Easy to conquer, nightmare to stay in
Yes Afghanistan, William Dalrymple explains the historical parallels between the British imperial invasion of 1839, the 1841 disaster and today:http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairore...s.aspx?aid=670
Human terrain, pre-deployment recce tours (like the SAS in Helmand Province), talking to those who know - usually not in government service - and heaven forbid 'big data' should help. I just wonder whether they'd report on this factor:
Quote:
We in the West may have forgotten the details of this history that did so much to inform and mould the Afghans’ hatred of foreign rule, but the Afghans have not: in village after village on my Afghan travels I found that the names of all the participants in the drama were still alive as if the event had taken place two years ago, not two centuries.
