Moscow's Graveyard

Reading the recent TIME article on Afghanistan's pivotal role in the making of 20th and 21st Century history led to a sudden surge in adrenaline and enthusiasm to actually visit the desolated land. It was in Afghanistan that the back of the British Imperialist advance was broken in the Khyber Pass, decades on and the might of Soviet military was forced to retreat with their tails between their legs across the Friendship Bridge at the Oxus River, now the Americans are in Afghanistan and what will become of them?

Isn't it queer that history and the faith of civilizations are not made in the metropolis of towering sky scrapers but in the desolated backwardness of wastelands like Afghanistan where life still largely follows customs, chivalries and rites of old? A certain Afghan named Azim told the reporter, " (In Afghanistan) If you plant something good, like grapes, you get the sweetest grapes in the world. But if you plant something bad, as many have you will the worst kind of evil growing in Afghanistan. And it will spread." oddly familiar? the high costs of the war and the failure of the Soviets to defeat the less sophisticated mujaheddin led to the eventual break up of the Soviet Union and the birth of global Islamic militancy.

i would love to be a bounty hunter on the Afghan-Pakistan border looking for Osama Bin Laden, imagine what an interesting life that would be like.