David Richards has sent the attached extract from the NY Times about
Afghanistan, which may be of interest.
All good wishes, John R
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NYT
January 20, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Ballad of Bushie and Flashy
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
George Bush may have lost his swagger, but Harry Flashman hasn't.
Maybe the president presiding over a quicksand empire got a vicarious thrill
out of the fictional Victorian brigadier general who roamed from
Chillianwalla to Isandlwana to Abyssinia at the height of the British
Empire, always making conquests in love and war despite his cowardly,
caddish behavior.
In our continuing odyssey of discovery through the president's reading list,
we learned that he perused two of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman books,
"Flashman at the Charge" and "Flash for Freedom."
There are those who are skeptical of the president's souped-up reading list,
a result of a book-reading contest with Karl Rove.
"I don't think he understands the world," Jay Rockefeller, the new chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Times's Mark Mazzetti. "I
don't think he's particularly curious about the world. I don't think he
reads like he says he does. Every time he's read something he tells you
about it."
I just wish W. had read more about the perils of empire before he naïvely
dived into one. Mr. Fraser agrees that W. should have read the original
"Flashman" before invading Afghanistan. It could have given him invaluable,
if politically incorrect, insights that might have helped in the effort to
catch Osama at Tora Bora and in the new push to stop the Taliban slouching
toward Kandahar.
On a recent visit to Afghanistan, Robert Gates told nervous military
commanders that he was open to sending more troops to thwart the Taliban
from regrouping. Congressman John McHugh, who just returned from a trip to
Afghanistan with Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh, said that everyone they
talked to had warned "that when the snows melt in the mountains, it will
bring a new onslaught from Al Qaeda and the Taliban ... one that directly
threatens not just the Karzai presidency, but threatens Afghanistan itself,
and logically, it follows, threatens our investment in blood and treasure."
"Flashman" is based on a devastating British defeat during one of their wars
in Afghanistan. After invading Kabul in 1839 and setting up an unpopular
puppet shah, the British trekked through the snowy mountains to Jalalabad.
Of more than 16,000 troops and camp followers, only one doctor survived; the
rest were picked off in ambushes by Afghan warriors.
The lesson is that Afghanistan is a no man's land that can't be tamed by
gringos. The British Empire, on which the sun never set, never succeeded in
occupying Afghanistan even as it engaged in the Great Game with the Russians
for influence there. It was terra incognita and terra fuggedaboutit.
"You could never forget that in Afghanistan you are walking a knife-edge the
whole time," Harry Flashman notes, adding that, like himself, the Afghans
could be "cruel and bloodthirsty," turning on you with no warning.
Mr. Fraser echoed those sentiments when I tracked him down at his home on
the Isle of Man. "No one has ever succeeded in invading Afghanistan," the
octogenarian who fought in Burma in World War II boomed with a trace of
Scottish accent.
"The Afghans are extraordinary fighters, tough and resourceful and cruel,
and they know their business inside out," he said. "On their own territory,
they're unbeatable. They love fighting and dealing with invaders. It's
almost a game to them. The country is Death Valley 10 times over. You see
them on television in their robes with their weapons and that's all. The
American and British troops are loaded with rubbishy equipment.
"Eventually, I suppose, we'll get out of Iraq and pretend it's been a
success when it's just a mess. ... "Afghanistan is slightly different. You
cannot ever win. When you consider the Russians put in more than 100,000
troops and couldn't do it. There's only one way to deal with the Afghans,
and that's to buy them."
Mr. Fraser recites the end of Kipling's "The Ballad of the King's Mercy":
Abdhur Rahman, the Durani Chief, of him is the story told,
He has opened his mouth to the North and the South,
They have stuffed his mouth
with gold ...
and sweet his favours are ...
from Balkh to Kandahar.
"It wouldn't do Bush any harm to read Kipling," he concluded before signing
off.
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I am traveling extensively on my Endless Summer project for a while.
Communications options are sporadic and unreliable here. Thanks for your
message. I will read it and reply when possible. Regards, PFB
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