole ten years ago!!!

 

It must've been a wise man who coined and associated the sobriquet "the graveyard of empires" with Afghanistan. The British and the Russians were defeated, and now the Americans have joined their ranks.

Having treated the world like a giant chessboard, they've made their last move which resulted in neither a check mate nor even a draw for them. Instead, they've suffered a humiliating and demoralising defeat of their own making. Pity the poor Afghan people who put their trust in the Americans! For them life will now be so much worse than ever before!

Googlemap Riverbend

 

P.S. For some background reading, I recommend "Return of a King", or even Rudyard Kipling's famous novel "Kim" which popularised the expression "The Big Game" (although it's been no game for the Afghan people). Read Rory Stewart's insightful book "The Places In Between". For even more of a mental overload, watch his YouTube clip here. Still not enough? Watch the true story of "Charlie Wilson's War" here.