A simplistic, colonialist perspective that sounds good, is convenient, but is also dangerous and fatalistic.

From what I've read in various places, the history of Afghanistan is a history of failed attempts by various insiders and outsiders to unify it and govern it. This article is from a country that tried to rule Afghanistan once. So maybe the article is colonial, excessively depressing, etc. - but when in history has Afghanistan been what we are currently trying to make it? It's hard to impose a democratic (or communistic) form on a place that has no tradition of one.

This is an opinion piece and as written is good journalism. It makes broad generalisations but generalisations usualy contain a large measure of insight. Afghanistan is a backward pre-modern nation. It has never been a cohesive political state as we know it, rather a medieval rural feudal society run by regional chiefs. The Pushtoon ethnic group was permitted the trappings of power in Kabul i.e. the monarchy as long as they didn't interfere with the other ethnic groups in the provinces. The expulsion of the Taliban finally put an end to this historical bargain. The very, very small westernised urban middle/upper class mostly located in Kabul was decimated by the civil war which followed the communist coup and subsequent Russian ... More »

Contrary to Peter Preston's belief, the nation of Afghanistan was established in 1747. Mr. Preston is promoting what is generally believed by Afghans to be pro-Pakistani propaganda. Why is this propagandistic? Because it supports the idea that Afghans are just too tribal to get along. As Congressman Charlie Wilson once said to me, "You put two Afghans in a room, you end up with seven factions." The trouble with this idea is that Afghanistan has been a cohesive nation nearly 30 years longer than the USA. So who wants the world to believe that Afghans can't get along? Pakistan. The reason for this is the Durrand Line. The Durrand Line, drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand in 1893, is the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it ... More »