Afghanistan has been at the center of great power games for centuries. But outsiders have always failed to tame the spirit of resistance of its people. At the peak of their dominance, the British and Russian empires played the Great Game. In the Cold War, it was between America and the Soviet Union. Today, as the United States, the only hyperpower in the world, tries to reshape the Afghan state, it finds the new game as difficult as ever.

As the turbulent presidency of George W. Bush comes to a close, it leaves a legacy of two wars, with colossal economic and human costs. And America needs a president who knows how to extinguish the fires of war abroad and how to lead his own country into a period of renaissance once again. [More] . . read more

The second was a tiny green and gold glass tumbler made in the 11th Century which shone with antique luminescence for me as it has done for many others for hundreds of years. The antithesis of our throwaway, disposable culture which is drastic plastic and utterly unfantastic.

But last was my new knowledge of the supremacy of Baghdad as the centre world of Islam from the ninth to the thirteenth century. They could not have known that a 'coalition of the willing' at the very beginning of the twenty first century, would have destabilised their city to such an extent that its Islamic treasures and meaning would become as disposable as the culture the coalition represents. . . read more

Dick Cheney - the former U.S Vice-President - has warned Barack Obama against withdrawing from Afghanistan, saying it would create quite a mess. 

He said in an interview with "Fox News" that "I'm not sure that's wise at all."

Hard to take him too seriously.

This is a man who has advocated torture (which wasn't used to catch Osama) so we know he likes to play it a bit rough. 

I suppose maybe we should keep 'em in and consider Dick's idea - the withdrawal method has been out of vogue for decades.

Do you think the U.S should get out of Afghanistan now that Osama is dead? Is his death part of the equation? Tell us and remember...Disqus! . . read more

Despite what the majority of the western media tells its readers and viewers, there is more to the Afghani resistance than the Taliban. In fact, according to a recent report in the US News and World Report, U.S. forces are facing an increasingly complex enemy here composed of Taliban fighters and powerful warlords who were once on the payroll of the CIA. As a military official stated in the aforementioned article "You could almost describe the insurgency as having two branches. It's the Taliban in the south and a 'rainbow coalition' in the east." Add to this the various armed drug traders and their backers and you have a mix at least as volatile as that in Iraq during its worst periods over the last five years...

This is not the "good" war. It is just as wrong as the U.S. adventure in Iraq. Likewise, it can not be won, no matter what the politicians and the generals say. The government put in Kabul by Washington is comparable to a new branch head of a multinational corporation. Its power is dependent on the whim of corporate headquarters and will never garner the support of those not on its payroll. [More]