Afghanistan – the illusion of doing something

The first post in a new category of subjects, international affairs. How could the Taliban win so easily? We just needed a few more months! We just needed a few more years! We’re abandoning the Afghan people! We’ve been inundated by these plaintive voices in recent days, many, genuinely well intentioned but many not so, although the media wouldn’t have given you that impression. These questions arise from a complete failure to understand what has been happening and realise we…

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The forgotten tourist hot-spot, Swat Valley and NW Pakistan

“So when did you last see a tourist”? I asked the man, a resident of Battagram, a Pashtun town in NW Pakistan. “Ummm….” he pondered, eyes to the sky, deep in thought, “15…..17,18 years ago, when I was at school”. His answer probably explains the slack jawed gawping from just about everybody l passed in the street. Needless to say, those who managed to stop staring were incredibly friendly. A few days earlier in the small Swat Valley town of…

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